Intro to Companion Planting

 
Hi everyone! I know that many of you are just getting ready to plant your veggie gardens and that some of you have another month or so before you can start. So I thought this would be a good time to start talking about companion planting.

Companion planting basically is growing plants together because of the effect they have on one another.  For example, in the photo above, I have chives planted under a rose.  Chives are supposed to keep aphids away from roses and help with blackspot. I’ve never had either of those problems with this rose, but don’t know if it’s really due to the chives or the variety of rose.

Some would say companion planting is not a proven scientific method, but it’s something people have been doing for a long long time (back to ancient Roman times).


This is the bed that has the most growing right now. So I’ll use it to illustrate companion planting. I’ll have other examples to share as I continue planting my garden.


Onion interplanted with carrots is supposed to reduce carrot fly and thrips. It’s also suppose to protect lettuce against slugs.


Carrots are slow to germinate and the seeds are so teeny tiny that most people plant them with radishes.  The radishes mark your row and when they are ready to be pulled up your carrots will have grown enough that you can tell where they are.

Radishes are supposed to attract leafminers away from spinach and because we eat the root (radish) the damage to it’s leaves is unimportant. Those big leafy things are spinach growing next to the onions and radishes with lettuce next to them.

Here’s a site with a fairly comprehensive list of of companion plants to get you started -  Companion Planting.

To make the cute garden markers you need a metal stamping kit. I got mine last year through a hardware store that sells online but I can’t remember their name. I think I saw one at Michaels in the Jewelry section.  So check there first.

I’ll show you other examples of companion planting as I get my raised beds planted. Here’s my post on How To Make A Raised Bed. There’s more than one way to do it, but this is how I do it.


Remember that what works for one gardener in one area and season may not necessarily work for another. That’s the thing about gardening, a lot of it is learning by trial and error.

Have a great weekend everyone!