How to Plant a "3 Sisters Garden"
Companion planting is a useful gardening technique of growing certain veggies together to take advantage of their natural tendencies and relationships. This is an idea that has been practiced for centuries, and most famously with the “Three Sisters” method. Most commonly: corn beans and squash. Watch our video where Tricia shows how easy it is to plant using the Three Sisters method.
Companion Plants in the Three Sisters Method
The three sisters is a combination of these three plants working together:
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Sister Bean Seeds
- Deposit nitrogen from the air into the soil, in a form that the plants can use.
- Plant pole beans such as Blue Lake, Scarlet Runner, or Italian Snap, NOT bush beans.
- Make sure to inoculate your seeds with nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium bacteria, such as the Garden Combination Mix.
- The beans will use the corn as support, so wait to plant the beans until the corn is about knee high.
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Sister Corn Seeds
- Provides support for beans vines to climb upon.
- Plant your favorite sweet corn, dent corn, popcorn, or even a combination.
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Sister Squash Seeds
- Shades the ground with its large leaves to provide a good growing environment for all the sisters and helps to prevent weeds.
- Winter squash or summer squash varieties, or a combination of both (squash vines can be directed to shade corn).
Sometimes a fourth sister is included: either Sunflower or Bee Balm. This sister also supports the beans, lures birds away from the corn with their seeds and attracts insect pollinators.
Garden Layout for the Three Sisters Planting
There are many variations on a Three Sisters garden layout. But all of them plant the sisters in clusters on low, wide mounds, rather than a single row, and make sure they are planted in full sun.
The Wampanoag Method
- This method is the best known because it was the planting method that the Iroquois taught the early colonial settlers.
- It is best suited to regions with wet summers.
- Planted in mounds to reduce rotting
The Hidatsa Method
- From the northern plains, used by the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara peoples who planted along the floodplain of the Missouri river
- This is where each Sister is planted staggered in small blocks
Zuni Method
- This is best for arid regions.
- Very different in that it is not planted in mounds rather in a large square with the edges mounded up to keep any water in the planting area
Layout for the Wampanoag Method
- Choose a spot that has at least 6 hours per day of direct sunlight.
- Soil should be rich in organic matter and free of stones and weeds.
- Build each mound so that it is 4" tall, and 18" diameter at the base, with a flat top that is about 10" across, see Figure 1.
- Space mounds so their centers are 4' apart.
- You can plant your garden as soon as the night temperatures are consistently above 55°F, and not later than June 1.
- Plant the corn on the flat part at 6" spacing, see Figure 2.
- On every other mound, alternate with squash instead of corn, planting squash in a triangle pattern at 4" spacing.
- If including sunflowers or bee balm, plant those on the north side of the garden.
- Once the corn is at least 4" tall, plant the beans around the slopes of each corn mound. Planting the beans a few weeks after the corn ensures that the corn stalks will be strong enough to support the fast growing beans.
Layout for the Hidatsa Method
- Planted in a large block with mounds of corn (see Figure 3 and 4) and beans planted on the south side of their mound, 6 seeds in total (see Figure 5).
- Squash plants are place in mounds spaced 4' at center, located on the south, east and west section of the block, see Figure 3.
- Plant sunflowers on the north side of the block, see Figure 3.
Layout for the Zuni Waffle Garden
- Requires significant space since each waffle is 12' by 12'.
- Corn is planted in the center of each square, and plant 4-8 seeds to create a thick stand.
- Sunflowers can be planted around the edges of the waffle
- Squash is planted in each corner and in the center of the waffle (see figure at right).
Plant a Three Sisters garden this year, and grow organic for life!
14 comments
For those who are wondering about crop rotation. I was told by my aunt who’s been a gardener for years (I would trust her advice unseen, her garden is insanly lush)… That the three sisters doesn’t need to be rotated. But you must chop and drop the plot everytime. And preferably throw the the sisters scraps back to the same plot. She told me a bit of amendments the first few years is nice. But otherwise it will IMPROVE the soil not deplete it. If you clear the plot then you must rotate. She said she only grew dent corn in her plot, and that sweet corn year after year might not work so well with a permanent plot.
I hope this helps. I recognize I’m not bringing any solid proof to the table. But I will be planting a permanent plot with my aunt’s advice since I trust it.
Ronald, the beans should be planted close enough to the corn so they can climb up the corn. I would say 4-6" is about right. Plant the corn first and allow it to grow about knee high before planting the beans. That gives the corn enough of a head start, so the beans will have something to grow up when they get big enough.
I may have missed this, but what is the spacing between the corn plant and the beans, and between the beans themselves? I’m particularly interested in the Zuni Waffle garden pattern.
Pete, It is always a good idea to rotate locations for planting. Maybe not as critical for corn, squash and beans, but if you can move locations it is a good thing to do. Corn will deplete your soil of nitrogen so you would want to put in a cover crop in fall or supplement the following year with nitrogen.
Can the three sisters be planted in the same spot year after year? Most corn growers say to rotate but maybe adding nitrogen can make this sustainable. How was this done year after year traditionally? Thanks in advance.