Written by Charlotte West
The beautiful part of planting crops that compliment each other is the fact that you can avoid chemicals to treat your garden. As I always encourage organic gardening when at all possible. And companion gardening also helps bring out the best in your plants. Giving them a better taste and a larger yield.
Here are a few crops that will help each other become all they can be.
1: Bush beans planted with potatoes help deture the Colorado beetle and in return the potatoes help the bush beans ward off the Mexican bean beetle.
2: If you want sweeter carrots planting onions or leeks nearby will act as a repellent to the carrot fly.
3: Corn tends to leach nitrogen from the soil so planting peas and beans help replenish the lost nitrogen. Melons, squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins can benefit from being planted amoung your corn as they can benefit from the shade.Plus you get the added bonus of helping
deture raccons,as they do not like to travel through the thick vines.
4: Cucumbers not only like the corn (as the corn helps prevent the virus that causes wilt) but they love the shade from sunflowers as well.
5: Dandelions ( even though they can be frustrating ) act as little elevator shafts for earthworms. Because the roots of Dandelions typically have roots up to three feet deep. So you just might leave some dandelions.
6: Garlic deserves a big thumbs up. It is a most helpful insecticide against those pesky aphids and spider mites And if you plant garlic around fruit trees you have the added benefit of keeping borers away from the trees.
7: Horseradish and potatoes have a symbiotic effect on each other. Both will aid in healthier plants and be more resistant to disease.
8: Tomatoes will thrive well amoung Asparagus by healping protect the asparagus from the asparagus beetle. And throw in some of that much loved garlic to keep the red spider mites away from your tomatoes.
9: Here in Dixie we tend to have an over growth of fast growing mulberry trees. So before you go cutting them down you might just want to plant some grapes around them. You can train the grapes to climb the tree. Allowing the grapes to spread out instead of becoming more compact, thus providing more air circulation. The result will be a healthier crop of grapes relativly
free from fungus.
Now when it comes to bad companions just remember this.
1: Keep your beans away from onions
2: Tomatoes and anything in the cabbage family will not get along
3: Cucumbers and potatoes do not like each other and
4: Corn and tomatoes should stay far away from each other.
The friendship of plants can sometimes be one sided. Even a unhealthy friendship. But when plants show their good character they can double your garden bounty.
So work at planning your garden right. You will work less and receive more.
Charlotte West moved to southern Utah in 2004 from the farmlands of southern Arkansas, where cultivating the earth is a way of life. Her experiences give her a unique perspective on how plants grow, adapt, and survive in different climates. She finds great joy in sharing her knowledge with others and tending to her garden. From seedlings to 70-year-old elms, she can help you with your horticulture needs.
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