native-american-garden-20180610
- native-american-garden-20180610
Native American Garden
We aren’t using any pesticides on our plants. We aren’t shooting the squirrels, although I have explained to my son that in a time of hunger, we wouldn’t have to worry about them because they would have already seen the inside of a pot.
I only hope they leave us enough for seed. I’m hoping to raise enough seed to over sow the entire garden next spring with a mix of everything in one big tangle.
I’m actually hoping for a full spectrum of bugs including predators like preying mantis and a bunch of fat caterpillars. This garden is more to raise a boy than it is to raise food.
But I am hoping and working for seeds, and enough of them to plant one big thick tangle next year.
I am hoping that the corn seeds from the Cherokee and the Osage and Oaxacans and all the other peoples cross breed and make all sorts of interesting hybrids. I hope they converge on what grows best for us in a matter of 4 or 5 years.
That was my plan for the corn, but the squirrels and rabbits love to eat the base of the stalk. In one day and night, half a row might get chewed down just so they can eat the inside of the base of the stalk and leave the rest.
At least half of the corn I planted has gone to the squirrels and none might survive long enough to make corn, which they would probably eat while it was still green.
I have noticed that what is surviving best is the three sisters strip I densely planted by sowing a mixture of squash, beans, and corn.
Next year, I will plant my corn inside a belt of squash like our ancestors did, I will sow the whole yard densely like that. I will add sunflowers and Nanking brown cotton and jalapenos to the three sisters.
I hope I am mostly planting my own seeds next year. I hope within three years to not be buying any seeds for what I plant. I want my son to see this.