Photos: The “Three Sisters” Garden at Little Fruit Farm

When corn the children had planted in bins earlier in the growing season began to outgrow their container, we turned a “problem” into a beautiful new garden in the front of the school. After doing some research, Ms. Lauren found the Iroquois tribal way of planting corn on the top of mounds, and surrounding them with squash and beans, forming a triumvirate, affectionately called the “Three Sisters.”

As you can see from the slideshow, creating the new garden was quite the process, including: selecting a site, removing a layer of gravel from the site, rototilling the existing dirt to prepare it for planting, digging holes to form the base of the mounds, bringing in new compost, transferring the corn and bean plants from other areas, and planting the squash that was so nicely donated from the owner of the Smith Berry Farm.

An upcoming art project will have the children create a mosaic tile that will serve as a mark at the base of the new garden.