All New Square Foot Gardening - Companion Planting

Organic vegetable gardening means that you will not be spraying toxic chemicals on your fresh food, and you won't be spreading chemical fertilizers on the ground. If you don't do that, how do you keep your garden from becoming a bug feast or prevent sparse, low quality crops?

Companion planting is the solution. Companion planting can be described as growing two or more different kinds of plants close together so that some benefit is derived, like repelling pests, attracting beneficial insects, adding needed nutrients to the soil, or providing shelter

Catnip Plants

Some plants give off scents or chemicals that repel insects, insects like worms and beetles that can destroy your garden. Other plants help prevent disease or attract insects, which are beneficial to plants. And some plants are exceptional at breaking down the soil and helping other plants absorb vital nutrients. Essentially companion planting is used to help your core plants thrive without chemicals.

An example would be planting corn and beans together. Corn removes nitrogen from then soil while growing. Beans fix nitrogen back into the soil while growing and help the corn

I'll provide a warning though to people who would plant beans in with their corn. Bean varieties include pole beans (climbing beans) and bush beans (non-climbing beans). Do NOT plant pole beans in with your corn. The climbing beans will create a twisted and leafy jungle around your corn plants, making it difficult to harvest the corn.

Companion Planting Suggestions

Marigolds have a very strong fragrance. Many insects find marigolds quite distasteful including nematodes (roundworms), whiteflies, beetles, and aphids. To use marigolds as a companion plant, plant them at the perimeter of your square foot garden box. Take care to not plant them too closely to your vegetables because they do attract spider mites and slugs.

Nasturtiums or wormwood are good when planted close to the cabbage family as they attract the white cabbage moth away from the plants. Nasturtiums are also very helpful when planting broccoli

If you're growing tomatoes, geraniums repel cabbage worms, Japanese beetles, and leafhoppers. If you're planting corn, grapes, peppers or cabbage, geraniums are also beneficial.

If you intend to grow tomatoes, planting garlic with them is a good idea. Planting them with carrots is a bad idea because the tomatoes will stunt the growth of the carrots. Avoid planting dill and kohlrabi near tomatoes, because they slow tomato growth.

Horseradish is good with potatoes.

Parsley is good with tomatoes.

Santolina is a good insect repellent, especially for spinach and lettuce.

Thyme is a good protective border for the vegetable garden and repels fruit moths.

Keep ants away? Catnip, Mint, Onion, Peppermint, Spearmint, Tansy, Wormwood.

Slug repellent? Artemisia, Fennel, Garlic, Rosemary, Sage (Fennel is harmful to most plants especially beans, cucumbers and tomatoes)

When you don't want flypaper in your garden - Basil, Pennyroyal, Rue, Tansy (also repels Aphids and greenfly)

Don't Forget The Bees

You need bees and other pollinating insects if you are:

planting tomatoes planting potatoes planting beans planting pumpkins

Bees are attracted by most flowers because they collect nectar to make honey and pollen to feed to the larvae. Going from flower to flower to collect as much as they can before going back to the hive, they take pollen from one plant to the next and help with plant fertilization as they go. Flowering plants are important in a vegetable patch. Some of the best include: allysium, red clover, Queen Anne's lace, cosmos, coriander, parsley flowers, dill, small daisies and lucerne.

Happy eating!

All New Square Foot Gardening - Companion Planting