Seed Dreaming - January 2024 edition.

Hello seed friends! We've been fairly quiet on Instagram and social media lately, but we've slowly been making plans for the coming growing season at the farm, and we're focusing on how to go about it sustainably. We always prioritize being kind to the land and water we're growing on, and this summer we are also prioritizing our time and expectations.

What does that look like? A big one for us is direct seeded varieties! 2023 was admittedly a very rough growing season for us -- I attribute a lot of our challenges to drought, deer, and smoke, but there are uncertainties there, too. I do know that we got a lot of well-loved seeds in the ground in a very reasonable amount of time. I was actually thinking it was going to be a banner growing year. After talking with many local growers, it seems like we were not the only ones that struggled with fruit set and stunted plants.

We're planning to go the same route this year, but with some additional protections for our plants (that don't take a bunch of time on our end).

Things I've learned: we don't grow ginger well. 😂 No surprise there for most, but it can be done in the UP with TLC and I just didn't have the time to make it happen. My starter rhizomes were far larger than what we were able to grow. Sunchokes, on the other hand, are happy to take over (and if there are opportunities to trade seeds for tubers, please feel free to reach out). I have no problem inviting sunchokes to displace the Phalaris that is a bit pushy (and has been abundant at the farm spot far longer than we've been growing there). And, of course, we'll still be growing our usual favorites -- the three sisters mandaamin, mashkodesiminag, okosimaan. <3

If I've told you that I'll send seeds, I plan to get caught up on that this week. Miigwech, thanks for your patience.

An orange yellow zinnia, from a Benary's Giant Mix planting.

Three Sisters Gardening

May 14, 2022

If you're visiting this page and live in northern Michigan, it may be because you recently received a Three Sisters Garden seed kit through a regional community seed distribution program. Three Dogs Seed Farm was grateful to fill the role of seed provider for the Three Sisters Garden seed kits this year. Alternatively, perhaps you've wound up here by chance.

Below is some basic information regarding planting and growing Three Sisters gardens. This information is by no means exhaustive, but is a place to get started. Take what's useful or helpful and leave the rest.

Information included in Three Sisters Garden Seed Kits:

Three Sisters Gardening

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you may have some interest in growing a Three Sisters garden and now you have the seeds to get started! Perhaps you’ve grown a Three Sisters garden in the past or maybe this is your first time. This is exciting. Growing and caring for a Three Sisters garden is an excellent opportunity to learn about and care for a plant community in which the Three Sisters take care of one another – and us!

This document is intended to provide some basic information regarding growing a Three Sisters garden. There is so much more to learn and different growers and communities may have different perspectives and knowledge regarding growing the Three Sisters. Feel free to use the information here that is helpful and learn as you grow. Happy gardening!

What is a “Three Sisters garden?”

The simple answer is that a Three Sisters garden is a garden of corn, beans, and squash. The full answer is so much more than that. Many Indigenous communities in North America have grown and continue to grow variations of Three Sisters gardens, sometimes growing more than just the three types of plants mentioned above and sometimes referring to these types of gardens by different names, such as “milpas.” Three Sisters gardens are an example of a type of polyculture, in which multiple plant types are grown together, and an excellent example of what many know today as “companion plants,” or plants that benefit one another when planted together.

In a Three Sisters garden, there is mutual flourishing. When planted together, the Three Sisters maintain beneficial relationships with one another and help each other to grow. In this case, the corn stalks provide strong supports for the beans to climb. The squash, with their vining habits and large leaves, provide shade and help to keep the soil cool and maintain moisture in the soil for the Three Sisters. In turn, the climbing beans do their work – converting atmospheric nitrogen into a form of nitrogen that can be used by plants in the future. Beans are soil helpers!

Who else? While the Three Sisters obviously play a huge role in a Three Sisters garden, there are others who carry out important work! The wind and flying insects do their part to pollinate the flowers of these plants. The beneficial microbes on the roots of the beans are hard at work fixing nitrogen. Perhaps you’ve invited others to grow in your Three Sisters garden (e.g., sunflowers). And then there is you! You have the opportunity to play another important role in the Three Sisters garden as caretaker, beneficiary, and perhaps even as seedkeeper. Take note of who else plays a role in your Three Sisters garden this growing season. You may be surprised!

