Our plants have companions, just like we do. Increased harvests, reduced disease, and fewer pests are all possible benefits of planting your vegetables near those they either get along with or don’t like.
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This is what we refer to as a win-win situation: pairing plants together to achieve those effects.
What is companion planting?
Growing plants that benefit one another is called companion planting, and it’s a natural way to keep your garden in balance. Certain plant pairings can help with pollination, stave off illness, and reduce pest populations when planted together.
Some have anti-fungal or antibacterial characteristics, while others entice helpful insects like lacewings and ladybugs that prey on aphids. Many companion plants have a strong aroma that might deceive pests hunting for their host plant.
Although most people associate companion planting with their vegetable garden, it can also be beneficial to certain aesthetic plants, like roses especially the climbing rose variety.
Putting nasturtiums near beans and alliums near carrots is a common way to keep pests like aphids and carrot root flies away.
Benefits of Companion Planting
Companion planting has several advantages. Every bit of assistance you can get in growing a healthy, abundant garden is worth it, as most gardeners will tell you.
- Trap Cropping
A strong defense is the best form of offense. Putting plants that insects hate close to plants that insects love will help protect both sets of plants.
- Positive Hosting
Growing all the insects’ favorite plants is the best way to get them to visit your garden. Plants with a lot of pollen and nectar draw and feed beneficial insects, which in turn help get rid of pests.
- Limiting Risk
You may see a decrease in output due to factors beyond your control, such as bad weather. If you can increase your odds of getting better yields, you might be able to make up for your losses and end up with more output overall.
- Protecting crops
Allow hardy plants to bear the brunt of extreme weather so that fragile plants don’t need protection. Grow hardy plants that can withstand the wind and heat as a form of defense.
Plants that can be planted together?
Here are some plants you should plant together and if so wish rotate them.
Leeks and carrots
Fragrant plants can do wonders for a garden. Root vegetables such as parsnips and carrots go well with alliums such as leeks, garlic, and onion scraps.
This looks like a particularly good combination, as the fragrance of carrots can prevent carrot flies and the smell of leeks can deter leek moths. Leeks are space-consuming, so if you don’t have any, substitute garlic chives.
Marigolds and tomatoes
French marigold flowers, with their powerful aroma, are thought to discourage whiteflies. This makes them an ideal companion plant for tomatoes in a greenhouse.
Strawberries and Borage
Borage is a pretty plant that looks like a little cucumber and has flavorful, hairy leaves. Planting borage close to strawberries will enhance their flavor. Moreover, borage blossoms attract crop-pollinating insects, including hoverflies, butterflies, and bees.
Beans and wormwood
Broad beans and other bean crops can benefit from wormwood’s ability to prevent pests like blackflies because of the herb’s potent aroma. More than that, the aphid-eating ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies that are drawn to its yellow blossoms
Brassica and mint
Mint’s pungent aroma deters flea beetles from laying eggs on brassicas like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and radish. If you insist on growing mint, keep in mind that it could easily overtake other plants if not contained.
Roses and thyme
Thyme, like oregano or Epazote plant is a highly aromatic herb; as a result, it makes a great companion plant for discouraging pests from targeting its host plant.
Roses benefit from having thyme nearby because its powerful aroma drives away blackflies.
Vegetables that grow well together?
Many years of garden cultivation have led to a collective understanding of which vegetables thrive in close proximity to one another and which tend to stifle one another.
Planting companions such as flowers, herbs, and vegetables can improve soil quality and protect crops from pests. The exciting concept of increased garden produce offered by companion planting is a great example of this.
What plants should you not plant together?
- Brassicas and tomatoes don’t mix (including turnips, kohlrabi, collard greens, Brussels sprouts, rutabagas, kale, cabbage, and broccoli). In addition, tomatoes do poorly as partners for fennel and potatoes.
- Keep potatoes far away from your tomato and pepper plants. This is because they are prone to the same diseases.
- Keep strawberries, corn, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, and corn separate from members of the allium family (shallots, garlic, onions, and leeks). Planting onions close to other vegetables is a bad idea. This is because they can impede the growth of things like peas, beans, and asparagus.
- Do not plant kohlrabi near tomatoes, peppers, onions, parsley, or eggplant.
- It is said that planting beans in close proximity to gladiolus plants will cause them to die.
- Black walnut trees are bad for many different types of vegetation, but in the context of vegetable gardening, neither butternut squash nor black walnut trees are a good match for tomatoes or other nightshades like peppers and eggplants.
