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The 3 Sisters – A Native American Garden

With the slow arrival of spring in northern North America, many of us “urban farmers” are eager to start planting.

Using Companion Planting, where one plant helps the other,  the 3 Sisters Garden is an old fashioned, but very effective farming technique.  Unlike modern agribusiness which is based on yields extracted from the land regardless of environmental cost, the Native American garden, which was actually a form of small-scale farming, made the land richer.

A 3 Sisters garden can be planted on a smaller scale.  Plant the corn first.  When the corn reaches 5 inches in height, plant the pole beans.  About a week later, plant your squash seeds.  The corn supports the beans, the beans provide nitrogen and the squash keeps moisture in and shades out the weeds. Urban garden harmony.

Please purchase seeds from a retailer or company that carries GMO free seeds and has taken the Safe Seeds Pledge.

Original sources: Mother Earth News and GMO Free USA

Adapted by John Zeus

A few crops in my urban garden only two/three weeks after planting. June 08, 2013 | Riverdale Neighbourhood, Toronto, Ontario

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Urban Garden Pepper

Tomato plants

First Nations Tobacco – Planting some crops next to vegetables help vegetables grow.

Peppermint

Dinosaur Gourd not doing too well

Oregano

Strawberries

Corn

Growing your own food is one of the most therapeutic and defiant things you can do. Green and nutritious gardens all around us make our urban ecosystems work.

Photos by: John Zeus