Three Sisters method vertical trellis gardening

Corn, squash, beans, potato garden

Beans on fencing

Beans on trellis, potatoes in grow bags

Potato grow bags

Potatoes in tilled garden

Tomato bucket garden

Cilantro harvest for bean & rice burritos 

Grandma's country flower gardens + tonights lettuce harvest

Like I said before the weekend, I went to my grandma's to decorate our families graves for memorial day; and I wanted to share with you her flower gardens.

After I got back home this weekend, the garden is really flourishing. The pumpkins and other squash are about to flower, and in fact they are wrapping their tendrils around the fencing. In no time the cucumbers will be flowering too. I'll be harvesting peas in a couple of days as well, maybe for a yummy curry dinner.

I harvested lettuce and spinach tonight for my sister and I to have a simple salad. Many of the greens, like arugula and spinach are flowering as the temperatures maintain a high 87 degrees.

Mowing, weeding, and working in the garden

Finally, I have been mowing this jungle of a yard, and really it's much better for the fruit trees so they have air circulation and are not competing with weeds for nutrients.

Before I mowed, I picked these wild flowers that were in the yard. I didn't want to mow around them because the yard is too weedy as it is. I won't mow or cut down the butterfly plants because apparently they are the only or few things the Monarch butterflies eat. I have many of these plants around the yard in patches.

Wild flower bouquet of daisies, dianthus, honey suckle

Almost all of the fruit trees and bushes have leaves and newspaper around them as sheet mulch, so there's nothing to mow around them. But the threes peach trees and two nectarine trees are next to an overgrown field so I have to mow or weedeat around them.

Elberta peach trees 

Nectarine

Nectarine

Not very many peaches this year but plenty for me

This is the only peach tree with fruits 

Among all the yard work this week, I also hoed around the beans, corn, and squash at the other garden. I have to hoe around the potatoes soon too as it is a struggle weeding a tilled garden. I have to just till in between the rows though because I have spaced the rows far enough apart to make it easier to do so. Then I put posts around the tomato buckets at the other garden as well.

I have decorated graves of some family today but I'm also going over to my dad's house this weekend to put flowers on his families graves. That's what memorial weekend is all about, so be safe traveling and think of the ones we have lost in our lives-- have a good weekend y'all.

Sowed in more corn & beans with trellis

Before this upcoming weeks worth of thunderstorms, I finally tilled another spot in the second garden. Then I hoed up rows for more corn and beans. I planted the Bantam corn variety on this side of the garden down from the Hickory king corn that is already growing. And I'm continuing with the half runner beans in the rest of the rows I hoed today.

Afterwards, I put up posts and fencing for the beans already growing. This variety of beans I'm growing is Half runners which are pole beans, so they need a trellis for optimal growth. I have more fencing to put up but I was getting ate up by mosquitoes so I left for the day to work on it later.

My grandmother graciously makes me a vegetable smorgasbord after working hours in the garden. She sliced some tomatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled Spanish rice, greens beans, fried zucchini, baked sweet potatoes and vegan biscuits. Wow, isn't she the greatest? She's a good woman and her and pap are always helping me try to make these gardens successful. Happy gardening, y'all! 

Asparagus & radish harvest + tomatoes in recycled buckets

Radishes and asparagus from the garden

Tomato buckets I made from my grandparents

Grandparent's forest yard where they diligently feed birds 

Garden art sign + big blueberries fruiting + flowers

I painted this art sign last night as a new addition to the others placed around the garden. I make them with old pieces of recycled pallets.

The blueberry plants are doing good as I am babying them with mulch, compost and regularly watering them.

I have 10 blueberry plants growing together but I think only 7 are mature enough that they are fruiting. And they are fruiting quickly, with some already having big blueberries.

Other summer plants growing are the Irises and Hostas now. I wish they would take over this yard more aggressively considering it seems the ivy and invasive plants are taking over the yard instead. It's impossible to clean a hill side facing the road.... 

In my last post I said I had put posts around the tomatoes and peppers so I'll show you the rest of the garden I didn't show you in the last post. As you can see here the clay soil around the plants needs to be mulched with leaves.

