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EmailThe classic example of happy companion plants is the legendary "three sisters"—corn, pole beans, and either pumpkins or squash. This trio is one of the easiest and most satisfying to grow.
Tips for growing the three sisters:
- To try them in your garden, in spring, prepare the soil by adding fish scraps or wood ash to increase fertility, if desired.
- Make a mound of soil about a foot high and four feet wide.
- When the danger of frost has passed, plant the corn in the mound. Sow six kernels of corn an inch deep and about ten inches apart in a circle of about 2 feet in diameter.
- When the corn is about 5 inches tall, plant four bean seeds, evenly spaced, around each stalk. About a week later, plant six squash seeds, evenly spaced, around the perimeter of the mound.
Each of the sisters contributes something to the planting. Together, the sisters provide a balanced diet from a single planting.
- As older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans needed support.
- The beans, the giving sister, pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil for the benefit of all three.
- As the beans grow through the tangle of squash vines and wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together.
- The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the threesome by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist and preventing weeds.
- The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons, which don't like to step on them.
By the time European settlers arrived in America in the early 1600s, the Iroquois had been growing the "three sisters" for over three centuries. The vegetable trio sustained the Native Americans both physically and spiritually. In legend, the plants were a gift from the gods, always to be grown together, eaten together, and celebrated together.
Read our article on Companion Gardening to learn more about which plants are friends—or foes!
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Comments
I'm trying four sisters, but
I'm trying four sisters, but two versions of each. Corn/sunflowers; zucchini/summer squash; peas/beans. I love this concept, plus the fact it has been used successfully for hundreds of years by our native people.
Neither sunflowers nor peas
Neither sunflowers nor peas were raised by Native Americans. Sunflowers were imported from Russia and peas from Europe. I am not sure that corn will do well if panted with sunflowers. Sunflowers have a negative alleopathic effect on many garden plants.
Corn does fine with
Corn does fine with sunflowers, I've been doing it for years with success. They also do well with cucumber. Sunflowers attract birds keep this in mind if you have a crop that birds savor. Sunflowers also attract Aphids .....
I am sorry, but you are
I am sorry, but you are incorrect on the note about the sunflowers. Sunflowers are a native to North America and while it was commercialized elsewhere and bred for bigger better flowers elsewhere (especially Russia) sunflowers were used by some Native American Tribes. One example is a type of perennial sunflower that was used by Native Americans called sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes ....that sunflower is harvested for the root.
The planting chart and James'
The planting chart and James' comment says tomatoes and sunflowers DO NOT get along together, however, last year I had both sunflowers and tomato plants come up in the same bed and those tomato plants out-produced those in other areas of the garden. So, it would seem that there exceptions to the rule?
According to our companion
According to our companion planting chart (http://www.almanac.com/content/plant-companions-list-ten-common-vegetables), sunflowers are not foes of tomatoes.
Yes, tomatoes are an
Yes, tomatoes are an antagonist to both corn and potatoes. Tomatoes are a heavy feeder, as well as corn. Both should not be planted in the same area where they will rob each other of needed nutrients, thus you will have weak crops from both. Check your local extension office for further information and general families/foes.
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