Beyond pulling all the weeds? I really had no plans for the garden this weekend. With a little, okay a lot of! help from Treat and Heidi, I figured we would clear it out and plant it as usual next weekend with several rows made up of a variety of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and eggplant.
But yesterday afternoon I opened an email from a seed company and clicked on a video link for "three sisters" planting. Sure, I had heard of the Indian approach to growing corn, beans, and squash, but I had never considered it before. 5 minutes later? I was sold!
And so the blazing 2pm sun of the first 90 degree day this year found the three of us constructing a mound in the middle of the cleared-out garden. There, in the center, we planted the "peaches and cream" corn seedlings that I hurried out to get yesterday. Around them, a circle of cowpeas, that will add nitrogen to the soil, and use the corn stalks to support them as they grow. Next weekend, a ring of squash will complete the arrangement, which was inspired by the Wampanoag tradition. The squash will use the nitrogen and shade the soil they all are growing in, keeping it moist.
We may add a fourth or fifth sister to the inner circle-- our sources say that sunflowers and amaranth distract the birds from the corn, but the rest of the garden will be planted concentrically, in circles circling the mound. Those tomatoes, peppers, okra, and eggplant will be growing in a totally new configuration, and I for one?
Am excited!
But yesterday afternoon I opened an email from a seed company and clicked on a video link for "three sisters" planting. Sure, I had heard of the Indian approach to growing corn, beans, and squash, but I had never considered it before. 5 minutes later? I was sold!
And so the blazing 2pm sun of the first 90 degree day this year found the three of us constructing a mound in the middle of the cleared-out garden. There, in the center, we planted the "peaches and cream" corn seedlings that I hurried out to get yesterday. Around them, a circle of cowpeas, that will add nitrogen to the soil, and use the corn stalks to support them as they grow. Next weekend, a ring of squash will complete the arrangement, which was inspired by the Wampanoag tradition. The squash will use the nitrogen and shade the soil they all are growing in, keeping it moist.
We may add a fourth or fifth sister to the inner circle-- our sources say that sunflowers and amaranth distract the birds from the corn, but the rest of the garden will be planted concentrically, in circles circling the mound. Those tomatoes, peppers, okra, and eggplant will be growing in a totally new configuration, and I for one?
Am excited!
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