Terri Dougherty: Three sisters garden teaches gardening and history

In a garden in Pierce Park near Appleton's Jefferson Elementary School, the three sisters will take root.

Pole beans, squash and corn — the "three sisters" of traditional Iroquois planting — will grow in the community garden as a way to teach about both gardening and the history of what we grow.

"The concept behind this is a learning garden, a teaching garden," said Susan Richardson, coordinator of the community garden, a partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Extension and Goodwill Industries.

"One of the things I wanted to illustrate is the heritage around how we grow our food. That in and of itself is a great educational tool because most people don't think about that any more."

Diana Peterson of the Oneida Nation supplied heritage seeds and arranged for a traditional seed-blessing ceremony before the corn seeds were planted May 10.

"It is part of our culture, part of our teaching," Peterson said. "We pay respect to corn, beans and squash.

"It's more of a spiritual connection."

The corn seeds are planted first. When the corn reaches four or five inches high the bean seeds will be planted, so they'll have something to cling to when they sprout.

Squash seeds are planted next, providing ground cover.

"The Oneida Nation certainly has a deep history of agriculture," Richardson said. "There are many other cultures represented in this community and hopefully they will also demonstrate how they do their growing in these gardens."

Bob Brown, the Bear Clan chief, also participated in the planting ceremony, as did Nadine Skenandore and Grace Koehler, representatives of the Oneida Nation farm system. Children from Jefferson and Columbus elementary schools watched the event.

In addition to the three sisters garden, Pierce Park is also home to a cutting garden, an herb garden and another garden being developed by Fox River Academy Charter School.

Another three sisters garden will be developed at Columbus Elementary School, with a grand opening scheduled for June 1.

"It's nice, but it's also necessary," Richardson said. "We have to reconnect with our food. Community gardens are an offshoot of freedom gardens and victory gardens. We do have historic roots."

These teaching garden sites are taken care of by the neighborhood. In that way the gardens become a center for community development, in addition to being a place to learn about growing vegetables.

That's a skill that's too often being overlooked, Richardson noted.

"A lot of people don't know how to grow, plant or preserve food," she said. "A lot of younger children don't know that food can actually be grown anywhere. Some kids think food comes from Copps, some think it comes from a farm, but a lot of kids don't know they can grow it themselves."