Three Sisters Garden 2022
Over Winter our garden plans take the form of a map, each plot sketched out on grid paper. On the margin, plant species are checked off as they find their place in next year’s garden. But this year, one of my favorites — butternut squash found no home. I thought to myself, where will I put you squash…? not finding an immediate solution I figured I would just fit a plant in there somewhere… even if I had to put it in our shady front yard.
As Spring passed and the fullness of Summer took hold, I was still contemplating where to put the squash when I saw an advertisement for a community garden in the town just West of us. The price was right, and the plot size was large enough for several squash plants.
It was mid-June; I wasn’t sure if the garden would take me seriously and let me plant what tends to be a longer season crops here in Wisconsin. But after reaching out to the garden, I was greeted warmly and given access to a plot.
Coordinating with the organizer, I made my first visit to get the run down on garden practices, and wow was I encouraged by my visit. This community garden has 24 plots ranging 10 x 20 ft to 20 x 40 ft and includes a well maintained 2,400 square foot food pantry garden. Just this year the garden was able to donate over 1,000 pounds from their pantry garden.
A fence bordered with natives and other flowering plants surrounds the garden. On the North end of the property is a small apple orchard, and in the main walkway are communal herbs and berry plots. There is a shed containing tools and a picnicking area available to gardeners.
I immediately fell in love with my plot, filled with weeds, and loamy soil it adjoined a plot of strawberry plants just past fruiting. On the other side, my new neighbors’ gardens were already in full swing. I decided to fill my space with squash, corn and beans — Three Sisters.
I first attempted a Three Sisters Garden the summer my second son was born. I used a mounding technique that time but the soil I used to build my mounds was leftover topsoil from another landscaping project and though I dressed it with compost, the zucchini, corn and pole beans I planted there barely produced. I wanted to give this ancient interplanting technique another try with better soil and a different organization that would make good use of my limited time and 10x20 space, as well as avoid shading out my neighbors' plants.
Because I am using a Three Sisters gardening technique, I would like to acknowledge that I am not indigenous to these lands; my ancestors are largely white settlers who came here with the waves of other Europeans who now inhabit what we call the United States. I want to do more to better understand indigenous peoples perspectives and to respect their living cultures, and I am filled with gratitude for the stories that have been shared regarding Three Sisters.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer tells the Anishinaabe tale of Three Sisters. She depicts the myth as both an agricultural technique for increasing yields of the plants and as a significant lesson for humankind. The tale is of reciprocity and community, where each sister contributes and supports the wellbeing of the others.
Kimmerer explains, in the case of corn, beans and squash, the plants personal strengths play off one another creating a whole that is more than its components. The corn reaches high and grows quickly. The beans use the corn to climb and are given shade. In turn, the beans pull nitrogen into the soil for the corn and the squash provides shade and weed control for its partners. Together they generate natural pest control and a diverse environment for beneficial species.
Now that I had found the space for my squash and decided what else to plant, I was presented with another problem. I was leaving for a 10-day camping trip and wouldn’t have time to prepare and tend to my fledgling plot until my return. That was looking like a mighty short season and a big risk for an early hard frost, but there was no use getting worked up over it. Instead, I tightened my seat belt and held on for the ride.
Packing chaos ensued for our weeklong camping trip with two small children. I wanted to plant some seedlings that could start growing while I was away, but I kept pushing off putting seed to soil.
In what felt like a last-ditch effort, a few days before our trip I planted three seeds I’d saved from last year’s butternut squash into 9-inch pots. I then stuck them under the pvc greenhouse my husband built for the cold months that we had stored in a shady spot under our balcony. I watered them profusely the nights before our trip in hopes that the makeshift greenhouse would help keep the soil moist during the hot week ahead.
Upon our return home, I was delighted to find that the squash had sprouted, and the garden was looking healthy. In greeting, we gave thanks to our neighbors for watering the plants during our trip and gave the garden another good dose and harvested a large bounty of greens, strawberries, turnips and beets.
The next day, I headed to the local hardware seeking the corn seed with the shortest time to harvest I could find — which turned out to be 65 days. I found some bush beans among our seed stash and on July 2, I went to the garden.
The garden’s coordinator had generously cleared the plot of weeds in the days after my initial visit, but many had grown back and set in deep roots during my two-week absence. Arriving at my plot mid-morning, I assessed the new growth and submitted myself to hours of weeding. On hand and knee, I watched as my pile of pull weeds grew. Feeling sweat trickle down my back, and the sun start to burn my neck. Looking with sympathy towards the weeds wilting in the sun, I considered the relative value of pulling them by hand over a mechanical tiller which would break up much more of the interconnected life making up this healthy soil.
