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Old 06-12-2011, 02:03 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2009
Posts: 5
Default Three sisters method.

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
A friend told me about the Three Sisters growing method.
Apearently It comes from the Native Americans who would
grow Corn, Beans and Squash together. The corn stalks
would provide a trellis for the beans to grow on, and
the squash would grow on the ground and provide cover
to control the weeds. Sounds intresting.

Anyone else heard of it? Anyone tried it?


Actually, yes, that is the method we used whenever I was a kid. And my dad
learned it from his dad who learned it from his dad. We *always* grew our
pumpkins and squash with our corn. Always.

We never planted beans in there but we always grew bush beans, so maybe that
was the reason.

Works very well. My dad said we did that because pumpkins and squash took
up too much space but whenever you plant some hills in the corn rows that it
is the best was to utilize the land.

Actually, come to think of it, we almost always planted the corn where the
beans were last planted because dad believed corn sucked a lot of nitrogen
out of the soil and beans put it back.