The three sisters beside the banana trees
We Trialled this method and had some interesting results!
The three sisters is a traditional method of companion planting three plants: climbing beans, corn and squash together in the same growing area.
The gourd grew over everything and we had to hack it back heavily but it came back for vengeance and grew out of the greenhouse instead!
Two different sweetcorn varieties growing either side of the beans. This was a bad idea, they cross pollinated! The cobs were beautiful to look at but earthy in flavour, not sweet enough and the texture was a bit chewy! Not all of the cobs were effected and the other were really delicious. The yellow ‘Double Standard’ variety being our favourite. Next year we will stick to just the one!
At the top is Painted Mountain and at the bottom is a Double Standard Yellow, others cross pollinated!
The beans eventually grew massively over the bamboo setup, and also made it up some of the sweetcorn. The squash plants started okay but failed mainly because I didn’t put them in til mid summer.
Next Spring we will be sticking to just one variety of sweetcorn to avoid cross pollination!
Return to The Edible Garden
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My top five favourite chilli peppers to grow from seed every year!
After many years of growing chillies I can’t help but have my favourites and every Spring I find myself planting the same varieties in prime spot of our raised beds. We still grow new and experimental varieties each year but they are usually grown in pots on the side and are judged on how well… Read more
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Our favourite plants to forage for making unique Christmas wreaths
Autumn provides an abundance of colour and textures in the garden, arguably the best and most stunning season, many plants, shrubs and trees make perfect materials for diy festive wreath making! It has become very trendy around here to attend a ‘wreath making’ class during the run up to Christmas but they often charge a… Read more
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Harvesting compost from our worm farm that recycles waste into ‘gardeners gold’
Our wormery has been up and running for several years now and we have learnt a lot about how to keep the worms happy and productive, and what are the best materials to use. Luckily for us, worms are very much into many foods that are usually wasted and so creating the most amazing compost… Read more
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Our best ever cucumber harvest in the Polytunnel!
Our raised beds in the polytunnel are now in their fourth year and it is really showing. Growing in the Polytunnel is something we have been documenting since we installed them back in 2018. We have trailed many plant varieties over the years and have had some interesting results. I have mostly posted about growing… Read more
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Autumn In the Polytunnel
The nights become chilly and the mornings frosty, the polytunnel has had another hot summer and is finally cooling down. Space is filling up with tender plants in containers and our fruit and veg growing in the raised beds are coming to an end and soon to be replaced with winter crops that are grown… Read more
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Polytunnel Progress: Building a Heated Seed Bed
Going into 2020 we decided that a heated seed bed inside the polytunnel would be amazing for starting seeds early in the year without having to sacrifice our indoor space! There are many plants that do not require such early start but we will be focusing on those such as Chilli Peppers and Sweet peppers… Read more
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Growing Dahlias from Seed and overwintering tubers
One of our latest plant obsessions is the Dahlia, since growing them from seed and realising just how easy it is to get many years out of these lovely plants. I first attempted these many years ago, with a tray of seed under my living room radiator. It was so successful it led me to… Read more
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Chilli and Sweet Pepper Review
It was a hot summer here in the south of England, and our first with the new polytunnel We couldn’t wait to see how our chilli peppers would grow in comparison to previous years being grown in the ground in the old greenhouse. This year we grew chillies in there, as well as in pots,… Read more
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First Summer in the Polytunnel
2019 is our first summer having the Polytunnel and we’re sharing our successes and failures that came along with it. We have absolutely loved it and couldn’t have hoped for better results when it comes to our growing goals. We did come across some challenges including Managing the Environment. But we also learnt that we’re able… Read more
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Growing Summer Hanging Baskets
We’re sharing our experience from start to finish including which plants we used, compost, fertiliser and a review of the whole process. Including failures!
Homegrown and Hopeful 