Around here corn, beans and squash–the triad of plants grown by the Native Americans–are known as the three sisters. Bob always plants a few rows of corn because it’s fun to watch grow. This year he grew beans and pumpkins amongst the corn.
It’s a mess. There’s a row of beans between the corn rows, and a few interspersed pumpkins.
The beans climb the corn, but the plot is so dense you can barely walk through it.
I looked it up, and learned that this Indian trio doesn’t grow in rows. It grows in hills.
Here’s an old Ansel Adams photo of Indian cornfields, where the corn is planted a few stalks to a hill, with beans climbing up them.
Here’s the same trio in full growth, and instead of being a mess (like ours) it makes sense.
For the three sisters to work together, you don’t line them up in rows; you make mounds. Their synergy depends on their spatial relationship. There’s probably a moral to this story, but I don’t know what it is.
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Loved the old Ansel Adams photo…thanks for sharing. Around this part of the country, they would bury a fish or two for fertilizer in that mound.
I read somewhere that growing pumpkins is pretty easy (I wouldn’t have a clue if that is true - I’ve never tried growing pumpkins). What about growing beans and corn - did you get a good crop?