Planting Information

Preparing your Three Sisters garden: How and where you decide to plant your Three Sisters garden is ultimately up to you. Many gardeners like to create low hills to plant their Three Sisters garden. If you decide to do this, it is recommended that you space your low hills three to four feet apart in all directions. These low hills don’t need to be too high – perhaps a foot or less – and are often constructed so that they are large enough to plant 5-7 corn seeds. Mixing a bit of compost into the low hills at the beginning of the season can help with growth, but may not be necessary. Keep in mind that corn does best planted in blocks (or clusters) versus long narrow rows.

A note on timing planting for a Three Sisters garden: After the young corn is a few inches tall (~6 inches) is a good time to plant climbing beans and squash. It is a good idea to weed your corn hills prior to planting beans and squash. Paying attention to timing is important. You don’t want to overwhelm your young corn plants with quick growing beans and squash.

Corn: Plant corn after the last frost and after the soil has warmed. Some recommend soaking your corn seed for a few hours prior to planting, but no more than eight hours. If you choose to do this, keep in mind that those seeds shouldn’t be allowed to dry out during the first ten days to two weeks that they are planted, so if you don’t receive rain you may want to consider watering every couple days to make sure that the seeds don’t dry out. Plant corn about an inch deep and ~8 inches apart in your hills.

Beans: Plant the beans about an inch deep and a few inches away for your young corn plants. The beans can be planted around the outside of your low hills. The beans will find their way to the corn stalks and begin climbing when they are ready. You can give them a hand (“train” them) if it seems as if they aren’t grabbing the cornstalks. Planting four or five beans per hill should do the trick.

Squash: Squash plants grow large and fairly quickly, and need not be planted in every hill. Doing so could create a situation where the squash vines and leaves crowd out your other plants. Many recommend planting squash in every seventh hill around the young corn plants. You can plant up to 4 squash seeds per Three Sisters hill. Squash seeds should be planted about an inch deep after the danger of frost.

Caring for Your Three Sisters Garden

Three Sisters gardening will encourage you to keep an eye on the weather, and rain specifically. Your plants will need water each week. If it doesn’t rain, you should plan to provide water to your Three Sisters garden each week. When possible, it helps to control other plants (“weeds”) in your Three Sisters hills, especially when the plants are young. Corn may also benefit from hand pollination if there are few corn plants in your garden. Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org) has some excellent visual instructions for hand pollinating your corn plants if you choose to do so.

Seedkeeping Information

What is seedkeeping? Seedkeeping is the practice of caring for and maintaining seeds of plants from generation to generation. Seedkeeping goes beyond just growing and allowing plants to mature to seed and planting them the next year and also includes maintenance of knowledge, traditions, and practices associated with plants. It is possible (and encouraged!) to save some seed for future plantings! A few basics are below.

Seedkeeping considerations for beans: Beans are largely self-pollinating, thus requiring little isolation distance from other varieties of beans in order to maintain seeds that are “true to type” to the original variety. If seedkeeping, grow individual varieties of beans 10-20 feet apart. Allow the seed pods to mature and dry to brown on the vines. Remove the beans from the pods and keep the dry beans in a cool and dry location over the winter.

Seedkeeping considerations for squash: Squash are pollinated by flying insects. If you’re planning to save seeds from a specific variety of squash, you will want to separate them from other varieties of squash of the same species by 800 feet to half a mile. If this is impossible, it is possible to isolate individual flowers from cross-pollination using blossom bags or masking tape (again, try online resources for more info). Allow squash to mature on the vine and then allow to cure in a protected space for ~30 days. You can clean and dry the seeds as you cut individual squash open to eat during the fall and winter months. Store seed in a cool, dry location over the winter.

Seedkeeping considerations for corn: Corn is primarily pollinated by the wind, and thus requires half a mile to a mile of isolation from other varieties of corn in order to maintain seed that is “true to type” to the original variety (unless you are hand pollinating!). Allow corn to mature on the stalk and allows the husks to brown. It is acceptable to harvest corn for seed near or shortly after the first light frost of the season. Allow corn seed to dry completely before storing in a cool, dry place over the winter.

The above information is also available for pdf download below.

3DSF - Three Sisters Garden

.pdf

Download PDF • 121KB

Information NOT included in Three Sisters Garden seed kits that may also be helpful:

Native Seeds SEARCH: How to Grow a Three Sisters Garden: Great information, including helpful diagrams for laying out a Three Sisters Garden or Three Sisters mounds

Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: This is a link to purchase the book 'Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden.' This book contains beautiful descriptions of planting practices of the Hidatsa, including corn, beans, squash (the Three Sisters), and others. You may be able to find this book at your library, borrow through inter-library loan, or find a digital version online.

