Growing a Three Sisters garden (corn, pole beans, squash) is a form of companion planting practiced by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) who lived in the northern part of New York. Many tribes throughout North America did and still do this as well. They considered the Three Sisters to be gifts from the Great Spirit.
Each of the sisters contributes something to the planting. Just like older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans necessary support. The pole beans are the giving sister, pulling nitrogen from the air and bringing it to the soil for the benefit of all three. As the beans wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together. The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the Three Sisters by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist, and preventing weeds.
The Three Sisters garden at the Ashokan Center is part of our commitment to teaching and learning about Indigenous ways of living and connecting to the earth and nature. We still have so much more to learn, but like a garden, we plant the seeds and nurture them well, and by doing so, we learn and grow too.
Pole beans grow up the stalk of the corn. The corn is the first thing that’s planted. It provides the support for the beans. The beans 🫘 wind up holding the family together. Being a legume they work with the organisms in the soil to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form that the plant will one day use.
Beans grow in a symbiotic relationship with soil-dwelling bacteria. The bacteria take gaseous nitrogen from the air in the soil and feed this nitrogen to the legumes; in exchange the plant provides carbohydrates to the bacteria. This is why legume cover crops are said to “fix” or provide a certain amount of nitrogen when they are turned under for the next crop or used for compost.
The squash I planted is a small pumpkin. The type pies are made from. It covers the ground like a living mulch. Shading the ground and keeping the other plants moist and protected.
Post and photos by Del Orloske from the Ashokan Center Garden.
