28-12-2003, 11:32 PM
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"The three sisters" method
The message
from (ken cohen) contains these words:
Has anyone had any experience of trying this method, which apparently
was a North American Indian practice. I heard it described on a
gardening programme today as growing sweetcorn, runner beans and
courgettes/cucumbers/marrow together in the same bed to the benefit of
each. Apparently you start the sweetcorn off first, then when it has
gained a bit of height, you sow the runnerbeans, which then climb up
the sweetcorn, and then you sow your courgettes/cucumbers which can do
quite well in the environment thereby created for them.
Americans would have grown squash or pumpkin instead of the
courgettes.A variant I've read about involves making a planting mound of
earth. The angle at which the sun strikes the side of mound helps warm
the soil and ripen the crops.
I've only tried it once, in Scotland, without the mound because I
hadn't heard of it at that point. Mine didn't succeed; probably because
of our frost-free growing season being shorter wetter, cooler and having
lower light intensity than much of the USA. Short-season sweetcorn
varieties, the kind suitable for northern UK, tend not to be very tall
anyway IME. The beans got much too big for the sweetcorn before either
had flowered, and both overshadowed the courgettes. I got a few beans
and no corn or courgettes. All three grow here successfully, the
conventional way.
I wonder if there are other examples of growing crops together for
mutual benefit?
Loads; and the opposite works too..some veg families dislike being
planted near each other. Bob Flowerdew has written a book about it
called something like "Companion Planting" and you'll also find planting
tables on the internet if you search under the same phrase.
Tomatoes and basil (in a greenhouse) are a good combination.
Janet.
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