The Friend or Foe Woes!

It takes more than good soil, sun and nutrients to ensure success in your garden. Just like children learning to get along and play well together, so must the gardener learn how to help their plants grow well together. Some are plants are “friends” and some plants are “foes” to one another. Gardeners call this friend and foe planting, “companion planting.”

If you are a container gardener, you don’t really have to worry about companion gardening. That’s if you are only planting one plant at a time in a pot. Some container gardeners want function and fashion; so why not?

I mean why have this …

When you can have that …

Those who have a garden plot need to consider what they are planting next to what and after what as well. I didn’t think anything about what I was planting and where until I planted my squash next to onions and sunflowers in the same spot where I had planted and harvested peppers. No matter what I did, I couldn’t keep those squash plants alive. I was frustrated and disappointed until I saw a book title that read, “Carrots love Tomatoes, Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening,” this of course peaked my interest.

Did I rush out and purchase this book? No, I am cheap; I googled companion gardening and started reading everything I could. Then after doing that I decided to order the book and see if it helped me more. I have not read the book from cover-to-cover, but I have read sections of it that I needed to read at times that I needed it.

What I have learned is it is important to:

       1.       Know what you are planting next to each other.

       2.       Know what you planted in that same spot the previous harvest or season.

       3.       Make sure that you plant foes at least 4 feet from other foes.

       4.       Planning ahead of time is not a terrible thing.

So how do you know what to plant next to each other? Google it! Seriously, that’s what I did. I found simple lists like this done by the Farmer’s Almanac:

Plant Companions: List for Ten Common Vegetables

FRIEND	FOE		FRIEND	FOE		FRIEND	FOE
BEANS			CORN			ONIONS
Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Peas Potatoes Radishes Squash Strawberries Summer  savory Tomatoes	Garlic Onions Peppers Sunflowers		Beans Cucumbers Lettuce Melons Peas Potatoes Squash Sunflowers	Tomatoes		Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Lettuce Peppers Potatoes Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Peas Sage
			CUCUMBERS			PEPPERS
			Beans Cabbage Cauliflower Corn Lettuce Peas Radishes Sunflowers	Aromatic   herbs Melons Potatoes		Basil Coriander Onions Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Kohlrabi
CABBAGE			LETTUCE			RADISHES
Beans Celery Cucumbers Dill Kale Lettuce Onions Potatoes Sage Spinach Thyme	Broccoli Cauliflower Strawberries Tomatoes		Asparagus Beets Brussels   sprouts Cabbage Carrots Corn Cucumbers Eggplant Onions Peas Potatoes Radishes Spinach Strawberries Sunflowers Tomatoes	Broccoli		Basil Coriander Onions Spinach Tomatoes	Beans Kohlrabi
CARROTS						TOMATOES
Beans Lettuce Onions Peas Radishes Rosemary Sage Tomatoes	Anise Dill Parsley					Asparagus Basil Beans Borage Carrots Celery Dill Lettuce Melons Onions Parsley Peppers Radishes Spinach Thyme	Broccoli Brussels   sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Corn Kale Potatoes

And ones like this that frankly you have to study and study hard to understand them (at least for me):

Vegetables
Common name	Scientific name	Helps	Helped by	Attracts	Repels/Distracts	Avoid	Comments
Alliums	Allium	fruit trees,nightshades(tomatoes, capsicum peppers, potatoes), brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, etc.) carrots	carrots		slugs, aphids,carrot fly, cabbage worms[1]	beans, peas, parsley	Alliums include onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives, and others
Asparagus	Asparagus officinalis	Tomatoes[2]	Aster Family flowers, Dill, Coriander, Tomatoes, Parsley, Basil, Comfrey, Marigolds	coupled with Basil seems to encourage lady bugs	Onion, Garlic, Potatoes
Brassicas	Brassica	potatoes, cereals (e.g. corn, wheat)	geraniums, dill, alliums (onions, shallots, garlic, etc.), rosemary, nasturtium, borage		wireworms	mustards, nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, etc.)	Brassicas are a family of species which include broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, and cauliflower.
Beans	Phaseolus	Corn (see Three Sisters), Spinach, lettuce, rosemary, summer savory, dill, carrots, brassicas, beets, radish, strawberry and cucumbers	Eggplant, Summer savoury		California beetles	Tomatoes, chili peppers, alliums (onions, garlic, etc.), brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc.)	Hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria, a good fertiliser for some plants, too much for others

(For the complete list see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants)

Why is it so important to remember what you planted last harvest or last season in that spot that you are getting ready to plant in? Well, different plants need different mineral  and if you plant two plants back to back that need the same minerals they will fail. If you plant two plants back to back where the first plant stripped the soil of nitrogen, but left plenty of phosphorus behind and the second plant doesn’t need plenty of phosphorus they will fail.

To make sure that you are not planting foes too close to each other you need to make up a plan of what you are going to plant and where. Sit down with a tablet, pencil and your googled companion list and map out your garden.  You will be glad that you did when you have a great harvest!

I am just now starting to get the hang of companion gardening and still have room to grow when it comes to harvest-to-harvest planning. I am getting there though. Like I have said before gardening is really a trial and error kind of hobby.

Happy Gardening!

Dianna