The Basics of Companion Planting Garden Crops (2024)

Benefits of Companion Planting

There are numerous benefits to companion planting. Plants can attract beneficial insects and pollinators, deter pests, and act as insect repellants. They can fend off predators and undesirable wildlife. Raccoons, for instance, dislike the smell of cucumbers.

Plants also play a role in soil fertility by improving the nutrient supply, availability, and uptake from the soil. Tall plants such as corn can provide shade for crops like lettuce which do not do well in the hot summer sun, and they can serve as support for crops that need trellising. Interplanting different crops can help mark garden rows and distinguish fast-germinating plants like radishes from slower-germinating plants like lettuce. Proper companion planting can even help suppress weeds.

Best Companion Plants

Some vegetable combinations are superstars in bringing out the best in one another or in preventing common pest and disease problems. Among these outstanding combinations:

• Corn, pole beans, and squash: Known as the "three sisters," this combination was first developed by American Indian people centuries ago. Corn, with its sturdy stems, provides upright support for climbing beans. For their part, the pole beans fix nitrogen in the soil, providing essential nutrients for all three sisters. And the large leaves of the ground-dwelling squash shade the soil, retain moisture, and block out weeds.
• Cucumbers, sunflowers, and pole beans: The principle here is the same as for the three sisters: the sunflower supports climbing pole beans, while cucumber vines shield the ground.
• Basil and tomatoes: These can be considered "best friends" in the garden. Basil repels thrips and disrupts the habits of the moths that cause tomato hornworms.
• Sage, with carrots or cabbage. Sage is a proven repellant for carrot flies and cabbage moths.
• Parsley and tomatoes: Parsley attracts beneficial insects that help keep control of damaging insects that prey on tomato plants.

In addition, some plants benefit almost any plant they are paired with—either by repelling damaging insects or attracting beneficial insects that prey on the bad guys. These champions include:

• Nasturtiums: This plantlures hungry caterpillars away from brassicas, including cabbage, broccoli, and kale,
• Mint: This plant's scent strongly repels aphids, ants, and flea beetles.
• Garlic: This onion relative has a strong scent that is repugnant to aphids, and all repels a variety of mites, moths, and beetles.
• Dill: This plant is known to attract ladybugs, which are voracious eaters of damaging aphids and spider mites.

Companion Planting with Herbs

Not every garden is large enough to grow various crops for companion planting. But that does not mean that you cannot take advantage of herbs' numerous benefits, like trapping and repelling pests and attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects to increase the biodiversity in your backyard.

From aphids to tomato hornworms, these are just a few of the culinary herbs that can take care of different pests in your garden or attract beneficial insects:

• Basil
• Borage
• Chives
• Cilantro
• Lavender
• Mint
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme

Allow some herbs to bloom because that's when they become a natural magnet for beneficial insects.

Flowers as Companion Plants

Planting flowers in your vegetable garden does more than create beauty and provide cut flowers. Annuals such as nasturtiums, sunflowers, marigolds, and zinnias, and perennials such as lavender repel pests and attract beneficial insects.

Flowers as a Beacon for Pollinators

Bees and other pollinators help spread pollen, encouraging vegetable plants to grow, reproduce, and produce fruits and vegetables. Pollinators favor zinnias, sweet alyssum, daisies, sunflowers, and cosmos.

Flowers as Deterrent for Problem Pests

Certain flowers, like petunias, repel squash bugs and tomato hornworms; petunias are a great companion for beans, tomatoes, and corn. Meanwhile, marigolds repel cabbage worms. Cabbage worms mainly target cabbage, mustard greens, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and related vegetables. Ornamental alliums (including edible ones, like onions, scallions, and chives) also deter deer, rabbits, aphids, cabbage looper, carrot flies, and potato beetles.

How and When to Plant Companion Flowers

Add flowers that will bloom at the same time as your vegetables. Many plant care guides and seed packets will list bloom time. Also, check watering and sun requirements. It's often best to put plants with similar care needs near each other.

Take the time to think about the colors the flowers will produce and the heights of the plants. For instance, if you have tomatoes with tomato cages that overshadow your sun-loving marigolds, it might be a good idea to plant the marigold in front of the tomatoes so that you can enjoy their golden pom-pom blooms and so they get the full sun they love.

As long as they have similar care requirements, you can intersperse them in rows right next to each other or make borders of the shorter, more ornamental plants.

Which Vegetables Shouldn't Be Planted Together

Just as there are plants that make good neighbors, there are plenty of opportunities to plant bad neighbors. Generally, plants that compete because of similar nutrient needs, water, space—aboveground growth and belowground root systems—and sunlight should not be planted next to each other. For example, a fast-growing zucchini or winter squash vine should not be planted next to lettuce; it will overgrow it in no time. Similarly, tomatoes and corn are unsuitable neighbors because they compete for nutrients and water, and the rapidly growing corn casts too much shade on the sun-loving tomatoes.

Crops that are susceptible to the same plant disease, such as blight, should be kept as far as possible from each other to prevent it from spreading. The same applies to pests. Cauliflower, kale, and other cruciferous vegetables all attract aphids, flea beetles, and cabbage loopers so keep them as much apart as possible, at least at opposite ends of a garden bed.

Some crops can inhibit the growth of other plants. Fennel is often offered as an example of a poor companion plant that should be given its own spot in the garden, far away from all other crops. Beans and members of the allium family (onions, garlic) are equally bad neighbors as the presence of onions leads to poor germination of the beans.