Companion Vegetables

Asparagus

Some gardeners find that asparagus plants like tomato plants and make them grow profusely.  Scientists have indeed isolated a substance, called asparagin, that seems to exert a good influence on tomato plants.  In the small space bed you might want to plant asparagus, tomatoes, marigolds, and beans next to each other.  Together these offer protection from a number of insect pests.  Parsley and basil also do well with asparagus.

Beans

Beans seem compatible with many vegetables.  Gardeners find they do well with beets, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, corn, and radishes.  Pole beans are stimulated by corn and will use the stalks for support.  Bush beans grow well with celery, French beans like potatoes and strawberries.  Neither pole nor bush beans seem to grow well with onions, garlic, or other members of the onion family; planted too close together, beans and onions tend to stunt the growth of one another.

Beets

Beets do well with almost everything we grow in our postage stamp garden, except pole beans.  Here they're set back.  They do especially well with lettuce, cabbage, onions, and even bush beans.  Why there's a difference in compatibility with the different bean varieties, pole and bush, has not been adequately explained, but apparently the chemistry is different.

Broccoli

Broccoli seems to do well near all the smelly herbs (such as chamomile, dill, sage, and rosemary) and also next to potatoes, beets, and onions.  It also prefers to be planted near other members of the cabbage family (such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower).  Keep it away from pole beans and strawberries.

Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts like broccoli and all other members of the cabbabe family.  But never follow Brussels sprouts in the same space that other members of this family have just occupied.  They do well next to potatoes and Chinese cabbage.  They are influenced by aromatic herbs and seem to be stimulated by close planting with sage, rosemary, hyssop and thyme.  They help repel the cabbage butterfly.

Cabbage

Cabbage and all other members of the cabbage family have under gone a rather specialized development.  Cabbage itself, for instance, has developed a sensitive terminal bud.  As a result, the cabbage relatives all seem a bity touchy and, under certain conditions, will deteriorate rapidly.  You can follow an early cabbage crop with beets, kohlrabi, onions, and radishes.  All members of this family grow well with marigolds.


Carrots

Carrots produce a root exudate that has a beneficial effect on peas.  Carrots also grow well with chives, leaf lettuce, onions, red readishes, and tomatoes.  In short, the carrot is an all-around plant in companionability.  However, they don't lke dill, fennel, or potatoes.

Cauliflower

Cauliflower, another member of the cabbage family, has mot of the family's usual wants and needs.  It is greatly influenced by aromatic herbs such as basil, borage, hyssop, sage, and thyme.  Don't grown near strawberries.

Celery

Celery does well with cabbages and cauliflower because it repels the cabbage butterfly.  It grows especially well with tomatoes.

Corn

Corn has intersting relationships with a lot of plants.  It is stimulated by both peas and beans-probably because these two add nitrogen to the soil in usuable form.  Corn also has a beneficial effect on cucumbers, melons, squash, and other vine crops.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are very adaptable in the garden.  The plants grow well intermixed with corn or cabbage, and they like nearby compaion plantings of such paired vegetabes as lettuce and bush beans or lettuce and radishes.  Racoons dislike the odor of cucumbers.  If you have a problem with these pests eating your corn, plant cucumbers between the plants.  Cucumbers don't care much for the aromatic herbs.

Kale

Kale does well planted with its cabbage relative.  It also benefits by being planted near aromatic herbs.

Lettuce

Lettuce seems to be a very chummy vegetable.  It grows well in combination with beets and cabbage-that is, all three together.  It aids onions and is aided by the presence of carrots and radishes.  Also interplant it with French marigolds.

Melons

Cantaloupes like to be near corn.  It you grow them up supports, they can benefit from marigolds planted underneath.

Onions

Onions and cabbage do well together.  Onions like to grow with beets and seem to benefit when planted near lettuce, tomatoes, and summer savory.  Apparently, they inhibit the growth of beans and peas.  When planted around rose bushes, they increase the fragrance of the roses.

Peas

Peas are one of those great plants that seem to help almost everything.  In particular, they fix nitrogen in the soil so that other plants can use it.  They especially like beans, carrots, cucumbers, corn, radishes, and turnips.  Their growth is retarded, however, by onions, garlic, fennel, and strawberries.  Rotate the location of your peas every year.

Peppers

Peppers are relatives of tomatoes and eggplant and can be grown among them without any problems.  Onions and carrots do well sown among pepper plants.  Basil makes a good companion to peppers and adds flavor to sweet peppers.

Potatoes

Potatoes do especially well with peas and can be planted with beans, cabbage, corn, peas, and strawberries.  They are especially helped by the nitrogen fixing ability of peas.  Summer savory makes a good companion for potatoes, as do nasturtiums and marigolds.  Surprisingly, they don't like cucumbers or tomatoes.

Radishes

Radishes and peas are mutually benefical, and pole beans are aided by radishes.  Nasturtiums give radishes a great flavor, and leaf lettuce makes them tender.

Spinach

Spinach helps to maintain soil microorganisms and soil moisture.  It also produces an exudate that stimulates other vegetables, such as cabbage.

