Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Three Sisters: An Ancient Garden Trio
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/3sisters.html
        Notice the squash on the top right is Lakota, a sweet, nutty flavored
heirloom. We grow it and it IS good. We caught friends using it for a table
centerpiece instead of eating it. 

NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art
Planting a Three Sisters Garden...
http://www.nativetech.org/cornhusk/threesisters.html
        The Three Sisters all work together. Critters will find it harder to
invade your garden by interplanting your corn, beans and squash. The corn
stalk serves as a pole for the beans, the beans help to add the nitrogen to
the soil that the corn needs, and the squash provides a ground cover of
shade that helps the soil retain moisture. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 3/19/2007 at 3:41 PM Dianne Palmer-Quay wrote:

>My understanding is that the traditional three sisters was a winter
>squash,
>a dry bean and a field corn.  That way the plants could grow together and
>you wouldn't have to worry about harvesting until the end of the season.
I
>have seen a suggestion to use bush beans on the outside of the corn and
>bush summer squash down the center when planting with sweet corn.  That
way
>there is no vining plants to get in the way of the sweet corn harvest.  I
>am trying a heritage snap bean, Genuine Cornfield, from Southern Exposure
>Seed Exchange this year.  The bean is advertised as being able to tolerate
>the shade inside the corn patch, but I am not planning to add squash.  I
>will plant the corn on 15" centers and add the beans in-between.
>
>I am also trying to plant potatoes and corn together in hopes of providing
>some shade for the taters (supposedly another traditional companion
>planting here in the South).  The potatoes are already in the ground and
>the corn will go in after April 1st (5 weeks apart). I planted some
>leftover, sprouting potatoes last November and they are about 2 inches
tall
>now.  I am planting a late spring selection of disease resistant varieties
>as well.  It is very difficult to store white potatoes in SC.  Instead, I
>am trying to grow them over a longer season.  I'll let you know if
anything
>works!
>
>Dianne
>Central SC Zone 7/8
>
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