Indigenous peoples of this place learned to use squash plants as garden borders long ago.  In the brilliant gardening technique known as Three Sisters, squash vines are planted around the edges of the garden to deter raccoons and other animals from entering and bothering the crop plants.  Squash plants have rough, scratchy leaves and stems, so if you’re a soft-footed, soft-nosed digging being, you’d probably rather dig somewhere less prickly.

I learned about the Three Sisters method many years ago.  I love the idea, and admire the supportive plant community it strives to create. I have even tried it a few times, though all of my attempts were either incomplete or incorrect.  In my first try, I planted the corn, beans, and squash all together in the same area at the same time. The beans grew faster than the corn. The squash overran everything. Then the squash died of squash bugs, and I harvested nothing. I was a new gardener and it was a learning experience. I understood the mechanics of how the plants were meant to work together after I watched my mistakes play out.

The corn and squash must be planted first, you see. To do it correctly, you want a grouping of three corn plants in a hill. You probably need to plant more than three corn seeds to get three corn plants. The beans come later, after the corn has sprouted and grown to a few inches tall. One bean plant per hill. The bean plant may need guidance at first, but it should be trained to wrap the three corn stalks together. A single corn plant can be blown down by a strong wind, but three stalks tied together are resilient. The beans do not fertilize the corn, but they do suck nitrogen out of the air and store it in their tissues. Next year, after the bean plant has composted, that air nitrogen becomes soil nitrogen, and next year’s crops will benefit. The squash plants are planted around the border of the garden. The vines will branch out as the plant grows, and they may be allowed to trail down the rows.

I tried Three Sisters one more time, with more success, but it was incomplete. Squash bugs took my squash plants early that year, so I ended up with a two sister garden. The two sisters were successful, though. Honestly, though I love to eat squash, I hadn’t given much thought to that third sister. Even while raccoons and rabbits and squirrels ravaged my garden last year. Even while they started in on my new garden this spring. My thoughts went to chicken wire, marigolds, and cayenne pepper, not to squash.

I think the reason why squash wasn’t on my mind is because I’ve faced so many challenges in growing it. When I start squash plants indoors and I baby them and set them out in the garden early, vibrant, and eager, they never survive. Squash bugs and squash borers take them in two shakes, and I am a busy farmer without the free time to fight them.

However, when squash volunteers to grow out of my compost pile, and it sprouts on its own terms, it thrives. Last winter, I tried to create these conditions myself. I placed an old rotten pumpkin out in the bee garden under a mound of straw and walked away. The pumpkin was filled with seeds. A few sprouted, some got eaten, some got ripped up, and one thrived. That one survivor has now encircled a large section of the bee garden. The bee garden has been under intense raccoon pressure this year. Plants have been ripped up, dug up, and even after I protected the plants with chicken wire wraps, I’ve continued to find freshly dug holes each morning, mulch thrown around, unprotected plants uprooted, and ample evidence that the pressure has not stopped.

Except in this section where the pumpkin is growing. The third sister is working magic in the garden. The plants within her realm are no longer being dug up and disturbed every night. I don’t know if this is going to hold up as a 100% protective barrier for the rest of the summer, but it’s making a clear, observable difference.

It’s not a complete solution to the problem. If squash vines are not large enough to protect the plants until July, I’ll still need a way to protect them when they’re small and vulnerable in May and June. Maybe the solution is simply to plant more squash plants in winter, and to bring the other plants in later. The future holds more experiments to be sure. But for now, I’m grateful that the pressure is lessening on my beautiful new garden. I am grateful for this lesson about the power of the third sister. I look forward to watching and participating as the story of this summer unfolds. I hope for more good surprises. Maybe some of those good surprises will be pumpkins.