It was noon by the time the plot was cleared, and I was pretty pooped, I spread a bag of compost I’d bought on my way to the garden from the local hardware. Next, I put cardboard on the spaces I planned to use as walkways through the bed and broke open a couple bales of straw the garden had provided, covering all the exposed dirt with a thick layer to keep moisture in and weeds out.
I decided to plant the corn first, making two rows of fifteen on the North end of the plot. I spaced the rows one foot apart and I divided the corn plot into three sections vertically (North to South), so there would be about one foot of walking space between each section and about ten plants in each section. I planted two kernels in most holes, thinking I would thin out or transplant any duplicates.
Next, I planted the bush beans between the two rows of corn. The seeds I used were quite old — organic, heirloom, Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans packed for 2015.
Finally, I was ready to transplant my squash seedlings. I wish I would have snapped a picture of these because they were looking quite sad at this point, and it is surprising how they bounced back later in the season so it would have been a fun comparison to show you all.
Anyway, I dug three holes about equidistance within the Southern half of the plot. I placed a bit of what was left of the compost in each hole, loosened and gently removed the plants from their pots and place them into the holes. Now here comes the part where I tell you all how un-mechanically minded, I am… I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the garden’s water pump which connected to the spigots located at each plot through a series of hoses. Like I said — I was pooped.
So I made a few rounds of watering with a watering can I found in the tool shed, put a couple mesh bags over the squash plants to keep them from totally wilting in the mid-day sun and departed the garden to water myself and get my home to put my youngest son to nap. I promised my plants I’d come back later — hopefully with the knowledge of how to turn on the water.
That I did and I was able to return once or twice a week from there on out to check the plot, water and do some minimal weeding. After the corn plants grew to about 6 inches I pulled out the duplicates, sparing the healthier looking plants. I literally just tugged out the plants I wanted to remove and from those that looked strong enough, I planted a third row of corn.
Rain was plentiful and somewhat regular this Summer so watering was also minimal at times, and I always had my best helpers along to happily drench the plants and me.
Once the plants got going there really wasn’t much to do. There wasn’t a need to weed, there were some weeds in there, but they weren’t really competing with the crops I was growing, and it would have been very difficult to weed with all the foliage the plants were pumping out even if I had wanted to.
Over the next months, the garden grew left largely to its own devices. It brought me joy to bring my 1- and 4-year-old kids out there for regular visits to check progress, I rejoiced when the corn reached my hip in mid-August and baby squash began to present themselves.
The beans flowered a most beautiful purple. Bees buzzed amongst the leaves and I’d occasionally bump into one as I checked their progress. Then suddenly, I had beans coming out of my ears. At least a pound a week for about a month, then about 3 pounds a week and then as the nights got cold the harvest slowed and I began to really eye my corn and squash.
I had never had a “successful” corn harvest before, like I said my previous attempt at a Three Sister Garden was dismal and another attempt at corn had been eaten almost wholly by squirrels. I wasn’t sure how to tell when it was ripe, but I read that if you punctured the kernels and milky liquid came out you would know it was ripe.
I hesitated to open any husks, I didn’t want to waste any of the corn, but when I finally got up the courage to do so, I realized, — yep, it’s ready. I took home about a dozen ears that evening.
My next visit I started noticing some insect damage. A few of the corn I experimentally split open had tiny corn worms starting to eat through the kernels. I saw squash beetles on some of the butternut squash vines and some of the fruit looked damaged underneath. I also wanted to pick the squash before any overnight frost occurred to best prolong the storage life of the harvest. It was time for one final big harvest.
My four-year-old and I pulled the ears from the corn stalks with the most satisfying crunch. We found each of the squash hiding underneath great wide green leaves attached to the vine by prickly stalks. As the stacks of our harvest grew, we grew giddy with excitement. I sent prayers of thanks to the sky, the water and the earth, and talked to my oldest about how thankful I was that this had been such a good year.
We loaded our harvest into the trunk of my car and drove home to share the good news with the members of our family who had stayed back.
Notes on preservation:
Winter squash needs to be hardened for long term storage. Butternut squash is best to eat after a few months of storage. I wipe my squash with a bit of diluted bleach solution on a cloth before storing my squash in the basement on wire racks. I also steam squash in the oven and then store puree in the freezer using it interchangeably for baked goods that call for pumpkin.
Beans are great for pickling — dilly beans are a favorite winter snack in our house. They are also good blanched and frozen. Use them wherever a recipe calls for beans just give them a little extra cooking time to cook off the extra moisture.
You should eat as much corn as possible in the days after harvest, a fresh corn salad is a great way to enjoy tons of corn. Then corn can be cut from the cob and frozen, you have the option whether to blanch it before you flash freeze it. I like throwing some corn on the pan towards the end of baking when I’m roasting other vegetables.
