If you haven’t heard of companion plants before you have come to the right place. We have put together a guide for starting your journey to knowing the basics of planting compatible plants next to each other.
Companion plants are two or more plants that are planted in close proximity to each other so that they can aid each other in the deterrence of pests or help with growth.
Here is a small list of some compatible plants so you can get your garden growing strong and reduce those pests naturally.
What plants are companions?
- Garlic and strawberry plants
Growing garlic plants next to strawberry plants reduces spider mites. Therefore, planting a few garlic plants in between your strawberry plants will help keep those pests off your strawberries and their leaves.
- Basil and tomato plants
Planting basil near tomato plants benefits both plants. Basil repels pests such as whiteflies, fruit flies, aphids and tomato hookworm and increases the flavour of tomatoes by helping the tomato plant remain healthy. While tomatoes help the basil plant grow stronger by providing shade and moist soil for the basil.
For every one tomato plant you will want to plant two basil plants on either side. Basil also loves the same soil type as tomatoes so they compliment each other in that way as well.
- Corn and cucumber plants
Corn encourages cucumber vines to grow up them and also provides excellent shade for cucumber plants. Likewise, the cucumber plants benefit the corn plants by deterring raccoons, providing moist soil and decreasing weeds around the corn. If you plan to plant these two close by, plant the corn two weeks before the cucumber plants to give the corn time to sprout up. Plant the cucumbers around the corn crop section or in between the rows.
- Sage and broccoli
Sage is great for protecting broccoli and cauliflower from cabbage moths and cabbage worms. It also releases special chemicals that help broccoli grow faster. However, do not plant cucumbers near sage as they can affect the cucumber plants growth negatively.
Now that you know the basics of companion plants you can grow your garden confidently.
For more on this topic, we have listed two great websites below:
