MSU Extension Tribal Extension

Madam Quit Indigenas Macadam, Nil Doch. My name is Vicky and I'm Hajnal Indian community member. The three sisters is our squash, beans, corn. In our teachings that those sacred items were given to us from the Earth, from this mother that we live on. There was a time that we asked Creator, how do we get by, what do we need to do to survive, to thrive? The Creator always gave us those gifts. If we don't give thanks for those seeds, those gardens, our food that they're not plentiful. That's where we struggle. Even with that language, that way of life, we struggle. And it's up to me and my community. Off community everywhere who world, this whole native culture, whole way of life. We need to do this to keep our sacred food sacred. Hello, my name's Rebecca Kranz and I work for Michigan State University Extension as a consumer horticulture educator, I'd like to tell you about the plants that are going to be in your Three Sisters garden. I like to include that as a way of introducing companion planting. I'm going to talk a little bit about how each of the sisters benefit each other. There's three sisters, Corn, pull beans or string beans, climbing beans, and squash. The corn is actually the vertical aspect or the climbing beans, that's the benefit that the corn provides. Beans have a rhizobium bacteria on their roots which actually fix nitrogen into a usable form for corn. Corn really is what we call a heavy feeder and likes a lot of nitrogen. It's being a companion to the corn by providing that nitrogen that the corn is going to be taking from your soil. Then the squash grows around the bottom of both the corn and the beans. Its benefit is that it is shading out any weed seeds that might come in and compete or out compete with the corn and beans. There is a fourth sister that's included in your packet and that is sunflowers. That's a great way to have flowers there that will invite pollinators, not only the native bees, but any honey bees that will then be able to pollinate your bean flowers and your squash flowers as well. That's how the sunflowers help to benefit and be a companion. There's different ways to plant your three sisters garden, but typically it's more in a circular form. And you want to, in order to be most successful, start with the corn. Each of these seeds you're going to plant approximately an inch deep. And that's important. And you also want to make sure that you keep them moist. Once they have been moist, planting about five to seven corn seeds, be good, interspersing them probably about a foot apart around the center. Then you want to plant your beans about 2 " from where you planted your corn, because again, the corn is going to be the vertical pole aspect for the beans. Then next form some small mounds, maybe about three of them, around that circle. And you're going to plant like three to four squash seeds in there, again, about an inch deep. Then thoroughly moisten in your seeds and make sure that they do not dry out because that is what's going to cause the death of your seeds. Your four the sunflowers, you want to plant those outside of where you planted your squash. And for taller sunflowers, make sure you plant those on the north side so they're not overly shading. Please enjoy your three sisters garden.