Milpa is also known as the three sisters, these are the three main crops of some indigenous peoples of America: pumpkin, corn and beans (usually tepary beans).
With a technique called co-planting or intercropping, all three crops are planted together. Flat mounds of soil are made for each crop. Each mound is about 30 cm high and 50 cm wide and several corn seeds are sown next to each other in the center of each mound. In some parts of the Northeast Atlantic, it is mixed with rotten fish to make poorer soil more fertile.
When the maize reaches about 15 cm in height, beans and squash are planted around the maize, alternating between beans and squash.
These three cultures benefit each other. Corn provides structure for the beans to climb, eliminating the need for sticks. Beans provide nitrogen to the soil that other plants use, and squash spreads through the soil monopolizing the sunlight that protects the other seeds. Pumpkin leaves act as a mulch, creating a microclimate that retains moisture and the thorns deter some pests.
How to plan a milpa in your garden
In today’s video I show how we sow our corn! we started the milpa! And although in theory we should have planted the corn and beans together, we decided to wait another week with the beans, to give the corn an advantage.