The Three Sisters
(Page 2 of 6)
February/March 2001
By John Vivian
Throughout the Americas today, varieties of one or both of these wild grasses tend to grow along the uncultivated outer borders of fields cleared and prepared for corn. The mingling of their airborne pollens with the corn crop results in a genetic variety that can arm open-pollinated (nonhybrid, nongenetically spliced) seed corn against flood, drought, bugs or disease. Without this genetic diversity a homogenous plant population (monoculture) can prove vulnerable to a single pathogen or pest.
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The origin of beans and squash is much easier to trace. Many of their wild progenitors still exist. In addition, the insects that freely cross-pollinate the flowers of the cucurbits and wriggle their way into self-pollinating beans carry a huge wild-species' gene pool that continually strengthens curcubits and beans with the resistance of genetic diversity.
Garden Site and Preparation
To take advantage of the three sisters' promise of a perpetual, wholesome, handgrown food supply, it is best to follow the example of our predecessors and build homes and gardens downhill or close to a reliable water source. In selecting your own place, look in the lowlands as near as you can get to good, year-round water.
In most of rural North America, you can take advantage of earlier generations' skill in locating water by finding a 1920s or earlier farm. Search for a dip in the ground or several large, flat stones covering the wellhead. The stone sheathing of the old well may be caved in, full of decades-old trash or contaminated by any number of modern sources. But with a little work, it can be reclaimed and used to water the sisters. When searching for water at antique homes, one giveaway is a thick stand of Jerusalem artichoke sunflowers.
In the flatlands, a concrete slab with rusty angle irons protruding at the corners can indicate the location of a long-gone windmill. The central well opening may be mortared up for safety's sake. On any old farm, a shallow handdug well may be found in the yard. No matter the circumference or the depth of the well hole, you can get water out with a solar- or hand-powered push-pump or a long, tubular sheet metal-drilled well bucket on a spool of rope.
Incidentally, both new and recycled/antique windmills are available. Many of the newer low-tech water-collecting devices were developed in response to exaggerated fears over the Y2K computer glitch of the late 1990s, but the supply is limited, so stock up now.
The earliest desert gardens were located where plants seemed to grow naturally. Seed was planted deeply, in tubular holes that were sunk with tree-limb planting sticks six to eight inches to subsoil moisture. That way, gardeners didn't have to mound supporting soil around the plant's roots. Instead they just filled in the planting holes when leaves broke the surface. The deep-set seeds were also safe from crows and most other marauders. The water that supplied these gardens may still flow underground or be contained in shallow aquifers.
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