Vegetable companion planting guide

Playing matchmaker in the garden

Companion planting provides gardeners with the means to naturally and effectively increase crop yields, control pests, and nurture tender seedlings. Over the last century, farmers, botanists, and horticulturists have developed a myriad of methods both chemical and procedural to make crops grow bigger, better, and cheaper than ever before. Unfortunately, many of these technological methods have hidden prices to pay. As opposed to chemical or industrial processes, companion planting provides greater efficiency without undesirable side effects, such as environmental degradation, a lowering of the nutritional value of crops, and harmful pesticide residues on the foods we eat.

Kicking it old school

Commercial techniques, such as the application of toxic insecticides and chemical fertilizers, have been powerfully beneficial in the past. Increasingly, awareness of the hidden costs of these agents has caused gardeners to take a look at the methods developed through the trial and error of the successive generations of organic farmers that came before. Companion planting figures prominently among the tools nearly lost to the rapid industrialization of farming. Vegetable companion planting is a form of polyculture, a simple combination of two or more plants to create a better microenvironment in which all vegetation can grow and thrive.

Pairing up

There are many benefits of companion planting, both in the vegetable garden and elsewhere. As in nature, companion planting creates biodiversity, avoiding the susceptibility of monoculture to both pests and disease. In its simplest application, just two crops are grown together. If one crop is at risk for disease, the second crop ensures that something will survive. This biodiversity-based concept can be used in tremendously sophisticated ways, plotting plant combinations with the aid of companion planting charts and elaborate garden plans. Vegetable companion planting can also be used in such a way that one crop physically supports another. This technique is most commonly seen with tall plants, like corn, supporting climbing vines like peas or beans. Companion planting techniques promote healthy soil, capitalize on all available space, and takes full advantage of every available day of the growing season.

Brains and beauty

Vegetable companion planting can also create a more beautiful vegetable patch. Simple, neat rows of tasty greens turn into an elegant and decorative potager when punctuated with blooming annuals and bright perennials. The classic tradition of the English cottage garden is part of this school of garden design. In these overflowing, abundant gardens every inch of space is maximized. Showy perennials are grown along equally architectural kales and wandering squash plants. For a more austere, but equally lovely kind of companion planting, turn to the French. In the French tradition vegetable gardens are planted within a ridged geometry of impeccably constructed beds. Inside these bed areas different plants live side-by-side, utilizing all the benefits of symbiotic planting.

Double down

Companion planting needn’t fall neatly into the categories of utilitarian or beautifying. Many garden favorites do double duty in the vegetable garden. For example, climbing roses growing lushly over a vegetable garden’s entrance keep hungry aphids off delicate starts. Nasturtiums are also decorative and functional plants in the ornamental vegetable garden. Their enchanting, bright blooms, made famous in the gardens of Monet, are attractive to many of the insects that also enjoy plants in the cabbage family. Since the nasturtium is notoriously prolific, it can withstand the onslaught of potentially harmful garden pests and still look great. The faithful marigold is another plant that is both charming and a powerful ally to the gardener. Marigold repels pests and attracts beneficial insects with its unusual scent.