Three Sisters Thursday

I hope you saved ALL the seeds and roasted some of them for snacks. Pumpkin seeds are good for energy.

this is amazing! I was just telling my mom about this method tonight. I'm going to post this on my Facebook so she can see all this!

well we harvested the last of the scarlett runner *racer* beans and have them hanging up to dry.....we are saving them for seeds for next year i have a few of them sitting next to reg green beans that we harvest today as well out of our SFG...the size differnce is amazing....



here is one of the pumpkins that we cut open and cooked and made into pies





seeds we are saving!



the only things left in the three sisters is our butter nutt squash growing....so far its not changing colors yet....we are still hoping it will.....and one last smaller pumpkin....she is turning a nice orange....her skin is still a bit soft....so we left her in the garden.....i forgot to get a pic's today of them....we have been dealing with a lot of rain

hugs

rose

We have frost forecast for Friday, so my Scarlet Runner Beans will come to the end of their lives.

I cannot believe how huge the plants are, they tower over the six-foot trellis and must be overhanging at least two feet, and in only four squares.

I have had a ton of beans, I should have weighed them but did not think of it at the time. Several pounds of beans have been frozen so I will enjoy the harvest for some months to come, and in addition I have kept a friend in beans as well.

I will start cutting down the vines shortly and saving the seeds from the ones I left on, the biggest ones. I am expecting enough seeds to keep me going and also to be able to share.

Next eyar I am going to add a 90degree extension to the trellis, so that the beans can climb horizontally and I won't have to stand on a ladder to harbest them. I think it is called somethin like a "mont" frame, boffer showed a plan of it, must look it up as that is a project for the winter months, along with my potato sacks.

I enjoyed your pictures, FamilyGardening.

I thought I would share something I found while looking for ideas to teach my pre-k class, as Thanksgiving is coming up. This is one story passed through Native Americans about the Three Sisters. A sweet story...
http://www.birdclan.org/threesisters.htm

I can't wait to plant one this spring, thanks to you all for sharing your experiences!

Is it ok to plant different types of beans with this method??? How about planting squash, pumpkin, and cucumber? I just didn't know if that would mess up the pollination. I use only heirloom and open-pollinated seeds if that helps.

Thank you so much for this thread. I just spent the last hour looking over all of it. I just planted my sunflowers and the corn will go in tomorrow!!!

For those of you that did it in a SFG, what kind of spacing and inter-planting did you use and what size garden. I'm especially interested in April's 3 sisters b/c it looks like she had a lot in a small area. The biggest size garden I would use is 4x12 and I would love to have enough of each food to enjoy multiple dinners. My son's favorite food in the world is corn on the cob, so I have to grow some for him. Also, what is the best type of squash to use that would work good in this system, and also have enough time to grow before the frost (I'm in zone 6a I think, growing is usually between mid-May to mid-October)

Does anyone know where the diagram for 3 sisters is that Mel drew? I've been all over the place in here. It was a colored square schematic showing where to put everything in the square.

it can befound in mel first book and mels blog i think.

AHAH I knew I had seen a thread here on 3 sisters! Good information here.

Rose, your pictures are an inspiration. Did you do a repeat last summer?

This is the 1st time I am trying the 3 sisters garden but I did a bit of an oops!
I was supposed to plant the corn and when it grew to 6", then plant the beans next to the corn. Along with the corn I would plant the butternut squash and pumpkin.

But instead, I planted the corn and beans at the same time...oops.
I guess I was so excited and forgot the rules....
I planted butternut squash along one side with a trellis. At the two corners I planted pumpkin. I also planted some flowers.

Everything is coming up already so I just hope the corn and beans grow accordingly. Wish me luck!

I was so excited about trying the 3 sisters this year but everyday I check on the corn and more of the stalks have fallen over (or have been knocked over by animals maybe). I also noticed that when planting the beans the MM is so lose that maybe the corn is really just falling over. Anyone else have this problem?

May 1st, May 28 & today -- I think the corn is growing every time I blink. 2 kinds of corn -- Sweet Corn & Yellow Sweet Corn (I know, but it was on sale and I'm just starting), 2 kinds of sunflowers, 8 kinds of beans (1 kind per square just to see), and 2 kinds of winter squash.

5/15


5/28


5/31

tagyourit wrote:I was so excited about trying the 3 sisters this year but everyday I check on the corn and more of the stalks have fallen over (or have been knocked over by animals maybe). I also noticed that when planting the beans the MM is so lose that maybe the corn is really just falling over. Anyone else have this problem?

Maybe do a search on corn in SFG? I seem to recall that people would support a trellis laid sideways for the corn to grow through to support it. You might put a stake in the corners and then loop some string around to hold the stalks up.
Good luck

This is our third year growing a three sisters garden, this time we are growing it in our SFG box #2

Green beans on a trellis in the back....slight slug damage on the beans but we did plant some extra just in case....*hooker* corn....we planted 3 per square, a couple of squares have only 1 or 2 corns for lack of germination....left hand corner we have crook neck squash and right hand corner we have Black Beauty zucchini.....they are a tad bit yellow....I figure do to the cold wet weather we are having



Last year our children grew a three sisters in 2 wine barrels....the pumpkins did great...the Bean did well and the corn grew and we hand pollinated it ....but we only got a half of a cob to eat....tasted good though!

The first year was in ground and you can see that garden at the beginning of the thread

happy gardening
rose

This year I am doing my first real attempt at a 3 Sisters box - pics coming soon. 4x6, corn is up about 3 inches, acorn squash have sprouted, and in another week or so I will plant the bean seeds around the outside of the box. May the weather cooperate!

GG

We are doing a two sisters garden, since we dont want the squash running in the aisles....so far so good!!

I planted my beans earlier this week.  Some are starting to poke up!

GG

SG your sisters look great!

GG its so exciting to see those beans pop up!

happy so far with our three sisters



happy gardening
rose

My 3 sisters here is Maine is still one sister for now.  Too small yet to add the beans and still undecided about a squash plant or two.

above:  my very short corn stalks.  Sugar peas are on a trellis in the north squares.  I wound some garden twine around bamboo poles in the corners to hold the stalks upright later if needed.  I can always add another twine or two.

When the downpours and ThunderBumpers stop I will get a pic of the 3 Sisters!

GG

quiltbea your corn is so cute......I wonder if your peas could count as one of the sisters.....

Goosegirl looking forward to your pictures

happy gardening
rose

Here are the pics of my infant 3 Sisters Box



Here are the beans, planted less than 1 week ago

The acorn squash



GG

Goosegirl.....Lookin' good.

I am loving the progress report pictures

Here at last I can report all Four Sisters are UP! 
The winter squash (seeds from Nonna, thank you!) are in a berm behind the bed covered still.  I counted 3 adult leaves on them today   They were transplanted last week.  They are Potimorran, Australian Butter pumpkin, Pennsylvania Crookneck, Thelma Saunders Sweet Potato Acorn squash and Mountaineer.  All but Mountaineer is new to me. 
The corn is Painted Mountain flour corn and the beans are Indian Woman Yellow bean.  Across the ends of their bed I put some sunflowers and they are up too.