Three Sisters Garden Update

From a distance the Three Sisters Garden looks like it is doing well, but it is having problems. The first is that the weather has been cold and cloudy for all of June and a lot of May. We have had more weather under 70°F(21°C) than over it. This is way below normal for us. Next week's prediction is the same. It is supposed to rain for the next week and be cool. The plants in a Three Sisters Garden are all heat and sun lovers. We have had neither.

Last year I picked my first zucchini on June 15th. This year the biggest of the zucchini plants is Costata Romenesca and it only has two true leaves. It is so small, but it is handling the cool weather better than the other zucchini, winter squash or cucumbers. I think I am just going to have to enjoy lots of peas and lettuce, but I don't know about squash or cucumbers. I was so counting on making pickles this summer. I hope it happens.

The other plants that aren't traditional to a Three Sisters Garden are doing great. My cilantro is very happy and my marigolds are growing like crazy. Their only flaw is that their branches aren't very strong. When we get rain they break off.

Then there is the issue of the corn and the beans. The beans are handling the cold weather with ease. They germinated quickly. They have been growing well. The corn has not. It has been growing very very slowly. It can't keep up. I was afraid of this. If I did nothing the beans would not have support and would overwhelm the corn.

So I went out and bought some 7' bamboo poles (middle row). I bought twelve of them. I also have some other supports that had gone in earlier. The earlier supports were to hold up the beans where the corn had died. I still need about 12 more poles, but at least all the precocious bean plants are now grabbing onto a pole and not the corn. Somehow I think this is not the traditional way to grow a Three Sisters Garden. I wonder how the Native Americans in New England grew their crops. If they grew them in the traditional Three Sisters way, what did they do when hit with cool summers like we are having now?

Three Sisters Garden Planted

I finished putting my Three Sisters Garden in the ground yesterday. It started last winter as an idea. I wanted to try more interplanting techniques to try to get a better harvest out of my garden and the most classic of all companion planting is the Three Sisters Garden. The corn is the support for the pole beans, while the pole beans provide nitrogen to the soil that the corn takes out. The squash provide a mulch for the soil and its prickly vines help to keep intruders out of the garden. It in turn likes the partial shade from the other two.

Throughout the winter I collected seed for my garden. Corn, which was the first seed planted in the garden was from Pintree. It is Bon Appetit, a hybrid sweet corn that I thought my husband would love. It was germinated in soil blocks on April 16th.

From the Ottawa Gardener I received seed for a Vermont Cranberry Bean and Cherokee Trail of Tears. The latter was reportedly carried on the trail of tears and seems apropos for a traditionally Native American garden. The last bean is Kentucky Wonder, which I've grown for years in my garden and is my favorite green bean. These were planted out three days ago, after the corn had been hilled up. At the time of planting the hilled corn was 6-8" tall. I planted one hill of Kentucky Wonder and three of each of the other beans.

The last of the sisters is the cucurbits. I received my Armenian cucumber (really a melon) as a gift from Wintersown.org. My Diamant cucumbers are from Johnnys. They were planted last night after being germinated in soil blocks. Not all of them germinated. I'm still missing three blocks. I hope they make it. The cucumbers are being grown up a trellis that is at the end of the bed and goes between two hills of corn. Usually in a Three Sisters Garden the plants would sprawl on the ground, but I really like my cukes trellised, so I'm breaking from tradition.

For my other cucurbits, I have four varieties of squash. Two of zucchini and two of C. moschata. The first zucchini is seed from last year. Dark Green Zucchini did very well for me last year and still produced even with some vine borer damage. Costata Romanesca was a gift from Ali. I thought it would do well in a Three Sisters Garden because unlike most zucchinis, this one puts out runners. It doesn't have the bush habit like Dark Green Zucchini does. And one of the points of the squash sister is that she covers the ground and helps to mulch the soil.

I'm growing C. moschata instead of my typical C. pepo that I usually do because C. moschata is resistant to the evil and frustrating vine borers. They usually take down my pumpkins before I get any fruit. The first C. moschata I picked was Neck Pumpkin. It is very similar to Butternut, but has a much longer neck. I planted one hill of this. The last two hills were reserved for Magdalena Big Cheese. This was the one seed that I got through the Seed Saver's Yearbook. I felt I had to have it. It is often said to be one of the oldest varieties of squash still being grown. I'm hoping that means it has been grown in Three Sisters Gardens for hundreds of years. Its description is that it is very insect resistant and makes great pies. Yum! Pies!

