How to Plant a Three Sisters Garden
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Im confused on your measurements. Step two says top of mound 10" diameter then step four says plant on top six corn 10" apart in circle of two feet.....?! Please clarify. Ty.
The circumference of a 2 foot diameter circle is about 70 inches.
Basically I think they're just saying to space them equally around the edge. I would draw lines to divide it into sixths (kind of shaped like a chi-rho) and plant them at the ends of the lines.
There were six sisters. In addition to corn beans and squash, there are also sunflowers, amaranth, and tobacco. Dry sunflowers are a nutricious snack on the go. Amaranth seeds are baked into a flat bread,0r rehydrated to make a hot porrage, and tobacco was used for ceremony as "tribute" or as a universal currency. success with the crops depended on water availability and expected frost dates.
Any adjustments for growing in a tropical climate? I'm usually in Burma and Indonesia where corn and squash are grown year round.
As long as you use varieties that are suitable for growing in those climates, the basic idea of the Three Sisters should work for you just fine!
My name is Sue and I work for a company called GardenShop in South Africa. Your article is very well written and the explanations are very clear for a novice gardener. May we please get permission to use your article in our mailer and on our website: https://www.gardenshop.co.za/
It would be much appreciated. If you approve who should we credit. Looking forward to your reply. Stay saafe and keep gardening.
Regards
Sue
Hi Sue,
You are welcome to reference and quote our article in your own article as long it is attributed properly (“The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Almanac.com”) with a link back to this article. However, we would ask that you not duplicate more than a paragraph or two.
I find this intriguing and want to do this next spring. I have had massive problems with squash bugs the last two years and was wondering if companion planting these three would help alleviate this problem. Or if I needed to place praying mantis eggs in the garden.
I'm wondering about the sunflowers. Sunflowers typically kill most things planted around them due to some weed suppressing chemicals used by sunflowers to drown out the competition. I guess you could plant them several feet away and they would be ok.
Well, I see that although this article is dated May 2020, the comment thread goes all the way back to 2013. Questions about the type of corn appear to be addressed in the (presumed) update to the article last year. Questions about the mound, however, received only vague comments about drainage, and to Iroquois mythology.
I first heard about three sisters in the Southwest, far from Iroquois territory, and use of a mound appears to be hit or miss; even the included video might be slightly mounded but it sure isn't a foot high. And I don't understand the description of where to put the optional sunflowers (I'm trying mine in the center of the corn circle). On your next update it would be helpful to clarify these ambiguities.