Describes 14 plants that can make up a complete human diet. CHEARS Three Sisters Demonstration Gardens in Greenbelt, Maryland is featuring these 14 plants for Year 2012.

1. GREENBELT THREE SISTERS GARDENS

2. 2012 Theme for Three Sisters Gardens
• One Circle: How to
Grow a Complete
Diet in Less Than
1,000 Square Feet
• By: David
Duhon

3. 14 Foods that can give complete diet in the
1000 square feet of garden space
1. Collards (kale, 8. Soy Beans
broccoli, chard) 9. Wheat
2. Parsley 10.Filberts/hazelnuts
3. Onions 11.Peanuts
4. Garlic 12.Turnips
5. Parsnips 13.Leeks
6. Potatoes 14.Sunflowers
7. Sweet potatoes

4. Collards
• Widely considered to be a healthy
food, collards are good sources of
vitamin C and soluble fiber, and
contain multiple nutrients with potent
anticancer properties, such as
diindolylmethane and sulforaphane]
Roughly a quarter pound (approx. 100
g) of cooked collards contains 46
Calories.
• Researchers at the University of
California at Berkeley have recently
discovered that 3,3'-diindolylmethane
in Brassica vegetables such as collard
greens is a potent modulator of the
innate immune response system with
potent antiviral, antibacterial and
anticancer activity

5. Parsley
• In addition to its volatile oils and
flavonoids, parsley is an excellent
source of two vital nutrients that are
also important for the prevention of
many diseases: vitamin C and
vitamin A
• Good Companion plant atracks
predatory insects-especially for
tomatoes
• As parsley seed germinates slowly
(sometimes taking several weeks),
it should be soaked in warm water
overnight before planting. Sow
outdoors in early spring in rows 10
to 12 inches apart, and cover 1/2
inch deep. Later thin the plants to
stand about 6 inches apart

6. Onions
• With their unique combination of flavonoids
and sulfur-containing nutrients, the allium
vegetables — such as onions — belong in
your diet on a regular basis.
• Onions, and other Allium species, are highly
valued herbs possessing culinary and
medicinal value. Some of their beneficial
properties are seen after long-term usage.
Onion may be a useful herb for the
prevention of cardiovascular disease,
especially since they diminish the risk of
blood clots. Onion also protects against
stomach and other cancers, as well as
protecting against certain infections. Onion
can improve lung function, especially in
asthmatics. The more pungent varieties of
onion appear to possess the greatest
concentration of health-promoting
phytochemicals .

7. Garlic
• Garlic plants can be grown closely together,
leaving enough space for the bulbs to
mature, and are easily grown in containers
of sufficient depth. When selecting garlic for
planting, it is important to pick large heads
from which to separate cloves. Large cloves,
along with proper spacing in the planting
bed, will also improve head size. Garlic
plants prefer to grow in a soil with a high
organic material content, but are capable of
growing in a wide range of soil conditions
and pH levels.[6]
• Garlic scapes are removed to focus all the
garlic's energy into bulb growth. The scapes
can be eaten raw or cooked.

8. Parsnips
• The parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) is a root
vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips
resemble carrots, but are paler in colour
than most carrots, and have a sweeter taste,
especially when cooked.[2] The buttery,
slightly spicy, sweet flavor of cooked mature
parsnips (often picked after the first frost) is
reminiscent of butterscotch, honey, and
subtle cardamom. Like carrots, parsnips are
native to Eurasia and have been eaten there
since ancient times.

9. Potatoes
• Wild potato species occur throughout the
Americas, from the United States to
Uruguay. The potato was originally believed
to have been domesticated independently in
multiple locations,[4] but later genetic testing
of the wide variety of cultivars and wild
species proved a single origin for potatoes in
the area of present-day southern Peru and
extreme northwestern Bolivia (from a
species in the Solanum brevicaule complex),
where they were domesticated 7,000–
10,000 years ago.[5][6][7] Following
centuries of selective breeding, there are
now over a thousand different types of
potatoes.[6] Of these subspecies, a variety
that at one point grew in the Chiloé
Archipelago (the potato's south-central
Chilean sub-center of origin) left its
germplasm on over 99% of the cultivated
potatoes worldwide

