Growing the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, Squash

I hope this picture isn't too confusing. It's the best I can do.

The Three Sisters is growing corn, beans and winter squash as the Native American people did for many centuries. Each plant has it's own job, and not only work well in the garden, but when eaten together, are excellent nutrition and complete protein.

How to plant: Plant your corn seed in blocks of 4 feet, 1 corn seed every 12 inches (1 foot) each way. At the same time, plant your winter squash seed, one in between every 1 corn seeds. Water well, and tend. Be careful when weeding as you might pull up a corn or squash seedling!

When the corn seedling is about 6 inches high, plant 2-4 bean seeds (that's the green "B" in the pic) around each corn seedling. You want to wait this long because if not, the quick growth of the bean will outstrip the corn, and the corn will never get to it's complete full height.

Make sure you don't plant just 4 long rows. You need to plant in blocks of at least 4 feet x 4 feet so that the wind can pollinate all of your little corn tassels. And do you need to plant lots and lots to get a little corn? NO! In our first garden, we planted about 40 corn seeds, and about the same of beans and, well, don't get me started talking about our mistakes with the squash. But the corn was cross-pollinated excellently. We pulled about 60 ears that were pretty-well pollinated. Many we ate right there in the garden... just pulled back the husk and munched it down!

We also planted a couple of different kinds of corn... Blue Hopi, Bloody Butcher, and Early and Often Sweet Corn. They had somewhat different maturing dates, so there was only a little cross-pollination. Those that did were hilarious to look at! We found an odd blue kernel on a sweet corn, and finding the red kernels were great fun.

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Okay, back to info. Be careful when choosing your seeds. Get corn where the stalks will be sturdy enough to handle the winding of the beans. The new hybrids didn't seem to have stalks thick enough. Be careful with the beans too: you need beans that won't strangle the corn stalks.

For our next growing season, I chose Black Aztec corn (good when young to eat as sweet corn, and once it dries, it is good for making cornmeal and good for livestock).

For beans I chose Missouri Wonder Pole Bean (see: http://rareseeds.com/cart/products/Missouri_Wonder_Pole_Bean-1244-119.html )as they didn't strangle the corn when we grew them last. Experiment. These beans make a good fresh string bean, but also a good dried bean.

For squash, grow ONLY winter squash - those that vine! I made the mistake our first year of growing all kinds of squash, including summer squash like zucchini, and believe me, it was a mistake. The zucchini just pushed over the corn stalk to make room for it's own self! If you don't care about pollination and keeping seeds, you could plant all kinds of winter squash, like spaghetti, butternut, pumpkin, acorn, and more. If you do prefer to keep varieties separate, carefully chose to keep from cross-breeding.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. Vikki

Our Pasture Rotating Plan

We hope the house we end up with will have at least half an acre that we can split into 6. oops, 7 equal pastures. We know that rotating crops is important, and since we plan to have 4 goaties (and once a year, their kids), we need 2 of those pastures to be their browse-land. To fit our needs, and after much research, here's what we've come up with:

Area 1
Three sisters (corn, pole beans, and winter squash). Plant the corn as soon as the soil is warm enough. I usually wait until at least Memorial Day. Since we do the 3-sisters, we plant the corn 12-inches apart, with 1 winter squash in the center of a corn-square (pic coming!). When the corn is about 6 inches tall, plant 2-4 pole beans around every corn. The corn will be the strong pole for the beans to climb, the beans fix nitrogen into the soil for the corn, and the winter squash provides the ground cover for moisture and fuzzy leaves that many critters don't like. Let the corn and beans dry then harvest, allow the winter squaash to finish growing and hardening up for winter storage. After all is harvested (store the corn stalks for winter feed), then we'll let the chickens and goats in to eat and scratch to their hearts content. When they are done, till in remainder, and plant a winter crop like timothy hay. Rotate to Area 2 the next Spring.

Area 2
Plant alfalfa and timothy hay to grow for winter feed. After harvesting, let the goaties and chickens in to eat/scratch. Rotate to Area 3 the next Spring.

Area 3
2 rows of buckwheat (gluten-free) around perimeter, quinoa or amaranth (both gluten-free) the next 2 rows in, then several rows with tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, okra and basil. These plants love each other. After all has been harvested, allow the livestock in to do their thing. Rotate to Area 4 the next Spring.

