Companion planting
- Topic in Gardening courses
Chunks of information
- In my http://eagle-rock.org/index.php/Garden_calendar you find companion plants for several vegetables, in the comments column.
A full list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants
Plants that dislike each other: tomato and green peppers; leafy plants dislike each other as they both need a lot of fertilizers; some plants such as wormwood inhibit the growth of all other plants near them.
I don't make much use of specific companion plants, but i do always sow or plant together: - Carrot and onion - they protect each other against carrot fly and onion fly - Fava bean and dill - dill protects the fava bean plants against greenfly.
Other than that, my garden has such a mix of vegetables and herbs that i don't need to pay much attention to which plants grow better with which other ones.
My system, developed over many years of trial and practice: - In the center of the circles in a field, i plant a perennial or sometimes annual plant that i take extra well care of. - I roughly divide the plants in: root plants, leaf plants, flower plants and herbs, these four categories, and i try to place these plants in parallel circles. I am flexible with this, or maybe better said a bit sloppy, but ideally a field would contain all of these plants in circles. For example:
- In the center lavender
- Then a circle with beetroot (root plant)
- Then a circle with spinach (leaf plant)
- Then a circle calendula (flowering plant)
- Then a circle celery (herb)
I don't always use this system strictly. When a flowering plant has sown itself out and the seeds come out next year, i leave them where they grow and adapt the circles around this. Potatoes don't always fit into this system as well, as you have to sow a lot of them at once. For potatoes i often reserve their own fields, but i do have potatoes also within the fields with other plants in circles.
I place fruit trees and berries mostly at the edges of the garden, or i give them their own field. Around a berry or even more a fruit tree, there's a rather wide area where vegetables don't grow so well. Trees and bushes give shade and pull a lot of fertilizers and water out of the soil, so you better don't place them in the center of a field. A small berry bush would be okay, but in time they grow bigger and will give you trouble.
- The four categories of plants, root plants, leafy plants, flowering plants, herbs represent four levels of energy:
- root plants - earth
- leafy plants - atmosphere
- flowering plants - sun
- herbs - cosmos
These categories of plants pick up these energies and transmit them to the other plants in the garden. When you make your garden a harmonious balance of these four main categories of plants, you'll attract the energies of the entire creation to your garden and when you eat vegetables and fruits from such a garden, you'll be filled with all the energies you need.
- Of course, the categorization of these four groups is not absolute. Also leafy plants form flowers and have roots. But by dividing your garden plants in these main categories you can ensure that your garden has a balanced choice of plants that attract energies of different kinds. Planting these categories alternating in concentric circles next to each other, you also make sure that the soil nutrients are best used. Some of these plants such as legumes even make new soil nutrients. You also won't need pesticides as harmful insects that are attracted by one species are repelled by companion plants.
Gallery
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See also
External links
- Companion planting "Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity (in gardening and agriculture), on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity. Companion planting is a form of polyculture." - Wikipedia
- List of companion plants Wikipedia