Yesterday I planted out the squash seed in hills (the ones in the front are the squash hills, the ones in the back are the corn and bean hills). The hills are different than the ones I made for the corn. The corn started low and got hilled up. The squash starts out on a hill. First I dug a hole about a foot down. Into the hole I threw about a cup of coffee grounds and filters. It isn't fish, which would be more traditional, but I get more than I can use free, so it is my fertilizer of choice. I added a bit of lime since coffee grounds are acidic. Then I mixed it well in the next 6" or so of soil. The hole was filled with a five gallon bucket of compost. Then soil from the hole and some of the surrounding soil covered that up.

My hills are really mesas. They are flat on top and have a slight depression in the middle to catch the water. I've thrown my half finished compost all around the outside of the hills as a mulch, but not on top. Those seeds need to be able to get out of the soil.

You might notice that there are plants in the bed that are not Three Sisters plants. I have marigolds between every two hills of corn to help protect from nematodes. The other random green you see is cilantro. Cilantro self seeds all over the garden, but mostly in this bed. I tried to leave as much of it as possible while still making my hills. The rest was harvested.

The other weird non traditional thing you will see in the garden is posts here and there in the corn hills. Each hill had four corn plants and when one of them was very weak, I pulled it out and replaced it with a pole. That way the beans can still grow up the pole even without the corn.

I'm really very excited to be growing a Three Sisters Garden for the first time. I'm a bit worried that the beans will outgrow the corn, but the first year of doing something is always a learning experience.

Getting the Garden Ready for the Heat

I've been very busy recently. Not all of it has been in the garden, but some of it has. Yesterday I got the cucumber soil blocks planted. I have 3 Armenian and 7 Diamant blocks. I also got the trellis for them put up. I have it in a really weird spot. It is against the fence in front of a path. I'm using the path end to give me more space. It is in the middle path just past the upside down trash can. OK so you can't really see it much. But trust me it is there.

As to why I have a trash can in my garden, I put the sprinkler on it when I water the garden. That way any tall foliage (like the peas) doesn't block the water. I water with an old oscillating fan sprinkler. I found out this year that it is now partially stuck. If I have it on a full sweep it gets stuck all the way to the right. Sigh. I did find I could make it not quite sweep as far and still get all but one little spot in the garden. So I hand watered that spot.

Our weather has been abnomally dry this year. In the last four weeks I think we have had just over an inch of rain. That is it. Usually we get an inch of rain a week in the spring. I've had to water three times already. Before I always hand watered. I was going to do it again, but I don't get my self sown plants that way. They are scattered willy nilly all over the garden. My cilantro was bitter last time I picked it from lack of water. So now the whole garden got wet. I hope the plants start growing again. Some of the plants were really slowing down in growth.

After the garden got a good drink it was time to mulch everything. We have a hot dry spell predicted so I have to conserve that water. I mulched the tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos. I left the middle of their beds unmulched since there are carrots germinating there. As I was mulching I noticed the first pepper bloom opened. Whoohoo!

I wanted to mulch the whole three sister's bed, but it needed to be hilled up first. The corn is anywhere from three inches high to a foot high. Afterward hilling it was much shorter. I just pulled out the little ones that obviously weren't going to grow. They would have been buried anyway. I'll put a stake in their place for the beans to grow up.

Then I mulched the low spots and the top of the hills. I left the sides unmulched because I need to plant the beans there. I'll mulch that part when the beans are well up. I think I should be planting the beans now, but I'm not really sure. The corn seems so small at about 6". Most suggestions are to wait until your corn is 6-12" tall, then hill, then plant. So I probably ought to plant about now. I'll think about it and maybe do it within the next couple of days.

I didn't do the squash hills yet. I'll do those after the spinach is out of the ground. It should bolt with the coming hot weather. So I'll pull it out when it starts, then get those hills in. The greens didn't get mulched either, but that is because they were mulched earlier. Their ground didn't need to get warmed up.

Then it was on to the perennial bed. The weeds were starting to take over. I weeded them and gave them a good mulching. I completed one side of the perennial bed along the fence and need to do the other another day. The mulch I'm using is my compost from last year. It hadn't quite decomposed enough for me to want to mix it directly in the soil. Oak leaves really take a bit to break down if they haven't been shredded beforehand and they hadn't. So there was a lot of half decomposed leaves in the mix, but it makes a great mulch.

