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Gardening Companions

Are your tomatoes and cucumbers hanging out with the wrong crowd? Improve your garden with companion planting, the art of pairing up plants.

Adapted from Reader's Digest Australia, March 2009

For those without a green thumb, companion planting is basically a method of growing plants together so that they will help each other in some way–be it by enhancing flavour, nourishing the soil, attracting beneficial insects or repelling pests and disease.

However, it’s more than just planting things that “like” each other close together, it’s also about learning basic guidelines for your garden.

 

Here are some companions to keep in mind when growing your herbs and vegetables.

 
 

PLANT FRIEND FOE
Bush Beans/Pole Beans carrots, celery, corn, cucumber, lettuce, radish  peas onions, sunflowers, tomatoes cabbage
Cabbage Clover and beans give cabbage a nitrogen boost while nasturtiums help repel aphids. Mint repels cabbage butterflies. tomatoes, peppers strawberries, pole beans runner beans
Carrots

Best Friend: Onions. They make carrots sweet and repel the carrot fly.

Other friends: Pole/bush beans, lettuce, peas, radish, tomato and sage

 dill, parsnip, radish
Corn sunflowers, beans, peas, soybeans, squash, cucumbers, parsley,  potato tomato, celery
Cucumbers pole/bush beans, corn, lettuce, onions, peas, radish, marigold, nasturtium, savory garlic, tomato, sage
Lettuce radish, kohlrabi, beans, carrots celery, cabbage, cress, parsley
Onions beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, squash, strawberries, tomato, savory bush/pole beans, peas, soybeans
Peas bush/pole beans, carrots, corn cucumber, radish, turnips onions
Peppers tomatoes, geraniums, petunias beans, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts
Tomato

Best Friend: Basil

Other Friends: oregano, parsley, carrots, marigold, onions, celery, geraniums, petunias, nasturtiums

 corn, fennel, peas, dill, potatoes, beetroot, cabbages, rosemary

   

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Published in : Home & Garden » Gardening
Tags: tomatoes love carrots | companion planting for a strong garden | friends and foes in the garden | increase your yield with companion planting
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