"Three Sisters" Gardening

Is it too early to think about gardening?

I haven't bought garden vegetable seeds in a very long time.

When my kids were young, we did have a vegetable patch in our side yard, right next to the fence. I wanted them to know how food is grown.

One memorable year, we had a prolific harvest of yellow pole beans - so prolific, in fact, that our neighbour Bill, who lived across the street, came over to check them out. Bill himself had a large garden. He had enough tomatoes, zucchinis and cucumbers to share.

Earlier this year, I bought a few packets of seeds. In her book, The Light We Carry - which I read recently - Michelle Obama mentions the "three sisters " garden they planted in the White House grounds. Following a traditional native gardening style, they planted pole beans, corn and squash together in a mound of soil. The "three sister" plants help each other. The beans climb up the corn stocks, and the squash plants spread their leaves around on the ground, keeping out weeds.

This gardening style worked in Washington, DC. I wonder if it will work this far north in Canada. I plan to give it a try.