Seed Savers Exchange, Hand-Pollination: Corn: This may be helpful information and visuals if you would like to try hand-pollinating your corn. This can be helpful if you can only grow a few plants or if you grow in close proximity to another variety of corn and would like to save seed from your variety. I think the photos in this guide by Seed Savers Exchange are very helpful.

Seed Savers Exchange, Hand-Pollination: Squash: Same as above, but with squash!

A quick note on hand-pollination for the home gardener: Hand-pollination isn't required. You can grow beautiful plants and delicious food without hand pollinating. In the case of mandaamin, or corn, it maybe be helpful to hand-pollinate if your plants are sparse or few and you want to see full cob production because corn relies on the wind for pollination. For squash, this is more a consideration if you'd like to save seed for planting in the future that is the same as the parent seeds. If you don't hand pollinate, you'll still get squash. Their seeds (offspring) just might look like the squash in your garden AND the squash in your neighbors' gardens because of flying pollinators. Assuming everything goes well, those seeds will still be viable and still produce squash in the future. They just might not look or taste like the squash you plant this year.

Good luck growing! If you come across any issues with this contact, please feel free to let me know using our Contact page.

Rhubarb, rhythm, and reflection

Written by Benny on May 7, 2022

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It was a long winter. But there’s rhubarb pushing through the soil—giving us the longed-for color and vibrancy in the drab, wet fields.

We’re approaching our second full growing season at 3DSF and between the nascent rhubarb, the near 60-degree F days, and the starter plants poking through soil, we are feeling hopeful and eager. We hope you are too and wanted to take some time to fill you in on farm happenings.

Ironically, I’m writing from a small hotel tucked on W. 87th on New York City’s Upper West Side. I’m always surprised by the rhythm of the city—people moving above and below ground, flowing across the chaotic landscape.

It can be nerve-wracking and, at times, rude, but there’s also a grace to it. Subways rattle, cabs swerve, bicycles zip by, pedestrians walk briskly, gaze fixed ahead (or more likely these days, staring at a phone). There’s a beat to it and, even as a lifelong slow-moving Midwesterner, I get a rush taking part in it.

It has me thinking of the vastly different, familiar rhythm at home in the Upper Peninsula. The geese and ducks are back, taking refuge in the large watering holes as the farm emerges from a six-month freeze. The deer are forging new beaten-down paths through the field to the woods. We have a courageous Killdeer who laid her eggs in our driveway, who will feign a harmed wing when she sees us to lure us away from her future chicks. The cranes are crossing overhead and the grouse are drumming.

As this soundtrack unfolds, we will be planting 100 more Saskatoon trees soon in our young orchard. Last year’s 100 trees look to have mostly made it through the winter and escaped critter damage. We’re also planting new strawberry patches, and some raspberries. Dani learned to graft apple trees over the winter, and she’s looking to put that skill to use and bolster our orchard offerings.

With planting season less than a month out, we are plotting. We will grow many of our staple varieties of melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, corn, beans, herbs, flowers, tobaccos, squash, but we’re also going to experiment. Why not, eh?

For example, we have ginger started in the house, and we are going to give some new peppers a go. Peppers are a challenge where we live but we saved a tiny amount of Fish pepper seed last year and it’s my hope to do so again.

We’ve added a hiller/furrower and a flail mower attachment for our BCS tractor, which should make us more independent and efficient. And we added a new pup, Reo, a beagle-lab mix who is rambunctious, sweet, and has no idea she is going to be a farm dog. It’s worth noting that Louie, our mini-dachshund and centerpiece of our logo, is entering his 16th growing season with me. He’s seen things go from a small herb garden in Lansing to acres of farm in the UP.

It is an exciting time. We are grateful for the spring, longer days, and relatives returning to our farm and making it feel alive.

We are also grateful for the community support and engagement we’ve had in just one season of growing. Last year was a learning experience—and also the worst drought we’ve had in years. Despite the growing pains, we saved enough seeds to build up our future planting stores as well as share our seeds with local tribal communities and other neighbors. We’ve spoken to local folks about our work and hope our farm becomes just one piece of a local and regional movement to grow healthy food in a respectful way.

The idea of our seeds already sprouting up in schoolyard raised beds, home gardens, and farms across the county is humbling and energizes us to continue stewarding these crops and seeds.

We’ll be back with updates as the season progresses. If you are interested in our farm, our work, or our seeds, please contact us and say hello.

I’m off to go join in the rush of NYC movement for a couple more days—here’s to a happy spring and healthy baby Killdeer chicks joining our farm family.

BB