Nature, in all its apparent chaos, actually operates on a very orderly system optimized for thriving and survival. By understanding the way plants work with each other and knowing what each species gives and takes, you can have a livelier garden that’s actually easier to tend!

Take, for example, the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash. The Native Americans of this country had long ago developed a system of planting corn, beans and squash together, because they have a mutually enhancing relationship to each other that makes for healthier plants and higher yields than each of the plants on their own.

This is how it works: the corn grows tall and strong very quickly and the beans use it as a pole to climb up upon. The squash then spreads out and shades the ground, keeping the soil moist and deterring weeds. It’s especially ingenious if you know that beans are a nitrogen fixing plant and actually put nitrogen back into the soil, which the corn uses in abundance.

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