The 13 Best Companion Plants

If you are peruse germ catalogs and project your garden for the coming season , you may be thinking about ways to increase proceeds , forbid pests from damaging your crop , or growing more vigorous and tasty works without repair to chemical fertiliser , herbicide or pesticides . The age - honest-to-goodness method acting of companion planting , used by nurseryman from Ancient Rome to the Americas , reference all of these common gardening issue .

Companion plantsare vegetables , herbs , yield trees and flush grown together in a “ buddy system ” that encourage natural plague control and fecundation and attract pollinators and other helpful wildlife to your crop . This garden technique is found on the simple musical theme that if certain plant are grown near one another , they will benefit each other .

Some companion planting proficiency have been bear witness by scientists , but many are folk wisdom passed down through generations of farmers and gardeners , shared through word of mouth , classes and account book . Many are found on research , and some just common gumption . For object lesson , combining short , taller and mid - sized crop eliminate spaces for unwanted weeds to turn and take over the garden .

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The following inclination of some well - known works fellow traveler that have been find to be utile in many garden . Give one or more a endeavour in your garden this year and see if you notice a divergence .

Three Sisters

In thistraditional aboriginal American fellow traveler gardening technique , you plant corn , bean and crush together . Corn stalk act as a support for the beans . Beans get out nitrogen from the air to the soil , aid the labored feeding sister plant grow heartier . Large , low - growing squash leaves act as a mulch , which discourage sens from growing around the plants .

Tomatoes and Basil

These are perhaps the most well - have a go at it vegetable garden companions . Basil helps prevent hornworms on tomatoes , while tomato plant provide some shade for St. Basil . Their root organisation also work well together : tomato have cryptic radical , while basil has shallow roots , allowing them to produce without crowding each other .

Both St. Basil the Great and Lycopersicon esculentum can be started indoors from seed or purchased as plants . Both are warm - conditions crops that should be establish alfresco only when nighttime temperatures are above 50 degrees F.

Comfrey

Many gardeners consider comfrey , an herb aboriginal to Europe , a “ must have ” plant . Comfrey is a nutrient fixer , thread nitrogen , potassium , Mg and calcium into its stem and leaves . The leaves can be reduce and used as mulch or fertilizer or add up to compost . The plant will maturate back several times in a time of year . The beautiful flowers of comfrey pull pollinator and beneficial insect . The leave are sometimes used in yield orchards as a mulch around the nucleotide of the trees , and the beginning of the flora are useful in break up clay grease . Comfrey is also a medicinal herb traditionally used for healing wound . Propagate it usingroot cuttings .

Yarrow

This jolly wildflowerthat helps repel pests , attracts good insects , acts as a instinctive plant food and helps foreclose soil corrosion . It benefits all crops . Yarrow is a medicative herbaceous plant ; it comes in a variety of colors , but herbalists think white milfoil to have the most medicinal attribute . It can be propagated from division or started indoors from seed .

Borage

This endearing and comestible blue blossom that often self cum in the garden . Borageattracts pollinators and deters dinero worms and tomato hornworms . Borage is a safe familiar for nearly all plant , and is particularly beneficial for tomatoes , bread and strawberries . It is easily propagated by cum .

Stinging Nettle

Another plant that many organic gardeners passion , despite its “ stinging ” quality when touched or rubbed against , is twinge nettle . As a companion , nettle increase the fossil oil content of many herbs , helps vegetables grow more smartly and help plants become more tolerant to plague . Nettle can be used to enrich compost , and it attracts good insects . Nettle is an eatable green ( it must be manipulate ) , rich in many food , including atomic number 26 . Nettle can be propagated by sectionalization .

Rosemary

Rosemary benefit the development of salvia , shekels , noggin and carrot by deter chou moths , dome beetles and , if cutting ares station around carrot crown , cultivated carrot fly . It is also moot a good familiar for Brassica oleracea italica and salvia . Rosemary is not cold hardy , so if you are in zone 6 or cold , overwinter it indoors . Rosemary can be propagated from root word press clipping .

Cosmos

These coloured , annual flowers are both lovely ornamentals and hard workers in the eatable garden . Cosmos deter harmful insects and attract good insects . They ’re easy to raise from seed , pretty , and can be planted with any vegetables .

Nasturtiums

see a cakehole harvest , nasturtiums draw aphid and flea beetles , keeping them from damaging other plant life in your garden . Vining nasturtiums can also be planted as a groundcover that protect good insects , like basis beetles and spiders . nasturtium are beautiful and edible ; they make a racy and festal increase to salads . well-situated to propagate from come , they ’re good companion for virtually every vegetable .

Marigolds/Calendula (Pot Marigold)

The scent of marigold is retrieve to confuse insects ; it helps repel flea beetles , and pull pollinator / beneficial dirt ball . marigold are often planted as companions to tomatoes , but are good companions to just about every garden crop . They can be easily started from seminal fluid , and are grown as yearbook .

Garlic/Onions

Garlicand onion plant are know for their power to repel Japanese beetle , white potato vine beetles , carrot flies , aphid and wildlife , including rabbits and deer . Garlic also snub tree diagram woodborer , aphids , pelf loopers , codling moth , snails , ants and cabbage maggots . It ’s considered peculiarly beneficial when planted near fruit trees , blush wine , cucumbers , peas , cultivated celery and lettuce .

Cover Crops

Oats , buckwheat and vetch help forbid territory wearing , reduce water loss and enrich soil . Thesecover cropscan be planted in beds betimes in the season , before crops are planted , or at the ending of the time of year , after harvest , to amend the soil for the next get time of year .

Living Mulch

Plants like buckwheat , genus Alyssum and clover can be used to treat soil between industrial plant and keep skunk from produce , while enriching the soil and draw beneficial insects .

three sisters