I started to put up the supports for my container tomatoes, but I melted in the heat before I finished. It was only 80°F (27°C), but I just can't take the heat. I hope it isn't too hot tomorrow morning to get that done. I'm such a wimp in the sun, but I know enough to go inside when I start getting dizzy. I want to finish, but the plants will just have to wait. If my post seems disjointed today it is because it is brain fries along with the rest of me.

Oh and I almost forgot. My comfrey was in bloom. So I figured it must be time to cut it all down. I have three plants that I put in last year in the hopes of making more of my own mulch. This was the first time that it got cut. I used this batch to mulch my potted tomaotes.

Corn, Champion Sprinter

On April 16th I planted my corn in soil blocks. I placed them on the heating mat. I was hoping that in about four to seven days they would sprout for me. The weather at the end of the week is going to get pretty warm. It would be perfect timing.

Did you know that if you give corn good conditions that it comes up faster than cole crops do? They are speedy germinaters coming in at three days. My corn germinated in two. Two days? Arrrrgggg!

I came home from working the store yesterday. I was tired. My husband said Nat had called and wanted to play a game (my friends often play European board games - much better than an American parlor game). I said I wasn't interested. I was tired. I just wanted to put my feet up for a while. But first I had to check my seedlings. The corn was up. Gack. Not only was it up, but it was up with 100% germination. No rest for the weary. The seedlings had to go out immediately. Some of the roots were already sticking out of the bottom. Corn does not like root disturbance, and to keep it anchored in the wind I needs those roots to go down deep into the soil.

Leftover seedlings from yesterday, note the root stick out at the bottom.

I grabbed the biggest 28 seedlings and ran outside to plant - in the rain. It wasn't raining hard, but it had started. I had already measured out my hills on three foot centers with sticks. I didn't actually hill up anything, in fact I sunk the seedlings in a bit. They will get hilled up as they grow. This will anchor them even more.

My favorite measuring tool is my hand. When I stretch my hand the distance between the tip of my index finger and the tip of my thumb is 6" (15cm). I used this to place four seedlings each 6" from the marking stick. If you do the math (remember the Pythagorean Theorem?), that would make them 8.4" apart. In reality they are about 9" since the stick has width. The rest of the post will be nerd free. I promise.

I wanted them to germinate later, once our cold snap was over. There were some dire predictions a few days ago of frosty nights and forties during the day for today and tomorrow. Well the corn was early and the predictions have changed. It is still a little chilly, but will probably break into the 50s both days. And the nights? Nope. No more frost predicted. I'll still protect my plants however. You just can't trust a prediction anymore than you can trust your corn to wait four days to sprout.

The First of the Three Sisters

Well I've started the seed for the three sisters garden (along with my eggplant and next lettuce succession). Or at least I might have started it. Our Boston weather in the spring is very variable each year. Some years May is cold and rainy in the 50°Fs (10-15°C). Some years it is warm and sunny. We have even had 90°F (32°C) temperatures, which for us in the northeast is HOT. If we get a warm May corn will grow just fine. If we get a cold May it will rot and not even germinate. Corn is the first of the three sisters. She is planted before the others. She has to get a good start before the beans can climb up her stem.

So my solution is to plant in soil blocks to germinate the seed. There will be no rotting since it is on a heating mat. I seeded 35 blocks, each with one seed. That ought to give me about the 28 I need to plant.

So where did I get 28? The three sisters garden is traditionally planted in hills. The corn hill is thinned to the best four. Most hills are planted 4' apart, but some people that do intensive gardening say 3' is enough. My garden bed is 21' long (about) so I'm going to try for 7 hills each, three feet apart. Yes math in the garden.

I'm still debating on internal distance. The most traditional seems to be 6" apart, but some go as far as a foot apart. I'm thinking spreading them out a bit might be useful. So maybe 9"? Hmm I'll have to think about it. If anyone has any experience, let me know.

I'm hoping for at least decent weather in May. If I get sun, even if the temperatures are a bit low, I will be fine. I have plastic over much of the bed right now and can keep it on as a tunnel when the corn is transplanted and possibly switch to remay later. I don't intend to keep the corn in the blocks for any length of time. As soon as they are up they will be planted out. I'm crossing my fingers that this will work. I'm going to be out of town in May until Mother's Day. If they aren't thriving by then, I can always reseed.

You would think I would have learned my lesson from my chard seedlings, but no. I'm still trying to push my seasons. Unless I move to a warmer climate, I always will. But at least I learned something from the chard. If you are pushing the seasons, use protection.