While doing my garden research this last winter I came across the Three Sisters Garden, a method of companion planting used by many Native Americans. We are trying to cut down the amount of mowing by developing various gardens and this looked like a good way to utilize the area between Rod’s work shop and the original row of asparagus. 
Once the area was tilled and raked, I made 13 mounds and planted the first sister. In this garden we’re planting Golden Bantam sweet corn, purple pole beans, and acorn squash.
A few weeks ago Rod had planted two rows of Native American corn along the back side of our bantam’s coop/run. I decided to try a variation of the Three Sisters Garden here. As you can see this was planted in rows rather than the traditional mounds.
Looking down the rows
The other two sisters planted here are a pole shell bean and Lakota squash.
Squash in front with pole bean between corn rows
Meanwhile back at the mounds the first sister has grown . . .
along with a bumper crop of weeds! We’ve had so much rain, it has been next to impossible to work in the gardens, and so began the search for the “First Sister”.
With the mounds cleared of weeds, I proceeded to plant the other two sisters.
A dressing of shredded mulch to help keep the weeds down and we should be good to go.
There is lots of good information online regarding the Three Sister companion planting method. Various ways to lay it out and suggestions on when and where to plant each sister. It will be fun to see how these two gardens turn out.