Squash and Pumpkins

Squash and pumpkins like to grow among corn plants.  Winter squash and pumkins provide a good ground cover for corn, holding the moisture in the soil.  Good companions for all squash include beans, mint, and radishes.  Nasturtiums protect summer squash (including zucchini) and aphids.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes and asparagus are mutually benefical.  Tomatoes also do well grown near cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, and peas.  They help shade leaf lettuce in hot weather and benefit from its presence.  They grow particularly wel around basil and sage.  When planted near membes of the cabbage family, they help repel cabbage butterflies.  They don't do well with potatoes.

Turnips and Rutabagas

Turnips and rutabagas are mutually helpful.  And turnips are just generally helpful to a number of other vegetables including all members of the cabbage family.

Companion Herbs

Many herbs are quite pungent, and their scents can permeate the garden, especially if you occasionally crush a few of their leaves or stems to release the oils.  Many old-time gardeners swear that herbs are cure-alls for everything that ails the garden-from bad vibes to crows to insects.  If nothing else, with herbs you'll have the "smelliest" garden in town.

Basil

Sweet basil is generally beneficial to many vegetables.  It enhances the flavor of summer savory and helps tomatoes grow larger.  Basil is often planted near lettuce.  It also repels white flies and aphids.

Borage

Borage is a great companion for tomatoes: the two plants seem to stimulate each other.  Borage is especially good for strawberries.  The one drawback is that it spreads rapidly in the garden.

Chervil

Chervil helps enhance the flavor of other plants.  It is a good companion to carrots and radishes.  It likes to be shaded by other plants.

Chives

Like most other herbs, chives seem generally good for the garden.  They especially stimulate the growth of carrots and tomatoes.

Coriander

Coriander repels aphids when planted among other plants.

Dill

Dill in small quantites, has a beneficial effect.  It is especially good with cabbages.  When yound, it helps carrots, corn, cucumber, and tomatoes.  It repels carrot fly.  Mature dill, however, retards carrots and tomatoes.

Garlic

As a member of the onion family, garlic has the same effects as onions.

Lemon Balm

Lemon balm can be a good companion for cucumbers and tomatoes.

Marjoram

Some people insist that sweet marjoram is absolutely indispensable in the vegetable garden because it stimulates almost everything.  Marjoram and peppers seem to stimulate each other.  It also does well planted near sage.

Mint

Mint is generally beneficial to the garden and seems to repel many kinds of insects and pests.  It helps repel aphids, cabbage butterflies and white flies.  Since one of its main benefits is to repel insects, plant it in pots and sink the pots in the ground to keep the root contained.

Oregano

As a close relative of sweet marjoram, oregano is considered equally helpful in the garden.  Oregano and peppers seem to stimulate each other.  It also does well planted near sage.

Parsley

Parsley stimulates tomatoes and corn, especially when grown between the plants.  Parsley and carrots encourage each other.  It protects against carrots flies.

Rosemary

Rosemary and sage stimulate one another, and rosemary generally is beneficial to the garden.  It is a good companion to beans, carrots, and cabbages.  It repels bean beetles, cabbage butterflies, slugs, and snails.  It is especially useful because it attracts bees in droves.  Do not grow potatoes near rosemary.

Sage

Sage is especially helpful to cabbage, protecting it from some pests and making it more tender.  Generally, sage is helpful to all plants.

Savory

Summer savory is beneficial to onions and to beans.  It acts as a deterrent to many insect pests.

Tarragon

Some gardeners favor tarragon as much as they do sweet marjoram in insisting that it be planted in every vegetable garden.  It is especially helpful to eggplants and peppers.

Thyme

Thyme seems generally beneficial and can be planted near eggplant and cabbage.  Many grden pests (cabbage root flies and white flies) are repelled by thyme.

Flowers


Geraniums

Besides providing wonderful scents in the garden, geraniums help repel white cabbage butterflies.  Try them in the corner of a bed near members of the cabbage family.

Lupine

Lupine seems like a strange plant to put in a vegetable garden, but it does well with most vegetables and especially stiumulates.

Marigolds

Every postage stamp garden needs a few marigolds.  They are well known for controlling certain types of destructive nematodes, making marigolds a good companion for all root vegetables.  They also help protect cabbage and potatoes.  Marigolds also will help reduce the white fly population attracted to your tomatoes.

Nasturtiums

These colorful flowers act as a trap crop for slugs and snails and are effective in keeping these pest always from cabbage and lettuce.  They also repel aphids, cucumber beetles, and white flies.  Plant them near squash, tomatoes, and all members of the cabbage family.

Petunias

Petunias repel bean beetles, potato beetles, and squah beetles.  They are a good companion to beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and all members of the cabbage family.

Sunflowers

Every postage stamp garden needs a couple of sunflowers.  Two planted close to each other won't take up much spance and will be spectacular when mature.  They act as a host plant to several benefical insects such as predatory wasps, which help keep garden pests under control.  They also attract bees to the garden.