It’s that time of year when all of us gardeners get downright giddy. Like children counting down to Christmas morning, we count down to our last average frost date and when we can officially begin the season. With our recent Real Food Challenge, I imagine some of you are considering starting some of your own plantings this year. And if you’re refusing to purchase food with chemicals and pesticides, why would you want to put them on your own garden?
Borage
I’m an organic gardener and I choose to use companion plantings to assist in pest control – plant early mustard crops so that cabbage worms will drawn to them instead of your cabbages. Certain combinations of plants also compliment each other – peas supply nitrogen to the soil which tomatoes adore. In addition to proper soil care, companion planting can make an enormous difference in the success of your crops.
Tomatillos
Over time I’ve collected a list of common plant combinations that work well together. Here are a few of them:
- Beans (Bush): Beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, pea, radish, strawberry, savory, tansy, marigold. They do not like kohlrabi, basil or onion.
- Beans (Pole): do not like beets, onion, kohlrabi, radish, nor basil.
- Beets: like bush beans, cabbage, onions, sage. Avoid mustard and pole beans.
- Borage: repels tomato worms.
- Brassica: Candytuft will reduce flea beetles. They get along well with sage, mint, dill, chamomile, bush beans, beets, celery, onions, tomato, strong herbs, marigold and nasturtium. Avoid strawberries and pole beans.
- Calendula (pot marigold) repels tomato worms and asparagus beetles.
- Carrots: don’t like dill. they do get along well with bush and pole beans, lettuce, onion, peas, radish, sage, and flax. I’ve heard two sides to the story of carrots and tomatoes – they adore each other, but tomatoes can rob carrots thus inhibiting their growth.
- Catnip: Attracts beneficials, is said to repel deer.
- Dill: attracts beneficials.
- Eggplant: like pole and bush beans, spinach and catnip.
- Garlic: repells japanese beetles, aphids and blight.
- Lavender repels moths.
- Lemon Balm: attracts beneficials.
- Nasturtium repels aphids, squash bugs, and striped pumpkin beetles.
- Parsley: Attracts beneficials.
- Peas: don’t like onions or late potatoes. They do like bush and pole beans, carrots, corn, cucumbers, spinach, sweet peppers, strawberries, and radish.
- Peppers: love basil and cilantro. These herbs help keep humidity close to the plant.
- Potato: plant flax to repel potato bug.
- Rosemary: Attracts beneficials.
- Squash: plant with corn for shade and radish to repel pests.
- Tansy repels japanese beetles, striped cucumber beetles, squash bugs, ants and flies.
- Thyme: Attracts beneficials and repels cabbage worms.
- Tomatoes: plant borage, mint and basil but avoid pole beans, dill, and potatoes.
- Yarrow: Attracts beneficials.
Nasturtium
I hope this will give you all some ideas on avoiding expensive and possibly dangerous chemicals in your garden. Here’s to a productive gardening year for all of us and continuing to eat Real Foods.
To see details of my garden plans for the year, visit my Flickr account.
A great list! I generally tend to use the basil with tomatoes the most. I tried oregano and squash but it didn’t seem to deter the squash bugs or the borers. Row covers are probably better suited for squash.
Last year I was pretty aggressive with the borers and squash bugs. I put some aluminum foil under my vines to reflect light upward and under the leaves since the pests prefer to hide in dark places. I also dusted regularly with Diatomaceous Earth and picked eggs off daily. I had no borer issues at all, and kept the squash bugs in check! In the end it was blight that killed my vines.
Do you find that if you plant the companion plants in the same vicinity, you receive the same benefits, or do they need to be planted right next to the vegetable plant?
I planned on a “wild flower” garden of mixed things like Mexican Sunflowers, regular sunflowers, cosmos, lemon balm, dill, nastriums, basil, etc to bring the bees, but if I can get tomato worms to stay away with borage, then I’m there!
If you’re using the companion as a “trap crop” it’s best if you plant them away from the main crop unless you plan to squish bugs every day. Mustard, for example, will draw cabbage moths and some beetles – so you’ll want to plant those earlier than and away from your other brassicas so the pests will focus on them instead of your broccoli and kale.
Borage is one of my favorites – it attracts bees like mad, adds nutrients like calcium to the soil, and is said to make strawberries taste better. It’s also an edible flower and it self-seeds. This one you want to plant near the main crop.
The majority of my list should be good for planting near each other unless specifically marked. Good luck with tomato worms!
I love borage and have grown it in the past but I found it such a magnet for japanese beetles that I’m almost afraid to plant it again. It drew more beetles to the garden than anything else. I’m thinking about using it for a trap crop away from everything else. The JB were horrible here last year. Any suggestions?
Judy,
Anything that will draw your native parasitic wasps will help get rid of Japanese Beetles. The beetles are suppose to have an aversion to garlic and tansy, but I still find them all over my beans and roses. You can also use Neem Oil if you have an unusually awful invasion. Avoid those bags of bait, as they’ll just draw more beetles from you neighbors to wherever you’re hanging the bait.
Oh, love the list. I have tried this as well and so far have been successful with the exception of slugs, hate slugs. The pictures are lovely, we are receiving rain right now, but still have piles of snow everywhere so it will be awhile before planting begins.
Thanks for the great great list. Emily in So TX
Great list! I am trying to figure out what would be helpful to interplant with my asparagus and my garlic. Any ideas?
Garlic is one of those plants that is a tremendous helper. I plant some in most of my beds to help keep offending insects away. Do not plant your asparagus and garlic together, however.
Both plants love very fertile soil, but asparagus benefits from other plants. Dill, comfrey for nitrogen and compost, marigolds for nematodes – just be sure to give your roots plenty of space.
Good luck!
Thanks, that’s just in time as we are several weeks ahead of you..meaning we are planting the raised seeds we planted at the beginning of last month…potatoes are already in…we don’t use any unnatural things and are lucky to live deep in the country side surrounded by donkeys (where there’s donkeys..)This is our 3rd year and are hoping for 85 percent self sufficiency with veg this year..look forward to reading more and comparing..
I almost always companion plant. I have tons of herbs and beneficial plants around the gardens.
I’ve noticed that the less I intervene the less trouble I have with diseases & pests. That means occasionally losing a crop, but overall I think I’m losing far less now that I do not use any sprays (even organic) or any chemical or unnatural fertilizers.
Putting up wren houses is a great idea as well. Wrens are tiny workhorses in the garden, eating tons of cabbage worms and other pests. I found this past year that their brood rearing coincides with the cabbage worm ramp up, fascinating. Just as the cabbage worms were getting bad the baby wrens hatched and the parents went into overdrive eating cabbage worms, in less than a week I couldn’t find a singe cabbage worm in my garden. I had to be ok with having some damage, and possible loss if the wrens didn’t eat them, but they did. I’m glad I did as well, I should see more and more wrens in the future if I make sure they’re getting good wholesome bugs to eat by not spraying or picking off.
Gotta love biodiversity!
I am making planter boxes this weekend to plant all of my seedlings into. I was just going to look up combo planting. Thanks so much for this detailed list it is perfect for me right now!!!
Rebecca of the R&W Gals