How to Grow a Three Sisters Garden

In the way-back genetic machine, it's a fair estimate that most old American families have a smidgen of Native American (or American Indian) blood. You can see it in our culture, music, food, and in the few rare gems we seem to recall from that aboriginal past.

The Three Sisters Garden, a blend of corn, bean, and pumpkin, is a traditional method of Companion Planting used from time immemorial, now used worldwide by some who aren't even aware of the origins. Just this weekend I spotted Aussie gardening legend, Peter Cundall, informing a TV guest that pumpkin and corn are just obscenely drawn to each other, though he didn't know why.

Traditionally, the story goes thus. Corn is the eldest sister, tall and steady, providing support through the growth of her little sisters. Beans, the middle child, attempts to nurture the family, but clings to her elder sister in admiration and need. Pumpkin, the littlest sister, often overlooked, spreads her love around her sisters, keeping them grounded.

Scientifically, this translates to simple botany. Corn requires nitrogen-rich soil to be at its best, and thus depletes the nitrogen from wherever you plant. Beans, climbers and pole beans to be precise, fertilize the corn with their nitrogen output, removing the need to rotate corn crops each year. At the same time, the tall corn stalks provide a climbing post for the beans. Pumpkin, squash, and relatives such as cucumber, grow thick blankets of leaves which work as a mulch to the sensitive and water-hungry corn plants, and help deter damaging pests.

Enough back story. The gist is, this is an amazing garden to grow if one wants to witness nature in it's simple perfection. This garden teaches science, history, and can be worked in a very small space, even by kids! So, let's give this garden a go.

Supplies and Tools:
1 meter² of space
Seeds of Corn, Climbing/Pole Beans, and your pick of Squash, Pumpkin, Melons, or Cucumbers.
Fertilizer. We prefer poultry manure.
Lots of dirt
Shovel
Patience

Find your spot. What's needed is some good sun exposure and some wind exposure as well, as corn pollinates on the breeze. Be careful to put several meters distance between differing varieties of corn as they will cross pollinate.

Shovel enough soil to build a flat-top, sloped-side mound 1 meter² in area, about 8-12 inches high (enjoying my mixed measurements?). Mix in a good deal of organic matter, manure, compost, etc as you construct the mound. Form the flat of the mound into a bit of a tray, so that the outer edges sit slightly higher than the middle, allowing for better water usage by the plants.

In the shape of a cross, or a circle for those unsure any corn will sprout, sow 2-3 corn seeds in each hole, centered in the mound, following seed instructions on depth and distance apart. Water well, and wait for your corn to sprout. This will take a week or two. Once the corn sprouts are about 4-5 inches tall, thin them out to the four strongest plants. Corn grows best in clumps as opposed to rows.

Now that your corn is standing tall, plant the climbing beans, about 6 inches from the corn, in a ring around the edge of the mound. Just use one bean seed per hole, but plant more than you need as you may lose a few to dormant seeds or slug attacks. Again, water well, and wait. Sprouts should appear in a week or so. Thin as needed.

About a week after the beans have poked up their little heads, plant 3 pumpkin seeds in each corner of the mound. Water, water, water...and wait. When the littlest sister sprouts, thin them out to the two strongest plants in each corner, sit back and watch your Three Sisters Garden grow!

What will happen: As time goes by, the corn will grow as much as 2 meters high, the beans will slither toward the stalks but may need your guidance. Gently wrap bean vines around the base of a corn stalk and they will find their way from there. As the pumpkin grows, coax it to spread across the mound to keep the topsoil shaded and moist.

I really hope you give this method of gardening a try. If you've used Three Sisters or similar, please let us all know and share any tips you might have! I'll be adding more images as our sisters grow big and strong.

Update! Be sure to see the November news on how the girls have grown.

A Howling Good Time

Halloween is, by far, my favorite holiday. It's a day of pure fun, experienced with inner-child abandon and blatant disregard for sensible things like "No candy before supper," and "Don't wear that!" Halloween is also an excellent time for building a bit of community spirit and getting to know the locals.

