06 13 11 Fingerprints on Companion Plants

Companion planting is the planting of different crops close to one another with the theory that the different crops help one another. Some crops draw nitrogen from the air and fix it into the soil; some crops drop deep roots and deposit nutrients near the surface that they have drawn from deep underground; some crops repel certain pests; and some crops even cause subtle changes in the flavor of other crops growing nearby.


So last year we decided to give it a try and hung two upside-down tomato plants in the solarium. Since the tomato plants were hanging upside down, there was opportunity to plant something else out of the top of the hanging planter. In one of the two, we planted nothing in the top, and in the other we added a nitrogen fixer—a bean plant.


Actually, both tomato plants did fine. Since we are not using commercially produced fertilizers, both could probably have done better with more knowledgeable organic fertilizing. But the experiment paid off: the tomato with the bean plant above it produced much more prolifically than the one without.


What strikes me in this is the fact that even plants like good community. Who would have thought? When the aphids reappeared in the solarium, we discovered that mint plants repel them. We have a lot of mint in our house, now, giving off wonderful aroma and providing much more potential for mint in our recipes than we can ever use.


Yesterday, Cindee planted what the Iriquois called the three sisters: corn, squash and beans. The corn is always a risk in Alaska’s short growing season, but worth a try; beans need to climb, so they the cornstalk both stabilizing the stalk, and also adding nutritious nitrogen to the soil; the squash acts like mulch: it shades out the weeds, and has spiny vines to keep the predators away from all of the three; and all together, the three provide food from different food groups. It is a bit late for planting these, so we will have to see how they do this year.


Actually, I suppose given the wisdom from my own faith tradition the relational nature of plants should not come as a surprise. Christians have always described God as a Trinity, which is a term embodying the mystery that though there is only one God, we experience this one God in a relational triad. Somehow, in God’s very nature there is mutuality, community and love. No wonder God’s very creation reflects that same reality.


I wonder what we could learn from companion plants in building our own personal friendship communities? What would a nitrogen fixer be in human terms—someone whose very presence brings an air of fertile possibility to situations? What would a natural mulch be in human terms? Someone whose presence provides a sense of safety and therefore hospitality to the societies in which we gather? And what would be a fruit bearing stalk in human terms? Someone who makes it possible for others to climb and grow, even as she/he produces his/her own fruit?


Personally, I think such things are worth thinking about, given the relational nature of God, and the way we God’s fingerprints even in the plants around us.

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