Three Sisters Garden

What is a Three Sisters Garden?

It is an ancient method of gardening using an intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill.

Corn is the oldest sister. She stands tall in the center.
Squash is the next sister. She grows over the mound, protecting her sisters from weeds and shades the soil from the sun with her leaves, keeping it cool and moist.
Beans are the third sister. She climbs through squash and then up corn to bind all together as she reaches for the sun. Beans help keep the soil fertile by coverting the sun's energy into nitrogen filled nodules that grow on its roots. As beans grow they use the stored nitrogen as food. Three Sisters Garden.

Variety in Our Gardens

One of the benefits of all of us growing a vegetable garden in our backyard is that we can all grow 2 or 3 different things and when we get together to exchange our crops we would have a better variety. What do you think?

Steps for Creating a Vegetable Garden

Not sure how to start or would like to improve your garden this year. Try these steps to get your garden going. All of us will have to modify these a bit to fit our style but this is a good place to start.

What to Plant and When to Plant It!

I always have a hard time trying to figure out what and when to plant. Mostly I go by Home Depot time. If it is in the garden section I figure it is time to plant it. Here is a great chart. Mesa is at about 1200 feet elevation, that puts us in zone 2 for Arizona according to this chart. I am going to follow the suggestions on this chart and see if I have any better luck. Good Luck and Happy Planting!

Getting Started

Growing a vegetable garden can be as easy as planting a pepper tree in a 5 gallon bucket, or as advanced as dragging out the rototiller and creating a garden masterpiece. I found a website that talks about creating a bucket garden that was pretty interesting. I tried one of these with the kids in the garden club at Johnson and it worked pretty well. It was easy to move, did not take up much space, and it was easy to make. Great for places with limited space!