COMPANION VEGETABLE PLANTINGS
               

Different kinds of vegetables when grown at the same time in the same plot and which are complementary in growth demands are called "companion" plants.

This is a common sense approach to growing food with minimum use of fertilizer and pesticide sprays. Avid gardeners throughout the years have painstakingly observed, studied, and recorded which combination worked best and which did not. Thus we are the lucky beneficiaries to this knowledge.

A well-cited companion trio practiced by native Americans are the combination of corn, beans and squash in the same plot. The corn supplies support for the beans; the beans supply nitrogen for the corn and squash; and the squash supplies shade that snuffs out weeds. Everybody benefits from being together.

Companion plantings were widely practiced before commercial large scale monoculture agriculture took over our way of growing food. Now, with the trend reverting back to organic farming, and the buy local movement, the trend is skewed toward small family farms where monoculture is seldom practiced.

Companion plantings are based on the wisdom that by pairing crops that are complementary in feeding and growth requirements, or pair quick maturing crops with slower maturing crops, you can see an increase in yield for the crops grown together.
 

Some examples of companion plantings are:

radish with slow maturing carrots

broccoli with arugula

broccoli rabe with lettuce

Swiss chard with cress

   

                         SHADING BENEFIT

There are numerous advantages to pairing crops this way. One of the advantages is shading benefit offered by the large leaves of the squash plant when grown together with lettuce.

 

DIFFERENT ROOT DEPTHS ABSORB NUTRIENTS

 AT DIFFERENT SOIL LEVELS

Grow deep rooted plants with shallow rooted plants. Some examples are:

deep rooted carrots with shallow rooted bush beans.
lettuce with radish.
lettuce with carrots.

 

       PROVIDES SOURCE OF GREEN MANURE

Corn growers seed clover between corn rows. The clover grows through the winter after the corn has been harvested, and increases soil nitrogen for the next season when it decomposes in spring.

Match:

carrots and vetch/crimson clover
lettuce and winter rye
legumes with non-legumes
rye and vetch

 

    CONTROLS PESTS AND ATTRACT BENEFICIAL  

                                 INSECTS

Marigold roots secrete a substance that prevents nematode infestation when planted with vegetables or fruit crops.
French marigold planted between tomatoes deter aphids.
Garlic, onions, chives and aromatic herbs, such as catnip, horehound, basil, mint, wormwood, and tansy are natural insect repellents. At the same time, their blossoms attract beneficial insects that help keep pests away.

Carrots and leeks have strong scents that drive away each other's pests.

Grow asparagus and tomatoes together. Asparagus keeps nematodes away from tomatoes.

Dill attracts hoverflies - that eat aphids, and predatory wasps.

Plant garlic and roses. Garlic keeps rose aphids away.

Tansy and pennyroyal keep ants away.

Chives and garlic repel aphids.

Garlic repels the peach borer from peach trees.

Basil and tomatoes repel the tomato horn worm.

Nasturtium and squash repels the squash bug.

Nasturtium attracts caterpillars away from cabbage.

Marigold, mint, thyme, and chamomile repel cabbage moth.

Radish traps cucumber beetles.

Radish and cabbage trap flea beetles.

Thyme and lavender deter slugs.

 

For more examples of companion plantings, go to

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/complant.html

 


                

 

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