Three Sisters Thursday

I know it's not Thursday, I meant to do this last week, and I know I'll get busy this week and forget again, but I thought it would be fun for those of us who are trying the Three Sisters Method (corn, beans and squash) to post pictures of the progress of our gardens. You don't have to post on Thursday, it's just a catchy name to help us (me mostly) remember the thread. And so someone who wants to try this next season can remember the name too.

Some of my boxes have grids, some have big grids (not square foot, 2-square feet), and two have no grid. My husband said the goat did it, the goat said my husband did it, I think they both did it, and I just did not feel like putting a new one on it, as things were already growing.


A few weeks ago, like maybe 6 weeks ago.






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I'll get more pictures up soon, the picture hosting service is not working properly right now, and I need a nap.

The cat ate my corn by the time it was 6 inches high (that would be the extremely nosy one I am using as my avatar). Every single stalk. I couldn't figure it out until I SAW her doing it. I mentioned it to the DH and he said he has seen cats climb a corn stalk to get to the ears. My beans and squash are doing OK as of this morning, though. I'll try to take some pics tonight when I do my tomatoes for tomorrow. I do have a few blossoms on my zucs and even a bud or two on the tomatoes. I am resisting the urge to run outside as soon as I get home and see if they opened up yet.

One little squash blossom on my zucs. I didn't put any crook necked out this year, just green and golden zucchini.




A wide shot of the plants in that box.




My beans (hoping they will grow out of their yellow stage soon).


More zucs and winter squash, these are in the last box I built and I still don't think my MM is completely saturated. I think that is why they are stunted compared to the others. They have tons of buds, though, so the neighbors, coworkers, family, and friends should be just as annoyed as ever by the end of the season.

Okay trying to get last weeks pictures up.


Boffer, I'm getting read to eat this ON the stalk.


One of the boxes with the missing grid.


These squash are really big, especially the zucchini, but the corn is not as tall as I had hoped.


One of the bigger grids I was playing with when making grids.


No grid, tons of bees, no tassels yet. This is one of the two boxes that the grid just got up and walked out of.

would it be ok for me to post my three sisters?....its not in my sfg though...so thought i would ask before posting incase you want to keep this thread for the three sisters in a sfg.... if so its ok....dont feel bad....i can always make a differnt thread

hugs
rose

That's exactly why I put it in the non-SFG category, so everyone could join in. Most here don't have their corn in thier SFG, so share away!!!!

ya!

i didnt even see what category it was in

i will post some pic's when i get some updated ones.....the weather here today is blah!

hugs
rose....wonders where the sun is today

How tall should my corn be before I add the bean seeds? Thanks!!

Four inches is the usual recommendation.

I was going to do the 3 Sisters in the community garden this year but the powers that be are going to have several rows of separate crops instead this year.

I love seeing the pictures. I'm curious to see how it all works so that maybe another year I can try it.

here is our three sisters.....we have seven mounds of 4 corns per mound.....the beans are going in today.....then we have two mounds with pumpkins, one mound of butter cup squash, a mound with winter squash and i think we have five mounds with acorn squash.....then we have a few extra corn on the fence line....

AWESOME!!!

Okay, so here are some pictures from this week.

Squash doing GREAT, the bigger plants are zucchini, corn is not so great.


Server down, I'll try again.

Corn, lady cream peas, and pumpkin.


The BEST box of corn, Itallian green beans and butternut squash, which just now has blooms


Okay, that's it. I am tapping each stalk in the morning to help with pollination, even though the bees have invaded the boxes with corn.

wow it all looks great!....your squash is huge and so is your corn.....

is that your tater box down in the bottom front of one of your pics?

hugs
rose who has to remind her self she lives in a differnt zone then farmer V and her corn will grow taller

Yes, that's a tater box, I think it's ready to be knocked over too.

We had some pretty crazy weather, cold snap, cool weather, storms, then dry, the the whole thing all over again, so my corn was confused for the first half of it's life cycle. I'm not really to terribly concerned about it's height, as long as I get corn, and when the tassles start to shoot up, the corn really jumps a foot or two anyway. I am thinking about as soon as this batch is done, starting some popcorn, the timing will be close, but since you leave popcorn on the stalk until it's dry, I think we will be okay. Our first frost average date is November 16.

i forgot about three sister thursday....its sunday and i took some pics of the garden......i can not believe my corn.....its knee high and its not the 4th of july so....as long as we get some kind of heat this summer.....we may end up with some corn!.....the pumkins have decided to take off too! and....i found some un-opened flowers oh...and my beans are poking out!

hugs
rose....who wonders where the sun went :scratch:

The three sisters


knee high corn


pumpkin taking off


my little bean

I took pictures, but have been so busy, I'll try to get them up soon. Some of my corn is falling over, but it was fun trying this.

oh no....how come your corn is falling over?....windy?...is the beans pulling on it?

hugs
rose

I'm not exactly sure, I do know it was slow getting tall, and then when it did it shot up, the bottoms are skinnier than what I remember. A few days ago we had some pretty good gusts of wind and I watched a few go down. 3 weeks ago one or two went down and I checked the soil for moisture, it was bone dry, so I'm thinking that not enough water was the original problem. Corn is a heavy feeder, and needs lots of water, but not too much, if the soil is too wet corn, like a large tree, will go down quick.

Here are a few pictures.
Before the fall.


Pole Lima Beans climbing the corn.


Same box, corn going down.

Opposite side of garden.


Just for fun. These were already down when I let the chickens loose, I sat and had coffee while watching them chase bugs. It was fun, but when we let them out again in the afternoon, they ate hubby's lima beans, well picked them apart, they are not gone yet. I did this to show hubby that one old man he talked to may have been letting his chickens out once or twice a day to patrol the garden, and they may not have done any damage at all, but they could. I thought it was funny they picked at his beans!!!

Oh no FarmerValerie! I can't believe they fell over. That is terrible. I actually had the three sisters and some "cousins" planted in two beds but I had to cut the corn out the other day. I overplanted and the corn was choking the lives out of the squash and melons in those beds. Now the beds look empty.

I'm only a tad dissapointed, it's only seeds, although my favorite kind of seeds, but it's been fun to try, and I still have some standing.

Well...now you can sit down while you eat your corn on the cob on the stalk!

HAHAHA, I thought of that too!!!

went out to the garden this morning....even though our weather here has not been hot enough.....its been warm and muggy.....the three sisters garden is doing very well!!.....the corn is past the hip now



look at the corn stock next to the soaker hose....can not believe how thick it is


each mound of corn has a set of differnt beans....some pole beans and some bush beans.....this is I think the scarlet reds....i was very surprised to see how large the bean leaves are....i have never grow them before....they are the ones that i picked up at our local school plant sale and didnt know what kind of bean they were LOL



pumpkins are stretching out...... down the path ways



they even have some flowers just about to open


did run into one of my squash plants with what looks like powder mildew. the rest of the plant looks great and so far non on my others are showing signs yet of having it....so i sprayed them with some organic fungi-stuff



over all i think the garden is doing great with the lack of hot sun

hugs
rose