I grew up in a land where All Hallows Eve is the second most money-making holiday, after Christmas, and everyone really gets in the spirit. Kids dress up. Grown-ups do too. People decorate, throw theme parties, attend haunts and hay rides, carve Jack O'Lanterns, and just have a terrific time.

Now that I'm in Australia, there's a bit of a Halloween buzz-kill. You'd think that a country known for the any-excuse-for-a-good-time mentality would heartily embrace such a frivolous fete, but nay!

Bucking local (lack of) tradition, hubby and I strung up the meager decorations I brought from the US, pooled with a few bits and pieces gathered from the cheap stores, and it started a wave of Halloween cheer amongst the neighbors. The house across the street strung up spun-cotton spider webs, the kids bugged parents until costumes were pieced together, even a couple moms got into the act, urging their kids to visit a few more houses before it got dark, smiles all around.

The sounds of giggling, sugar-hyped kids filled the cool evening and we made them all light up when I answered the door in my gypsy-esque finery, hubby in his old school uniform. We had fifteen Trick-or-Treaters total that came for our goodies, and to see the mummified stuffed animals we'd perched on the rose arch.

What does this have to do with ecology, gardening, self-sufficiency, or anything really? Community. Halloween builds community. We met neighbors who've never even waved hello, but Halloween had them knocking on our door. We made their kids smile, and gave them a good laugh. We learned who belongs to whom, and just what faces float about our little street.

Community is something that's faded right along with all the skills we try to cultivate as suburban semi-steaders, and though many sustainability-focused families seem to isolate themselves, shunning the more commercial world, we're of the ilk that believe the key to a better world begins with knowing the folks next door.

So, next year, when you're tempted to turn out your porch light, or to pass that perfect carving-pumpkin on by, consider the people in your neck of the woods and ask yourself if you might grow something a little more important than organic veggies today. Ask yourself if you could grow a community.

10 Fantastic Foods and Drinks You've Always Put Off Making

All we hear in the news, these days, is that the world's economy is faltering. But we don't need news reports to drive it home that property values are stagnating, fuel prices aren't matching up with the decline of oil cost, and food prices are higher than ever.

Take heart! In our home, this financial necessity has birthed some lovely invention, especially in the kitchen. I've spent a good deal of time researching what, exactly, I can avoid buying at the grocer's and begin making for myself.

Added bonus? You get the emotional satisfaction of these hand-crafted treats, made to your perfect preference. Sure, it's a lot of work at times, but in the end it's more than worth it.

Here are ten family favorites you can make all on your own.

1. Bread: The most obvious of this week's list, and still so few actually put hand-to-dough. It may take a bit of trial-and-error to get the flow right, but do give it the old college try. A basic wheat bread couldn't be easier, but why stop there? Spice it up with some cinnamon, sweeten with raisins or jam, or, if you're feeding a strapping Aussie like I am, paint the unformed bread with Vegemite, tomato paste, and sprinkle a bit of cheese for an amazing breakfast and snack bread.

2. Goat Cheese: Ohhhh, nothing will set the City Mouse drooling quite like a tangy, creamy chevre. I'm not sure if it's the farm-fresh in me or the food-snob, but whatever it is, this homemade treat tops my personal list for foods to make in the new year. Find a local goat and as her kindly for a pint or two, or visit your nearest market for some milk-to-go. Roll those chevre logs in your own blend of homegrown herbs and serve it up with the next delectable snack on the list.

3. Wheat Thins: These delicious darlings will be spreading their toasty aroma through our kitchen, tomorrow. What wonderful sensory therapy! Costing next to nothing in materials, and with only minimal effort, you can have these crispy warm crackers anytime you want, sans the $3-$4 price tag. If you're watching your fat intake, like I am, substitute margarine for butter, and use light milk.

4. Cordial: Better than soda, cheaper than juice, this UK and Aussie staple may be unfamiliar to North Americans. Raid the nearest berry bush and simmer yourself up bottle after bottle of this flavor-maker. My favorite use? A dash of cordial into an icy glass of soda water. Instant Italian Soda, right in your kitchen, without the trip to Starbucks.