10. Sweet Potatoes
• The plant is a herbaceous perennial vine,
bearing alternate heart-shaped or palmately
lobed leaves and medium-sized
sympetalous flowers. The edible tuberous
root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin
whose color ranges between yellow, orange,
red, brown, purple, and beige. Its flesh
ranges from beige through white, red, pink,
violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet
potato varieties with white or pale yellow
flesh are less sweet and moist than those
with red, pink or orange flesh
• The center of origin and domestication of
sweet potato is thought to be either in
Central America or South America.] In South
America, Peruvian sweet potato remnants
dating as far back as 8000 BC have been
found]

11. Soy Beans
• The soybean (U.S.) or soya bean
(UK) (Glycine max)[2] is a species
of legume native to East Asia,
widely grown for its edible bean
which has numerous uses
• Soybeans produce significantly
more protein per acre than most
other uses of land.[

12. Wheat
• In 2009, world production of wheat was 682
million tons, making it the second most-
produced cereal after maize (817 million
tons), and with rice as close third (679
million tons). Wheat was a key factor
enabling the emergence of city-based
societies at the start of civilization because it
was one of the first crops that could be
easily cultivated on a large scale, and had
the additional advantage of yielding a
harvest that provides long-term storage of
food. Wheat contributed to the emergence of
city-states in the Fertile Crescent. The
whole grain can be milled to leave just the
endosperm for white flour. The by-products
of this are bran and germ. The whole grain
is a concentrated source of vitamins,
minerals, and protein, while the refined grain
is mostly starch.

13. Filberts--Hazelnuts
• The Celts believed hazelnuts gave one
wisdom and inspiration. There are numerous
variations on an ancient tale that nine hazel
trees grew around a sacred pool, dropping
into the water nuts that were eaten by
salmon (a fish sacred to Druids) which
absorbed the wisdom. The number of spots
on the salmon were said to indicate how
many nuts they had eaten. A Druid
teacher, in his bid to become omniscient,
caught one of these special salmon and
asked a student to cook the fish but not to
eat it. While he was cooking it, hot liquid
from the cooking fish splashed onto the
pupil's thumb, which he naturally sucked to
cool, thereby absorbing the fish's wisdom.
This boy was called Fionn Mac Cumhail (Fin
McCool) and went on to become one of the
most heroic leaders in Gaelic mythology

14. Peanuts
•
• Contrary to what their name implies,
peanuts are not true nuts but a
member of a family of legumes related
to peas, lentils, chickpeas and other
beans. Peanuts start growing as a
ground flower that due to its heavy
weight bends towards the ground and
eventually burrows underground where
the peanut actually matures. The
veined brown shell or pod of the
peanut contains two or three peanut
kernels. Each oval-shaped kernel or
seed is comprised of two off-white
lobes that are covered by a brownish-
.
red skin

15. Turnip
• Pliny the Elder considered the turnip one of
the most important vegetables of his day,
rating it "directly after cereals or at all events
after the bean, since its utility surpasses that
of any other plant." This vegetable is not
particular about the type of soil it grows in
and because it can be left in the ground until
the next harvest, it "prevents the effects of
famine" for humans (N.H. 18.34).
• Turnips grow wild in Siberia and have been
eaten since prehistoric times.
• Turnips are easy to grow if sown in the
proper season. They mature in two months
and may be planted either in the spring, late
summer or fall for roots or greens. The
spring crop is planted for early summer use.
The fall crop, which is usually larger and of
higher quality, is often stored for winter use.

16. Leeks
• Dried specimens from archaeological
sites in ancient Egypt, as well as wall
carvings and drawings, led Zohary and
Hopf to conclude that the leek was a
part of the Egyptian diet “from at least
the 2nd millennium BCE onwards.”
They also allude to surviving texts that
show it had been also grown in
Mesopotamia from the beginning of
the 2nd millennium BCE.[4] The leek
was the favourite vegetable of the
Emperor Nero, who consumed it in
soup or in oil, believing it beneficial to
the quality of his voice

17. Sunflower
• Sunflower (Helianthus
annuus) is an annual plant
native to the Americas.
Sunflowers should be allowed
to mature in the garden. There
are several indicators of
maturity. The back of the
flower head will be brown and
dry; most of the yellow petals
will have dried and fallen; the
seeds will be plump; and the
seed coats will be black and
white striped

18. Three Sister Sites

19. Forest Gardens