Native American tribes have been using the Three Sisters garden, a traditional companion planting technique, for years. It entails symbiotically growing corn, beans, and squash together.

Beans can climb up the corn to fix nitrogen in the soil, which aids the squash, and the squash shadows the land with its long vines to keep moisture in and control weeds.

What’s a Three Sisters Garden?

Corn, beans, and squash are referred to as “The Three Sisters,” and they are grown together because they are agriculturally and nutritionally beneficial.

Planting Options

Here are the important things you need to know when planting a Three Sisters garden:

1. Squash

Pick the appropriate kinds for each plant while designing a Three Sisters garden for optimal growth. For example, you can plant summer and winter varieties of squash, but you must choose varieties with vines that stretch out by at least a few feet to provide adequate soil covering.

Winter squash types with particularly tenacious vines, on the other hand, should be avoided because they can easily supplant other plants in a small garden.

2. Beans

Choose pole beans over bush bean varieties because they help stabilize corn stalks and nitrogen fixation in the soil. Excellent options are lima, runner, yardlong, and common beans. It is advised to inoculate the soil with rhizobia before growing beans. This will maximize nitrogen fixation.

3. Corn

Choose the tall varieties of corn to give the beans room to climb. Rapidly maturing types are not appropriate for a Three Sisters garden. The recommended ones include popcorn, dent corn, and sweet corn.