The Three Sisters
The cornstalk is a living pole for the beans to climb; the beans feed the soil; the squash sprawls below and shades out the weeds. Three crops that carry each other.
Well established See the evidence →
Aromatic herbs among the brassicas
Strong-smelling herbs planted among cabbages are reported to leave less caterpillar damage - one extension trial found that with thyme. Nobody has shown why, and plenty of trials find nothing, so we won’t oversell it.
A good hunch See the evidence →The Four Sisters
Add a fourth - a sunflower or amaranth - and it draws in the pollinators and pest-eaters the other three depend on.
a small step furtherThe fruit-tree guild
A young apple, ringed by a nitrogen-fixer, insect-drawing flowers, and bulbs that hold back the grass - a small perennial community that tends itself.
a standing partnershipThe milpa itself
The whole intercropped field the app takes its name from: the three sisters joined by amaranth and chiles - a garden grown as one community.
the namesake
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why: the beans pull nitrogen from the air and leave it in the soil.
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confidence: well established · promising · a good hunch
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fertilizer: get a soil test - we won’t guess the numbers.
- Hand you a companion-planting chart copied off a blog. The list of pairings we trust is short - that’s the point. What actually holds up →
- Print a fertilizer number without a soil test behind it. Why a soil test →
- Repeat folklore we haven’t actually checked against a real source.
- Quietly swap a plant that doesn’t fit your space - we show it greyed, with the reason.
remind me
Your map opens here
Set your location in the “Where” step and we’ll drop you on your own yard - then trace your beds right on the satellite image.
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1Where
Your address buys your frost odds and real planting windows - type it and the pin drops. Everything here follows it.
Bought: your frost odds and planting windows for every crop - live everywhere, never re-asked.
2Your ground
A bed buys the fit verdict and a placement for every team - size one below, or draw it on the map.
Trace or size your growing areas on the map - they appear here.
Bought: real fit verdicts and placements below - every team checked against the beds you'll actually plant.
What grew here recently
tell us what grew here before you started tracking
3Plant teams for this bed
Optional, when you're ready
+Design your own bed
+Add your own plant
+This season
Season log
Seed box
What you already have on hand. The planner can subtract these from what a plan needs.
Your seed box is empty. Add what you have above.
Shopping list
What this plan needs that your seed box does not already have.
Garden feed
Notes for the people who tend this garden with you.
Replaced copies of this garden
When a sync replaces this device's copy of the garden or a season, the outgoing copy is kept here for a while. Restore one to make it the newest version - it syncs back to everyone, undoing the change.
Season review
Your season, by the date
Reminders come from your phone's calendar app. Plan changed? Export again - the calendar updates.
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
Dates are 30-year medians; the climber lead counts from your last frost ; your own logged frosts supersede the model after three seasons. Set your location on the Plan page, then plan a bed - its dates appear here.
Plant
Why trust this?
Every recommendation in this app cites a rule. Every rule states its mechanism, its evidence grade, and the sources it stands on. Here is all of it - including the folklore we checked and won't repeat.
Your garden lives on this device.
Everything you plan and log is kept here in your browser, yours by default. Sign in only to carry it to another device - nothing leaves until you do.
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Signed in as - your ledger syncs to this account.