Three Sisters Garden Experiment

This year Cindy decided to try a "Three Sisters" garden using a companion planting philosophy drawn from several different Native American cultures.  The three sisters are pole beans, squash and corn.  The beans contribute nitrogen to the soil, the corn provides an upright structure for the bean tendrils to climb, and the large leaves of the squash plants keep the roots of all the plants shaded and cool in the heat of summer.  https://www.groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/three-sisters-companion-planting-method

That's the theory, anyway.

It started well enough; Cindy was pleased that all the plants germinated.

Everything Came Up!

And they grew.

"The Corn Is As High..."

And they grew some more.

Corn Flower

The corn produced its flowers, and the beans produced, well, ... beans.  Lots of beans.  Lots and lots of beans.

Cindy And Our Friend Lisa With Beans.  Lots of Beans

It began to look a bit like a jungle in that raised bed.

We had some of the corn last night for dinner.  It was sweet, but not too sweet, and juicy.  I think Cindy was pleased with it--she grew up in Northern Indiana, and if there's one thing an Indiana girl knows, it's corn, although I hadn't realized that this was the first time she had ever actually grown corn.

Apparently the corn is pollinated by the wind, which needs to reach every kernel to fertilize it, so the wind must have done its job well.  The beans were clearly pretty happy with the arrangement, but I'm not sure if we got any squash.  The squash flowers are pollinated by bees, who carry pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers.  Unfortunately, that means that both the male and female flowers need to be open at the same time; since the flowers only last for one day, that means timing is everything, and if they don't get pollinated there's no fruit produced.  In this bed the plants were so dense that it was difficult to see if there were any flowers.

And now it's almost done for the season.

End of the Season

Corn Silk!

Bell Curve Beans

It's the weirdest thing with the beans that are growing through the space-age mulch; they seem to be growing in a bell curve pattern.

The tallest beans are in the center of the row and the size of the plants gradually decline toward both ends.  In fact, the plant on the extreme right end sprouted but doesn't look like it's even going to climb the string at all.

The plant in the center, on the other hand, is looking for new worlds to conquer.  I told Cindy that it looked like it's trying to figure out how to get to the telephone wire six or seven feet above it.

We have no idea why these plants are doing this.  It could just be a coincidence; it could be something to do with the heat coming off the mylar.

The Bean Poles Are Up

Bean Teepee

The bean poles, or teepee, or structure of whatever you want to call them, are up in the raised beds behind the garage, and the beans have been planted.  They're all under their protective square cages until we can get the new anti-varmint shields finished.

Cindy has been in a hurry to get them planted, but couldn't do it until the irrigation issues were resolved, and now that they are planted, we have to finish the protective screens so that the squirrels don't nibble the sprouts off before they get started.  Considering the damage the squirrels have already inflicted on the pumpkin and the butternut squash plants, that could be considerable damage.

The pumpkin has started putting out flowers and the leaves are huge, but nothing has set on yet.

Guardian Of The Pumpkins At Work

Cindy stationed one of her garden art pieces, a ferocious looking blue bird, to guard the pumpkins, and he's hard at work.

Butternut Squash Trellis

The Butternut Squash plant is already happily climbing up its trellis and a couple of small squash have already set on.  So, as long as the squirrels don't eat them before we can get the screens completed, we should have some squash this fall.