5. Yogurt: And Yoghurt too. Say it however you like, but what breakfast can't be improved with a creamy little dish of this honeyed, fruited or vanilla-flavored dream? We have a small bit every day. Unflavored, it is the ideal starter for tzatziki sauce, labneh, and other tempting Mediterranean accouterments.

6. Salad Sprouts: Nothing spruces up a hummus sandwich like a handful of refreshing alfalfa or broccoli sprouts. And what Pad Thai is complete without healthy helping of crunchy little sprouted beans? When store-bought, these crispy additions can often be soggy and slimy before they even hit the plate. Home-sprouted, they can be grown in amounts small enough for the occasional muncher.

7. Tea: Why rely on a shelf-weary tea bags for your cuppa when you can have your own satisfying assortment of home-mixed brews? With homegrown berries, chamomile, mints, roses, dried tree fruits, and your own aromatic camellia sinensis (basic tea) plant, you can craft any number of soothing blends of black, green, and oolong tea. Want to give the trendy White Tea a go? Just pick the baby tea leaves as you would for green or oolong, and skip the roasting and fermentation stages, heading straight for a fast, early dry.

8. Soda Pop: If, like my husband, you go through one or two canned sodas each day, you can rapidly find yourself spending $50 in fizzy drinks each month! How great would it be to bottle up an array of your own, personalized root beers and sarsaparillas, cream and grape sodas, and ginger beer and ales? Not only could you keep cool all summer, but a basket of your home brewed, hand-labeled bottles would make a beautiful gift for loved ones. We're definitely giving these recipes a try at the Holidays!

9. Beer and Ale: Kiddie-pops not working for you? With some experimentation you can cook up some adult beverages, microbrewed to your specifications. Don't try it for a quick fix, as proper beer takes weeks to ferment and fizz properly, but a swig of your home brew on a hot day just can't be beat.

10. Toffee and Taffy: Few among us are without memories of wax-wrapped toffees in our grandma's candy dish, or dime store sweet treats bought with a week's allowance. I know I have heady childhood thoughts of the clean, warm scent of salt water taffies made on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. Relive it in your kitchen, and have a great project to work on with your kids, twisting toffees and having a real old fashioned taffy pull!

Whether in the Northern Hemisphere or South, times are nearing when we spend more time indoors to avoid the elements, be they snow or sun, and these are great days for finally getting around to that "I'll try it, someday," project you've considered year-long.

Enjoy these ten things on my procrastination list and make sure to share the fruits of your labors!

Requiem for a Tomato...or Three

It's so sad. It's waking up to wind gusts of 25 kph (18 mph), looking out your kitchen window as you pour the morning coffee, and seeing three green strings thrashing, loose and wild, when they ought to be tight and sure and holding up your small tomato crop. It's such a peculiar sadness.

I've never had my own vegetable patch before, even though my weekends growing up often involved indentured servitude on my step-family's lot. I had no real emotional investment in any of that work as I didn't really benefit from it. But this is our food. Our nourishment for summer salads and autumn sauces.

Isn't it strange how attached we get to our little plants? How we beg them to grow, curse them when they yellow, and cheer when a new blossom or leaf sprouts? It's a bit like having dozens of little green children that you really just hope will succeed in life and give something back that's worthwhile.

We bandage the wounds, we feed and nurture, we try to protect them from the world, but sometimes all our efforts are in vain and we just have to accept that Mother Nature and Fate will win out.

Good luck, little plants. Hang in there. These winds can't last forever.

The City Mouse Goes Global

I'm happy to announce that I've become a writer for the quirky eco-news website Environmental Graffiti.

They saw fit to put my latest article, 20 Wonders of the Microscopic World on today's front page! Further down, they've also featured my story, Biofuel Racing Hits Atlanta.

So, for environment related stories with a major sense of off-beat humor, that's the place to be!