You can mimic nature by planting companion plants to give your vegetables the best chance of growing. Companion planting can be a great way to increase your garden’s fruitfulness, health, and productivity. It is great for wildlife, pollinator, and soil health. They can also repeal pests and improve the taste of your harvest.
It is important to understand what plants work well together and how they can support each other to increase your garden’s productivity. Learn more about the benefits of companion planting and how it can improve your garden.
Space Saver
Everyone wants to make the most of the garden space they have. You can save garden space by planting vining plants under taller ones to make the most of space that would otherwise be wasted. For more efficient gardening, you can also plant fast-growing crops between slower-growing plants.
Provides Shade and Shelter for Other Plants
Planting sturdy, tall climbers in your garden can help eliminate the need to build separate structures or stakes. Corn and sunflowers are vertically friendly plants that can support climbing crops like beans, cucumbers, and peas. Plants that don’t need as much sun can benefit from the shade provided by tall crops.
A Beginners Guide to Companion Planting
A wide range of plants can help increase the frequency of visits from pollinators and other helpful insects. Your garden’s health depends on the presence of bees, butterflies, and birds; these insects can be a great pest control option for your precious plants. You can keep beneficial insects returning to your garden by diversifying plants and flowers with long and varied blooming times.
Soil Composition
It is possible to plant different types of plants together, which can help maintain soil moisture and reduce erosion. Cucumber and squash plants do a fantastic job shading the soil, and shading can help protect the soil during droughts. Certain vegetable plants can also improve the soil quality of others plants. For example, beans help replenish the soil’s nitrogen while growing.
Pests and Diseases
This is best illustrated by the nasturtium plant and aphids. Nasturtium is often used to attract aphids and keep them away from other plants. This method of smart companion planting purposely uses the nasturtium plants as hosts and then sacrifices them to protect other plants from aphid infestations.
Diversify Your Garden
Complementary planting can have many aesthetic benefits, especially when a garden contains varying bloom times by combining annuals and perennials with different flowering times to ensure continuous blooms.
Helpful Tips
It doesn’t hurt to use examples of successful companion plants from other gardeners to begin your journey toward companion planting. These suggestions and tips will help you find the proper companions for your garden.
- Beans can use corn to climb, and the corn will return the favor by giving beans nitrogen.
- Marigolds and nasturtiums are great for deterring many pests.
- Marigolds repel Mexican bean beetles. Catnip repels flea beetles.
- Plant basil and tomatoes together to enhance the taste of tomatoes and repel aphids.
- Borage has many benefits for squash and tomatoes, including flavor enhancements and repelling tomato worms.
- Onions and mint varieties repel destructive insects
- Because of the oil it produces, flax plants keep pests from root vegetables.
- Garlic works wonders around plants as a natural pest repellant.
- Lavender not only has a lot of color but also repels pests.
- Attract ladybugs and other predatory insects by planting cosmos near your vegetable garden.
- Basil can be a great companion for almost everything.
Garden Care
As you can see, there are many benefits to companion planting. Complementary planting is not meant to replace proper garden preparation and maintenance. Regular watering, periodic feeding, proper lighting, and rich soil nutrients are critical to a successful garden. Healthy soil is good for plants. Make sure to amend your soil before you plant your companion garden. Mix sand, manure compost, and peat moss to create a perfect environment for your garden. Your knowledge of companion planting can be applied to any gardening method. The more you learn about what works well together, the more fun you will have working to get the best out of your garden.
