historycircus

To add to the Native American gardening techniques mentioned earlier:

Many North American horticulturalists planted what they called "the three sisters," and is commonly called today "the sacred triad." They were corn, beans, and squash, and the three types of seeds were all thrown in the same hole. It was really the perfect triad from a botanists perspective. For the soil, corn is rough and nitrogen depleting, but beans and squashes actually alleviate some of that problem. Nutritionally, corn and beans were the key - corn has the essential starches and beans provide the protien during periods when hunting was bad. Unless you use a fertalizer, however, you will have to rotate your growing patches - no matter what you grow. A patch growing the sacred triad will have human-sustaining output for about 2-3 years without fertalizer use before you have to find another plot. It takes about 5 years for the abandoned patch to replenish itself with nutrients.


Corn is a must - I strongly urge you to grow it. Pumpkins and "spaghetti" squash are good squashes that work in the triad. The only bean I ever tried growing in the triad were lima beans, and it worked fine. I like them, you may not, so try something else. If you are novice, you need to get practicing.

Hope some of that helped