Three Sisters Planting
The story of the "Three Sisters" is rooted in Indigenous Peoples' cultural traditions, and continues in many farms and gardens throughout the country.
This approach to agriculture can be seen as an early innovation in companion planting — where instead of a monoculture approach of a single crop taking over an area for simplicity, the three crops are planted together to support and provide resources for each to thrive.
The corn grows upward, providing a post for the beans to climb in search of daylight — the beans help stabilize the corn, and they also fix nitrogen into the soil, which benefits the corn — and the squash provides shade and cover for the soil that helps with moisture retention.
