Companion planting vegetables and fruit in the garden is the practice of planting certain plants together to both benefit each other. People have been companion planting for many years and much of what we know about companion planting has been passed down through generations or trial and error.
In today’s newsletter we’ll explore how to use companion planting in the garden and how simply placing your places together (or apart) can help benefit both and build healthier plants and a better harvest.
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Companion Planting
There are several reasons why planting certain plants together is beneficial, although most of what we know about companion planting is from observation and a few scientific studies.
One of the most famous examples of companion planting in the garden is the 3 Sisters. The Three Sisters garden is a traditional Native American planting technique that involves intercropping three main crops: corn, beans, and squash. This sustainable method utilizes the complementary growth habits of these plants, where corn provides support for beans to climb, beans fix nitrogen in the soil, and squash shades the ground, reducing weed growth and moisture loss.
This may be the most famous but there are many other ways to companion plant and we’ve been experimenting with beneficial plantings in our own garden for years.
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Attracting Beneficial Bugs
A common practice of companion planting is to use one plant to attract beneficial bugs for another plant. The most common example of this is using flowers to attract bees that help pollinate your vegetables and fruit. Another example is to plant cone-shaped flowers that attract beneficial wasps that help manage other bug problems.
Deter Harmful Bugs
This is another potential benefit of companion planting although there is less evidence behind this. Certain plants emit a smell that deters bugs or in some cases, the plant itself may be poisonous to bugs.
Discourage Larger Pests
In addition to bugs, there are many other animals that can cause major problems in your backyard garden. Planting hedges is one way to deter certain animals, but there are also plants that certain animals dislike that may deter them from eating your other crops. Raccoons apparently don’t like cucumbers for example!
Companion Planting Vegetables for Shared Nutrients
As plants grow they pull nutrients from the soil around them and certain plants (like legumes) fix nitrogen in the soil. Using these plants with other plants helps to provide the needed nutrients for heavy feeders. There are also some plants that give off other chemicals that can benefit nearby plants.
Companion Planting Vegetables for Shade
This is a less common companion planting strategy but is easy to execute and worth considering. We like to plant our lettuce to the north of something that grows tall. That way in the summer when the lettuce is prone to bolting, it will be shaded by the larger plant in the front. You can also plant a ground cover plant that shades the base of tall plants and helps shade the roots from direct sun.
Companion Planting to Mark Other Plants
Finally, companion planting fruits and vegetables can help a gardener to define plant rows especially when you partner slow-growing and fast-growing vegetables. We use this strategy when growing carrots since they have a long germination time, we usually plant them alongside a faster-growing vegetable like lettuce. This way you can see where the seeds are coming up giving the carrots time to germinate.
Companion Planting Chart
While the concept of companion planting seems easy enough, implementing it into your garden can easily feel overwelming, especially when you add in succession planting, rotational planting, garden design and everything else that goes into planning a garden.
In general we recommend starting with a few companion plant groupings and try a few new strategies each year.
10 Simple Companion Planting Strategies
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by companion planting. Here are some quick ‘rules’ or strategies that you can use to help you start companion planting vegetables and fruits in your own garden.
Use herbs throughout your vegetable garden to help attract and deter bugs. Some of the best herbs to try are basil, borage, chives, cilantro, lavender, chives, mint oregano, rosemay, sage, thyme. Simply interplant these herbs with your other vegetables.
Plant beneficial flowers in your garden to attract pollinators. Bright colored and cone shaped flowers are excellent at attracting pollinators. You can learn more about using flowers as in your homestead garden here.
Try planting the 3 sister’s garden. Try growing beans, pumpkin and corn all together in the same garden. This tried and true garden method is great for promoting better growth for all plants. You can also try substituting sunflowers for the corn, or peas for beans.
Try growing tomatos and basil together. I love this combination not only because there plants help each other, but when you go to pick a tomato you can grab some basil at the same time! You can also add some pepper plants to the mix as well as they like both tomatoes and basil.
Plant your lettuce behind something tall. We often plant our lettuce behind something that grows vertically such as a bean trellis. You can also shade your lettuce behind tomatoes.
In a backyard garden, avoid growing too much of one crop together to avoid a pest infestation that takes over. Instead, mix you plants up – have a row of tomatoes in one part of the garden and a few places in another place. This gives you a higher success rate.
Avoid mixing legumes with the onion family. That means keep your peas and beans away from your leeks, onions, and garlic.
Keep cabbage away from your strawberries! Cabbage tends to attract bugs and when planted near strawberries, they often impact your strawberry crop.
Plant your carrot seeds along with other seeds like lettuce and add a row of oinions nearby to help deter carrot fly.
Don’t get so hung up on planting with the right companion plants. We’ve broken the rules many many times and usually still come out with a great vegetable garden.
Let me know how you use companion planting in the comments!
Happy Homesteading,
Gretchen
Backyard Farming Connection is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
