Yes. I've done it all different kinds of ways. My main reason for doing it was to get the maximum production out of the space available at that time. To some degree it works, but there are some obstacles you have to work around. It was more successful some years than others, and I stopped doing it after we enlarged the garden and had more space to grow these plants separately.

First of all, most home gardeners grow sweet corn. The problem with that is that sweet corn generally has a shorter DTM than field corn, so that at some point you have to walk into the garden to harvest the corn. Many sweet corns are smaller, weaker plants than the monster plants of field corn, which also can be an issue. If you have your bean plants climbing the corn stalks, you'll have bean plants wrapped around the ears of corn, making it hard to harvest the corn without either damaging or destroying the bean plants. I believe the Native Americans were growing corn that was more like flint corn or flour corn so they didn't harvest it at the milk stage---they left it on the stalks longer until the kernels were hard and dry. I also think they left the bean pods on the plants until they were dry (for better storage) whereas I tend to harvest my beans as green beans or at least as mature shelly beans. At the same time, if your vining squash are sprawling on the ground around the corn plants, you have to gingerly work your way through the Three Sisters Garden, taking great care not to step on/break the vining squash plants while harvesting corn (or beans). It can be done. I did it for several years, but because we have a fairly large population of venomous snakes on our property and they often visit the garden, I was nervous every time that I harvested, worrying I would step on a snake hiding under the big squash leaves. If you use a flour or flint corn that you leave on the plants until it is dry and also leave the beans on the vines until they are dry, you aren't having to carefully watch your footing as you walk through the winter squash vines harvesting corn and beans at their younger stages.

One thing I really liked about planting a Three Sisters Garden was that if I planted a very vigorously growing winter squash, like Seminole or Tan Cheese Pumpkin, the vines would pretty much outgrow the corn and surround it and that would help keep the raccoons out of the corn. Of course, if you planted a different kind of squash that is susceptible to squash vine borers, often they would kill the squash plants and then the corn plants were left vulnerable to the coons. You also have to choose your bean variety carefully. Many pole beans will get taller than the corn plants and the weight of vigorous vines covered with a large crop of beans can literally weigh down the corn and make the stalks lean one way or another. I had the best luck with less vigorous beans like half-runner types.

Sometimes I put the Three Sisters Garden in the corner of the fenced garden and planted the corn with the winter squash growing beneath it, and then I cheated and planted the pole beans to climb the adjacent garden fence, which was 8' tall. Other times, I planted a row of sunflowers, which often were the fourth sister in traditional Three Sister plantings, and then I let the pole beans (or vining types of cowpeas like Mandy/Red Ripper) climb the sunflowers instead of the corn. Some years I only planted pole beans on the northernmost row of corn, but also added a row of bush beans adjacent to the southernmost row of corn, but far enough away from the corn that it won't shade the beans. Another year (after a bad snake year the prior year) I planted only tiny ornamental pumpkin varieties like Jack-B-Little, Pump-K-Mon, Baby Boo, etc. and let those climb the corn stalks too. I just tried to have fun with it while still getting a respectable harvest.

You can have a lot of fun with this, but working in the corn can be tricky as I described and you may sacrifice some yield depending on the spacing of your corn plants and squash plants.

I read the book, "Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden" before I planted my first three sisters garden and I was just totally in love with the idea of planting a Three Sisters Garden. I enjoyed doing it at the time, but had to tweak the plantings every year to overcome one problem or another. When you grow three crops in an area that normally would grow only 1 or 2, you must pay careful attention to soil fertility and to watering.

Growing a Three Sisters Garden was not a stretch for me because I often interplant multiple crops together in grid patterns in raised beds, in the manner described by John Jeavons in his epic/classic book "How To Grow More Vegetables....." (it is a really long book title). Interplanting allows a person to get the maximum use from the space they have.

Some heirloom corns do have very vigorous growth and adapt well to being grown in a Three Sisters Garden. I liked to use Texas Honey June sweet corn and also Silver Queen. Both have tight husks that help exclude corn earworms, so I could grow them in the 3 Sisters garden without having to constantly treat the ears for earworms.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Dawn is more talented than I am. When I finish with a crop I want it gone and that area made ready to use again. Inter-planting works great for me if I have the right crops. Three Sisters was a mess for me, too hard to tend and to clean up.

Larry

Larry, I certainly am not more talented than you are. Actually I am a lot like you in that regard. I like to yank out a planting and replace it with a succession crop ASAP because I don't like looking at spent crops still standing in the field. It is one reason I quit growing Three Sisters style. The old, browning, dried up corn plants drove me nuts after I had harvested the corn, but I couldn't yank them out because the bean plants were wrapped around them.

