Tuesday 14 June 2016

Three Sister Garden


June 12, 2016 marked the planting of squash in the church’s Three Sister Garden, Peace Garden.  

This is the second year that our local Mennonite Congregation has support this learning opportunity for the children and fundraising opportunity for our local food bank.

The Sunday School children started squash and sunflower plants from seed early in the spring and they watched the seeds grow on the church window ledges.  

Once the plants reached the two leaf stage the children transplanted their seedling’s into larger pots and today they transplanted those pots outside into our Three Sister Garden.

How does this benefit the Food Bank?  

The surplus plants were taken home by members of the congregation who on Thanksgiving Sunday October 9, 2016 will make a donation to the children’s garden that equals the produce the plants produced for them.  

And through out the year anyone who has taken corn, beans, squash or pumpkins home from the children’s garden will make a donation with all funds raised going to the Food Bank.

The Three Sister Garden Companion Planting is an Indigenous form of permaculture gardening.

Sister corn is the first of the three sisters to be planted and she offers support for the beans.  
Sister bean comes next and she moves nitrogen from the air back into the soil and as her vines grow up the corn and into the squash vines she ensures the sisters stay together.  

The last sister to be planted is squash, her broad leaves create a canopy that hold moisture in the ground and her prickly vines discourage animals from entered the garden. 

In this way the three sister companion planting system, creates a low maintenance garden where each plant gives back to the soil what the others needs and acts to protect and support the garden as a whole.

Links to Our Other Three Sister Garden Posts.


Grandma Snyder

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