Variation on 3 sisters

[Moggle]

Saw a pic in the HDRA encyclopedia of organic gardening, and wondered if it could be made in to a variation on the 3-sisters method of growing sweetcorn (sweetcorn, squashes along the ground, and beans up the corn). The pic was sweetcorn with a green manure/living mulch of clover underneath.

I wondered if I still did the squashes underneath, would the clover still grow - and give nitrogen-fixing benefits to the corn - or would the squashes (pumpkins, courgettes, and cucumbers) grow too thickly for the clover to survive.

Anyone think this might work?

[Moggle]

[terrace max]

Nothing intelligent to offer re: your query (nowt new there, then).

I just wanted to say what a good book I think the HDRA one is. I kind of dismissed it at first because it has loads of pictures but I find I'm looking stuff up - and finding answers in it - all the time.

[Moggle]

I'm only a quarter of the way through reading it (although have flicked through a lot) and agree totally Terrace Max. You've got to love a book that has something like 8 huge pages dedicated to compost  ;D, and that's not including the pages for leafmould, and wormeries! As for pictures, I rekon I need them some times. Too much text can be a bad thing  :-\

[wardy]

I think you'd have to go for it and try it.  You've nowt to lose cept at bit of clover  :)

[Derekthefox]

I reckon you might be on a winner here.
If you plant the clover at the same time as the corn and squashes, then it should have grown by the time the squash has extensive ground cover, perhaps even saving you digging it in . . .

Even with squash, I still get weeds . . .

[wardy]

I've just seen the page you were talking about in the HDRA book and I've read that Bob Flowerdoo does the same, eg underplanting his sweetcorn with beans etc.  I think you'll have to do it now as an experiment at least and let us know how you get on

[Moggle]

Yes I will have to trial it and let you know how I get on  ;D
Any suggestions for what type of clover? Or are they much the same?

[aquilegia]

Thanks for the reminder Moggle. I'd completely forgotten about three sisters.

When I did my planting plan I rejected three sisters because it wouldn't work with crop rotation, but now I've dug my new beds, crop rotation doesn't really matter. So I can use three sisters again. And combine my sweetcorn/courgette bed with the bean bed. So I have one bed to play with now! (or rather - I actually have a bed for roots and alliums. And hopefully my brassicas can follow the early roots. maybe?

ps - that book is my bible. it is so very useful and detailed. I now judge all other books on how many pages they dedicate to compost making!

[wardy]

I've not really got my head round this rotation lark yet, but Bob F in his bible was talking about the 3 sisters and and how these combinations fit into them.  He doesn't like the mono culture idea where you have one bed of each veg.  For pest control he likes to have variations, like the 3 sisters, in each bed and he gives examples

I only have one bed of onions so not sweating over rotations yet  :)