Planting the Three Sisters

In Cut Flowers, Farm Life, Flower Garden, Produce Garden by Laura CrossleyLeave a Comment

In planning our garden, Aaron’s stepmom Debbie recommended the Three Sisters. Being on a big companion planting kick, I thought the bright idea sounded pretty solid. Naturally, I dove headfirst into some research to figure out how to make the most of our South garden.

What I found was the Three Sisters plus a pair of flower sisters that really scratched my cut flower garden itch. Here’s where the planning has landed:

  • The Hidatsa Three Sisters design from Grow Organic “Three Sisters Companion Planting Method” seems to be the right approach for us. Not only was the Hidatsa design used by the Mandan and Arikara peoples who planted along the floodplain of our Missouri River, but it also accounts for introducing Sunflowers and Bee Balm.
From the Grow Organic site. This is the plan we’ll follow.
  • We’ll line the Northern edge of the garden with Bee Balm plus about 3 rows of Sunflowers. The Southwest edge will be loaded with zucchini and squash. The Southeast edge will be home to our pumpkins.
  • Corn and pole beans will be planted in 6-seed mounds at 2-foot distances across the center of the garden. Two-foot paths will give us easy access to crops from all sides.

Two of our biggest questions along every step of the way with this garden have been (1) how many seeds/starts do we need? and (2) what will this yield? For our Three Sisters garden, I’ve been working hard to nail down those numbers. Here’s what I’m expecting:

  • Bee Balm
    • Planting ~20 plants spaced at 18″
    • Mature plant will appear bush-like
    • Cut flowers
    • Read more from the Farmer’s Almanac.
  • Sunflowers
    • Planting 96 seeds at 6″ spacing in 3 rows
    • Once leaves arrive, Burpee recommends thinning the crop to 2′ spacing
    • Cut flowers
  • Pumpkins
    • Planting ~11 plants spaced at 4-5′ from center of mound
    • Read more from the Farmer’s Almanac
    • Yield 3-5 pumpkins per vine could total ~45 pumpkins
  • Corn
    • Planting 50 mounds spaced at 2′ from center
    • 6 seeds per mound for a total of 300 planted seeds
    • Yield 1-2 ears per stalk could total ~600 ears of corn
  • Squash
  • Beans
    • Planting 36 mounds of beans
    • 6 seeds per mound for a total of 216 planted seeds
    • Yield 120 beans per plant could total ~25,000 beans

That bean number might be a bit ridiculous. The rest of this, though, seems freaking awesome!