With our newly established Terrace my students and I set about the task of making the terrace ready to grow the three sisters, maize, beans and pumpkins, an indigenous method to grow crops together.
Firstly, we had to calculate how many mounds we would put in the terrace. At a spacing of 0.5m from the sides of the structure, we were able to fit in 42 mounds, at 1.5 m spacing between mounds in three rows. Each mound was made of soil and compost piled up to a height of about 25 cm, with a diameter of nearly 40 cm. This allows for four maize plants to be sown, with six bean plants and finally two pumpkin seeds.
Selected maize varieties that were purple, blue, black, amber and red were germinated using trays in the classroom, and then transplanted to the terrace mounds.
These were watered and tended to by my students.
Once the maize were at least 45 cm tall, beans donated from CIAT were planted next to maize, so as to use the maize stalk as support.
We are waiting for the beans to become established before planting the pumpkins which will then provide ground cover for the terrace, reducing the need for weeding.
Additionally we planted mani forrajero between mounds. This is a nitrogren fixing plant that grows close to the ground and will also act as a ground cover.