Area 4
Goat pasture. Plant miscellaneous grasses as early as possible, and toss in old (organic!) Christmas trees and other yummies. Allow goats and chickens in for a week at a time. During the off-week, they go to Area 6. Rotate to Area 5 the next Spring.

Area 5
Plant sunflowers, cucumbers, and watermelon, with squared-frames of potatoes. These love each other and are great companions. After harvesting, it's livestock time. Remember to keep the sunflowers for the livestock's winter feed. Rotate to Area 6 the next Spring.

Area 6
Goat pasture. See area 4. Rotate to Area 7 the next Spring.

Area 7
Just added this one: gotta grow oats seeing as we have 2 gluten-free people. Rotate to Area 1 the next Spring.

This plan should take care of most of our grain needs, and those of our livestock. We don't know yet the size of our property, so we don't know the size of these area, but we should have room for each area to be at least 100 square feet. Should we get more land than expected, or a neighbor lets us use some of theirs, we'll grow even more oats, and another area of the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash.

What is YOUR rotation plan?

Happy Birthday, Sis, and other topics

A quick happy birthday to my sister, Kim, who turns *^ today. I haven't seen her in a couple of years, and it's been about a year since I've heard from her, so I hope she at least got my card. Hard to believe we're in our 50's now, isn't it?

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On to other business... it is COLD today! We put 2 extra blankets on our bed last night, and requested that the Kid sleep with his door open so he can get a little more warmth in there too. When we got up today, it was 5 degrees, and by the time Hubby left for work, it had risen to a whopping 6 degrees F.! The high today is supposed to be 9 or 10 degrees, so yep, it's cold! The kind of cold where you face hurts when uncovered out in the cold for even a few moments.

That's why I decided to make chili tonight for dinner... warm up Hubby and me from the inside out. (I'll post the recipe tomorrow - experimenting with cumin!) The Kid doesn't like food with too many ingredients, so he bypasses things like chili, and has requested a can of baked beans for dinner. I'll make some rice for him too. We're out of carrots and greens for us and for the bunny - wonder if I can get Hubby to stop on the way home?!?!

I requested the approval letter from our mortgage guy in preparation to make an offer on that almost-2-acre property towards the end of the week. We'll need an inspection of the water and septic systems before we close, and if there's any problem, we'll either walk away, or lower the price of the property to compensate for the cost of repairs. Still waiting to hear about the boarded horses; hope they'll be gone before we close. Speaking of which, we hope to be in the property by the first of March. Keep your fingers crossed!

Using yahoo maps (or was it google maps?), I brought the property up on my computer screen, and traced it onto a piece of paper. Then I spent some time figuring out how to divide the 1-acre of pasture into 2 small pastures, a corn field (that will be a 3-sisters: corn, winter squash, and pole beans), and the fruit/nut-tree orchard. For 6-8 Nigerian Dwarf goats, who only get about 2 feet tall, the 2 small pastures I marked out should be sufficient.

Separate from that 1 acre pasture area is the other half of the property: house, barn, chicken coop, 2 sections of the back yard, and the front yard plus a large circular driveway. In the back, there's actually room for a "back yard" where the Kid wants some kind of a tree-house, and where we can put our shaded swing, a barbque (earth-oven) and picnic table.

There is also an area already fenced that has a few bushes, but those can easily be knocked down and my veggie garden (aka a "potager" garden) placed within. I need to do even more research for companion planting, to organize the six or seven or eight 4'x8' raised beds, to make them look good, and make sure they rotate. We also have one of those circle strawberry beds to fit in (for strawberries and spinach, companion plants). I don't plan on ever moving again, so I want to plan it all correctly right from the get-go.

I wonder if there's a map of the sprinkler system that we found in the garage? Or if it's even functional?

There's also room on the southside of the house for us to (someday) build a greenhouse so we can have fresh veggies, fruits, and herbs even in the winter! Hmmm... miniature avocado and citrus trees - heaven!

I know.. enough about the house and property. Well, for now!

Meanwhile, I sent about half of our Holiday Greeting cards yesterday. I just have to finish addressing the rest of them today. AND make appointments for our dental and vision checkups before the end of the year; hope we can get in!