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Grow Your Own Wampanoag 'Three Sisters' Garden

We've all heard the story about how the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims the concept of putting a fish under garden plants, but did you ever wonder what it was that they planted on top of the fish?

It was the Wampanoag gardens that enabled the early settlers of Jamestown to survive their first winter in the New World. Legend has it that Squanto was the Wampanoag who taught the newcomers and the fish he used was an Alewife. The plants they grew were called the Three Sisters.

I studied landscape architecture in upstate New York, very near the center of the Iriquois Nation and their famed "Happy Hunting Grounds." One of my projects was to spend some time with an Iriquois by the name of Storm Cloud (he was named for his moodiness as a child) and he told me the legend of the Three Sisters.  He has since joined his ancestors, but I think of his wise teachings often and in his honor I'll tell you the story as he told it to me. The  Three Sisters are corn, beans and squash.

Storm Cloud told the tale this way: "It was said that the earth began when one day Sky Woman, who lived in the upper world, was looking through the giant hole in the sky and she accidentally got too close to the edge and fell through it into the sea. The sea creatures loved her and could see her falling, so they quickly gathered soil from the bottom of the sea and spread it onto the back of a giant turtle "the Earth Bearer" to provide a safe place for her to land. This Earth Bearer is now what we call North America.

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"Sky woman was pregnant. With the impact of the fall she gave birth to a daughter (who has no name). The daughter lived on the Earth Bearer, grew into a young woman, and became pregnant by the West wind, giving birth to twin boys, called Sapling and Flint. The daughter died in the childbirth process and Sky Woman was very sad but she had a way to provide for the boys.

"She buried her daughter in the late spring in the new soil.  In early summer from the daughter's grave grew three sacred plants, called The Three Sisters: corn, beans, and squash. These plants were considered her daughter's special gifts and provided food for her sons while ensuring the survival of the Iroquois people and eventually all of mankind."

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Since then, corn, beans, and squash have had a prominent place in any Native American garden. The Three Sisters combine to create a nearly perfect meal loaded with essential vitamins and minerals. They also store well for consumption during the winter months when nothing grows. 

A planting of corn, beans and squash works together as a closed system: the corn offers ears to eat or make into flour, as well as a structure onto which the beans will climb. The beans climb the corn, provide food to eat, and through a symbiotic relationship with rhizobium bacteria, help to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a plant-usable form for next year's crop. The large leaves of the squash and pumpkin vines provide living mulch that conserves water and provides weed control.

I've got some space in my lower garden this year, so I'm going to plant a traditional Wampanoag Three Sisters garden (see attached sketch).  If you'd like to plant your own read on.

Choosing the right variety of corn is essential to the success of a Three Sisters garden. Traditionally, most of the corn grown by Native Americans is field corn, which they used to make flour. Field corn is harvested late in the season when the ears have dried on the stalk and is commonly grown on New England farms to make silage for dairy cows. I'll be planting a variety called Mandan Bride, a multi-colored ornamental corn that grows well in Sudbury and has sturdy 6-foot tall stalks. I special order the seeds on the Internet, but you can just as easily use almost any variety of corn seeds available at the or .

The beans you choose should be of the type called Pole Beans. They are called that because they will climb the corn stalk as opposed to spreading wide and sending runners across the ground. I'll be planting a variety called Scarlet Runner, a common heirloom pole bean from Europe that I really like because it forms large clusters of bright red flowers which then turn into loads of slender 8-inch long pods. Another couple of good choices would be the Kentucky Blue or White Half Runner.

Almost any variety of squash will work in a Three Sisters garden. This year I'm going to try growing some Long Pie (Indian or Golden Oblong) pumpkins. This pumpkin looks like a fat zucchini with the texture of a pumpkin. It has a long storage life and usually doesn't turn orange until after it is harvested. Along with the Long Pie, I'll be planting both winter (Acorn squash) and summer (Summer Crookneck) varieties of squash.

For a true Wampanoag Three Sisters Garden you need to have some sunflowers, planted along the north edge of the garden, so that they do not cast a shadow on the other crops. That's what I'll be doing to complete the design.

Whatever space you have, large or small, it's really fun to see the Three Sisters grow together. If you have lots of space a set of five corn mounds should feed a family of four. 

Start by creating a small mound, about 4 inches high with an 18-inch diameter base that narrows to a flattened top, about 9 inches across. To help with watering, I usually form a slight depression at the top of each mound. In the flat top of the mound plant four corn seeds about 6 inches apart and 3 inches deep. The Native Americans worked in pairs, with one sticking four fingers of one hand into the soil to make the holes and then another planting the seeds into the holes and covering them.

Once the corn has sprouted and grown to a height of about 4 inches or more (should be about two weeks), plant four bean seeds halfway down the slope on the sides of each mound. For a true traditional Wampanoag mound you should use a compass and arrange the seeds  to represent each of the four sacred directions. In other words, plant one seed each in the north, south, east and west locations. Allow the bean vines to wrap around the cornstalks for support. The bean vines can be pruned if they grow too well or get too heavy for the corn stalk.

Plant your squash seedlings at the same time as the beans. If you start with seeds, start them indoors a couple weeks early and put them outside once the first set of true leaves has sprouted. Construct rounded mounds 3 inches high and about 1 foot across at the base. The squash mounds are staggered between the mounds of corn and beans. Traditionally, four seedlings would be planted in the top of each mound again arranged to represent each of the four sacred directions.

The sunflowers should be planted at the same time as the corn, planted in low mounds with three seeds in each. The Wampanoags plant the seeds in three separate holes while other Native Americans plant three seeds in the same hole. Try to plant a smaller variety, such as the common sunflower, so that the heads don't get so big that they fall over. Also remember to plant a few extra for the critters —  squirrels and raccoons love them. 

Harvest the corn, beans and squash all summer as they become ripe. Harvest the sunflowers just after the first frost, in Sudbury that would be some time around the end of September.

I'll be taking photos of my Wampanoag Three Sisters garden and sharing them with you as the summer progresses — stay tuned.

Some garden trivia for the week:

  • During the War between the States, doctors in the Union army routinely used onion juice to clean gunshot wounds, and legend has it that General Grant, deprived of it, sent a testy memo to the War Department: "I will not move my troops without onions!"
  • The cucumber was a favorite vegetable of ancient Egyptians.  They made a drink from the fruit called cucumber water. First a hole was cut in the end of a ripe cucumber. A small stick was then inserted into the hole and used to breakup and stir the pulp. The hole was then plugged, and the cucumber buried in the ground for a few days. The fruit was then unearthed, with the inside pulp having turned into a fermented drink. (I do no recommend this.) 
  • Back in the late 19th century some towns in England had laws that reduced a persons taxes if he planted flowers and shrubbery in his yard to beautify it. If the person next to him did not do the same, his taxes were raised. With these laws, the towns became attractive for visitors and towns folk alike.
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