One of my favorite Three Sisters plantings ever used broom corn and I liked it the best of all of them because the broom corn plants stayed green a long, long, long time. I think it was in 2008 or maybe even 2007 or 06. I used broom corn for my corn, purple hyacinth beans for my beans (not edible, I know, but they were so gorgeous), and Collective Farm Woman cantaloupes as my "squash" planting. For me, the Three Sisters garden almost was more about playing around than about getting a serious crop that year, and I got tons of broom corn seed heads for fall decorations, lovely purple hyacinth bean plants just for something pretty, and more Collective Farm Woman melons than we could eat.

In the years I cannot or do not get the corn yanked out quickly after harvest, I cannot stand to look at it standing there in the field....but if I have had a venomous snake encounter in the corn patch at harvest time, I cannot make myself go back in there again and yank out the plants until after they've frozen and I'm sure there are no snakes in there.

Dawn

I obviously don't live in Oklahoma but saw this post and wanted to comment. I too read Buffalo Bird Woman's book (linked below) and took notes while reading. Plants were spaced out quite a lot further than people realize.

Corn:
-Planting started in May and went for about a month.
-Hills spaced in rows 4 feet apart and plants spaced about 4 feet apart in the row.
-Each hill would be about 18 inches in diameter. And in the hill 6-8 seeds would be placed in an area about 9 inches in diameter.
-Corn was eaten green like sweet corn and dried. Corn smut was also dried and eaten.
-Large corn ears, being ripe and dried, were braided together for seed. Two varieties, hard white and hard yellow, were not braided.
-Enough seed was saved for two years in case of calamity, and because it could be sold to other, less industrious farmers.

Squash:
-Planted around the perimeter of corn. Every 9 rows of corn lengthwise and 4 rows of corn widthwise would have squash planted around.
-Seeds were planted early June using pre-sprouted seeds on hills about 15 inches in diameter. 4 seeds would be planted on each hill, 2 seeds each about a foot apart.
-Hills were spaced about 4 feet apart in the row.
-Squash was harvested every 4th day. What wasn't eaten fresh was sliced about 3/8 inch thick and dried. Male squash blossoms were also harvested and what wasn't eaten fresh was dried.
-The squash that would be saved for seed was selected in the first or second harvesting. One squash per hill was selected. These were harvested after the first frost. (This was the only mention about fully ripened squash as pertains to growing.)

Beans:
-Planted immediately after squash.
-The rows of beans would be between the rows of corn (so the bean rows would be about 4 feet apart).
-Seeds planted in elongated hills measuring about 7 by 14 inches. Two groups of 3-4 beans would be planted on each hill.
-The hills were spaced about 2 feet apart in the row.
-Beans were eaten green in the pod, fresh shelled, and were allowed to dry on the vine.

Rodney

Here is a link that might be useful: Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden

Here is a link to a thread on corn for growing in a 3 sisters' arrangement. I believe, some years ago, it was corrupted so that it won't come back up when someone posts on it. Still, it brings back good memories, especially of Bill P and other GW friends.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Corn for Meal & Grits I

Here's one more link to another thread.

I think dent, flour and flint corns are the greatest! I can hardly make myself take a break from Mesquakie Indian Corn, in order to grow out another type. It's just so fun to pick and see all the colors.

George

Here is a link that might be useful: Corn for Meal & Grits II

Rodney,

You took great notes. One of the things that stuck with me from the book was how hard they worked to break up the soil. Another was how much work went into preserving the food. I loved the way they dried their squash, but I'm happy I can dry mine indoors and happy I can do all my other food preservation indoors in an air-conditioned house.

George, Thanks for bringing back a thread that included GoneFishin'. Those were the good ol' days when he was posting photos and we were drooling over his heavily amended and wonderfully fertile soil, his gorgeous plants, his manure-heated cold frame, and his great harvest photos. I always smile when I think of him because he was such a wonderful person. Reading that thread was like having him back here again.

Dawn

Dawn, yeah, I couldn't imagine clearing all that land with just a hoe. And Buffalo Bird Woman's grandmother used to be in the fields working all the time. Constantly expanding the garden with a digging stick and a hoe made out of bone, not steel. You read stuff like that and it really puts things into perspective. We have it easy, even if we think it's hard.

Rodney

Rodney, That is so true. We started out here with wicked red clay that was very dense and highly compacted and it even gave a large and powerful rear-tine tiller a lot of trouble. I cannot imagine digging that with a digging stick or a bone hoe. I would have lost my mind, and our family would have starved to death in our early years here if (a) we had to rely solely on food we raised ourselves and (b) I'd had to break the ground the way they did.
Believe me, I know how lucky we are and how easy we have it nowadays and if I didn't know that before, I knew it by the time I finished the book. I was fascinated by it. They worked so hard to raise their food, and it was a lot tougher, I think, than I ever realized. I do a lot of food preservation, so found it really fascinating to read about both how they preserved their food and how they prepared it. Sometimes I think food preservation and even food preparation are becoming a lost art in this country.

Dawn