Companion Planting 101

Good Neighbours In The Veggie Garden

From Your Friends At Schriemer's

Savvy gardeners will often try to ensure a good crop by applying wisdom gleaned from "Old Wives Tales" to modify their gardening practices. This advice sometimes includes the planting of a particular vegetable alongside another, or in conjunction with an herb or a specific flowering plant. Over the last few decades this practice has received more recognition and has been given an appropriate name - companion planting. Rather than being far-fetched, many of these time-honoured ways are rooted in sound principles.

How It Works

Companion plantings work in one of three different ways. In the first, a specific plant is planted next to the primary crop or flower, which has the desirable effect of repelling unwanted pests of the latter, thus preventing it from destroying that vegetable or flower crop. As an example, marigolds are often planted in a vegetable garden to ward away fleas and cabbage moths. This is sometimes accomplished by alternating the planting of the harvest crop with the repellent plant in subsequent years, to confuse the pest or to make the "buffet" unpalatable.

The second method may sound a little macabre, but it can be very effective. In this scenario, the companion plant, which has no harvest value to the garden, is utilized as a sacrificial plant. The offending insect is attracted to the companion plant instead of the crop plant, thus saving the latter. As an added bonus, some companion plants will even dispose of the pests thanks to a little toxicity!

One such relationship involves planting Artemisia absinthium, or wormwood, in conjunction with tomato, pepper or eggplant crops. These members of the nightshade family can easily be devastated by an infestation of aphids. But when a single wormwood is plant nearby, it can literally be covered with aphids and still persist - saving the prized tomato, pepper or eggplant crop. A closer inspection of the aphids on the wormwood would reveal a colony of insects in various stages of death; they intoxicate themselves on the absinthe and die happy!

The third, somewhat more palatable companion planting practice is applied to enhance the productivity of a particular crop. The symbiotic relationship usually begins with the companion plant warding away a particular pest, but it also attracts beneficial insects like bees, hummingbirds and other pollinators to itself and then to the crop plant. There is even a suggestion that a few voluntary weeds like dandelions and wild millet are beneficial companions because they provide a safe haven for toads, spiders and snakes, all of which can assist in keeping opportunistic vermin like mice, grubs and caterpillars out of the garden.

One excellent example of such a relationship is that between basil and tomatoes. Bees are readily attracted to the rich pollen found in the basil flowers, and then in their energetic enthusiasm, they fly up to the tomato flowers and pollinate them as well. Some gardeners will even go so far as to say that the tomatoes taste better with this combination, alluding to a tangier flavour from the spicy basil pollen, although there is no scientific evidence to verify this claim. However, the higher tomato yields can definitely be attributed to this practice.

For More Information

There are many books on the market that you can use as reference if you'd like to know more about the subject. Two books by Louise Riotte, "Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening" and "Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers", are very useful and explain how to use companion plants successfully. "Great Garden Companions" by Sally Jean Cunningham is another fine book that explains the various types of companion gardening, and has a good pest identification section to help you determine your companion needs for future plantings.

Companion planting is truly an organic gardening practice, which also means that there is no way of guaranteeing that it will be foolproof. Your efforts can be compromised by a torrential rainfall, a violent wind storm, or some other unforeseen climatic influence. However, on the whole, companion planting meets two key objectives of organic gardening - using environmentally friendly alternatives to chemical controls or pesticides, and producing healthier crops from your gardens, in what is effectively the same amount of space. If we all do a little today, we'll have a tomorrow to look forward to!