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.

Gallery

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  Onions are a good companion plant for carrots. Here onions are planted in a row of just sown carrot.

See also

• Gardening courses
• Knowledge base:Gardening

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