Peppers

Tomatoes and basil

Early girl tomatoes

Watermelons sowed and needs mulched over clay soil

Vertical trellis gardening in summer

Everything is flourishing in the main garden. I have trellis for the squashes, pumpkins, and cucumbers, and put posts around the tomatoes and peppers.

In the first picture you can see I have fencing laying on top of the garden mound  --I'm attempting to prevent my cat from digging in the soil-- specifically because she is peeing and crapping around the plants. Actually, it's not helping as she still finds a way to dig on all the garden mounds.

Pumpkins, cushaw, yellow squash and lettuce 

The potatoes in the grow bags have stalks now. To the right of the potato bags is the polytunnel, and here I suspect the watermelons will be up in a couple of days. We desperately need rain now that our cool spring weather has quickly turned into 90 degree weather.

Potatoes in grow bags + varieties of greens

Here the two garden beds are full of plant diversity. There's  cabbages, broccoli, radishes, carrots, cilantro, beets, kale, spinach, collards, and herbs growing together. The mound to the left has peas blooming as they're climbing the trellis.

Similarly in this mound I have a variety of greens growing together. As these plants get bigger, I can still plant in between them with seeds or transplant veggies.

For instance, I still have a lot of tomatoes left to transplant, so I could plant tomatoes where I need to fill in spaces of the garden. I've transplanted many tomatoes and peppers already, but I probably have 30 tomato plants that I have to figure out what to do with (if I can).

This mound is growing cucumbers but you may notice there isn't any sprouting in the front of the mound-- this is also where my cat is digging. So near this mound I have made a litter box for her to avoid my garden. 

 

As the other gardens begin to flourish, I'll keep ya posted. Have a happy Mother's day to all my motherly gardeners!

Asparagus, lettuce harvest, & putting up garden fencing

The two days of consistent rain made the plants grow, and I was able to pick big lettuce leafs and harvest more Asparagus.

Yesterday while the ground was still wet, I transplanted tomatoes where I put posts, then transplanted basil seedlings with the tomatoes. I may transplant more tomatoes and peppers today as well since I already have holes dug and posts up for them. But the plants aren't big yet so I'm debating still-- I'm sure they'll do better than in the small pots they're growing in.

Additionally I put up the fencing for the cucumbers and peas. I laid down fencing on the squash mound because my cat likes to specifically dig, pee and dookie in this mound, so I'm trying to prevent my cat from doing that around the small squash seedlings. Once they grow big enough, my cat won't get on the mound and I ca then use the fencing for them to grow on.

Three Sisters gardening: corn, beans, & squash

Hello my garden people. It is May 4th, and the Iris flowers have bloomed today so beautifully. I didn't notice them even trying to form heads at all, so they made a speedy bloom.

Today was supposed to rain but I waited to realize that it wasn't going to rain until later in the night. So this afternoon I tilled two spots in the second garden and planted in three sections.

Here was already tilled, so I quickly hoed 7 rows of different varieties of greens next to the potato patch. There's Tatsoi, a Chinese mustard green; Georgia collards, Bibb lettuce, Black seeded simpson, Red Cinnamron, dwarf curly kale, and Swiss Chard in the back next to the woods.

Mounds of potatoes merging into rows of greens

In the pic below are the two spots I tilled today. On the end, I hoed and planted in Cushaw in the front row, then two rows of Sweet Dumpling squash, two rows of Delicata squash, then in the back I planted two rows of Hickory King corn. Next to this section I planted in Half runner beans which I will trellis. Fortunately I did all this before it rained.

Sowed squash, corn, and beans

I think it's going to rain tomorrow as well, so I'm going to wait for the next dry days to till this section and plant more varieties of beans and corn to create the Three Sisters gardening method.

Need to till and plant more corn and beans here

The method is noted as being beneficial because the beans supply nitrogen, the corn supplies a post for beans to grow on, and the squash suppresses weeds.

This method has been passed down from Native American tradition and is used widely among many gardeners. Corn, beans, and squash are of course southern American traditional foods as are potatoes and fried greens, so naturally these are the veggies I'm growing because I was raised on these foods. Try this method in your garden as well.