Hattiesburg Fungi

the 2009 Native American dollar

Meet the three sisters, Corn, Beans, and Squash.  I’m trying something new this year with the three ladies. The Native Americans used this method of planting and taught it to the early settlers.  Without this promising method, many of the early settlers would have starved to death.

The method is very simple.  All you do is make several mounds spaced about 1 foot apart.  The mound should be from 16 to 24 inches in diameter.  When you have your mounds built you will start by planting your corn first.  You will plant 4 corn seeds in each mound.  You may want to plant 2 seeds close to each other to total 8 seeds.  Many Native people honor the tradition of giving thanks to the “Four Directions” by orienting the corn seeds to the north, south, east, and west.  Thus you will plant 2 seeds in each direction.

After the corn comes up and is about 3 or 4 inches tall, you will comeback and plant your beans around each corn plant.  I would plant about 3 beans around each corn plant.

Wait another couple of weeks and when the beans are beginning to latch onto the corn you will want to plant your squash.  Now when I say squash, I am talking about any of the veining squashes.  I’m planting pumpkins this year.  You may need to train your vines so you will have room to walk in the rows.

The purpose of the squash is to create a natural mulch or ground cover that will keep out weeds.  Also,  as the corn and squash grow, they pull nitrogen out of the soil but the beans use nitrogen-fixing bacteria to put the nitrogen back into the soil. Beans also add other nutrients to the soil that are used as the other plants grow. And the corn, well its just darn good to eat!

Here is what my three sister’s garden looks like so far.  We just planted the corn today.

three sisters garden