- As a general rule, you shouldn’t store cabbage and lettuce together. Planting cabbage near strawberries, pole beans, or tomatoes is likewise a bad idea.
- Parsley and carrots, when given enough space to flourish, will bring helpful insects to your garden. These crops are also good candidates for crop rotation.
- When grown together, tomatoes and corn are susceptible to a fungal infection that can quickly spread and ruin a crop.
- Planting potatoes and cucumbers together is not recommended. This is because the two produce pH levels that are not suitable for one another. Planting cucumbers near scented herbs is also not a good idea.
What vegetables can be planted next to each other?
Take a look at these companion planting chart.
| Vegetables | Friends | Foes | Important points |
| Asparagus | Tomatoes, marigolds, coriander, parsley, dill, | Potatoes, onions, garlic | Asparagus beetles can be deterred with the use of tomatoes, parsley, and marigolds. |
| Basil | Tomatoes, oregano, eggplant, cabbage, beets, asparagus, potatoes, marigolds, chili peppers, bell peppers, beans | Rue | Basil will boost tomato production when you plant it only a foot away from your plants. The lettuce’s flavor is also enhanced by this. |
| Beans | Radishes, cucumber, cabbage, carrots, peas, corn, chard, beets | Onions, garlic, | You can prevent bean beetle infestations with the use of rosemary and nasturtiums. |
| Beets | Onions, chard, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, cauliflower, bush beans, broccoli | Pole beans, field mustard, charlock | There will be a growth race between beets and pole beans. When you compost beet leaves and add them to soil, magnesium levels increase. Magnesium is essential for photosynthesis to occur. |
| Broccoli | Thyme, spinach, rosemary, onions, mint, lettuce, dill, chamomile, carrots, beets, Swiss chard, sage plant, radishes, nasturtiums, marigolds, garlic, cucumber, celery, bush beans, basil | Watermelon, strawberries, peppers, climbing beans, asparagus, sweet corn, pumpkins, mustard, cantaloupe | Insects like the cabbage fly can cause serious damage to your broccoli crop, but rosemary will keep them away. |
| Cabbage | Onions, lettuce, celery, spinach, chard, beets | Tomatoes, kohlrabi | In order to prevent cabbage moths, use sage, mint, or hyssop. |
| Carrots | Tomatoes, peas, lettuce, peppers, onions, beans | Dill | Rosemary protects against carrot flies while chives boost flavor. |
| Corn | Zucchini, squash, peas, cucumber, sunflowers, pumpkins, marjoram, climbing beans | Tomatoes | Both corn worms and tomato worms like these plants. Peas and beans help to supply nitrogen. |
| Onions | Tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, peppers, lettuce, peppers, chard, chard Cabbage, carrots, tomatoes | Peas, beans | The chamomile plant enhances both growth and flavor. |
| Potatoes | Spinach, peas, marigolds, horseradish, corn, beans, radishes, onions, lettuce, garlic, celery, basil | Tomatoes, sunflowers, raspberries, melons, eggplant, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, strawberries, squash, peppers, kohlrabi, cucumbers, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, asparagus | Raspberries, tomatoes and cucumbers entice harmful bugs to potatoes. |
| Pumpkin | Squash, marigolds, beans, nasturtiums, corn | Potatoes | N/A |
| Radishes | Squash, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, beets, spinach, kale, chives, cabbage | Hyssops | If you want to keep some beetles at bay, grow some radishes as a trap crop. |
| Squash | Sunflowers, radishes, nasturtiums, dill, beans, strawberries, peas, marigolds, corn | Potatoes | Squash and pumpkin are good companion plants for one another since they have comparable characteristics. |
| Strawberries | Squash, sage, lettuce, caraway, spinach, onions, chives, bush beans | Tomatoes, peppers, cabbage family, potatoes, eggplant | N/A |
| Tomatoes | Peppers, onions, carrots, parsley, celery, asparagus | Potatoes, dill, kohlrabi, corn, | Herbs like bee balm, mint, and basil are great for both growth and flavor. |
| Zucchini | Spinach, peas, nasturtiums, garlic, corn, radishes, oregano, marigolds, dill, beans | Pumpkin and Potatoes | N/A |
Conclusion
Companion plants in a garden benefit one another when you plant them in close proximity. Use the various connections that companion gardening can open up for you to your benefit.
When you carefully do crop rotation or choose to pair plants in the garden, you may make it a more comfortable environment for all of your plants.