• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Frugal Gardening

Simple ways to save money while you garden

  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Garden Frugally
  • Buy These
  • Privacy Policy
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Companion Planting: A Brief Introduction

December 27, 2022 by Ali Southerland Leave a Comment

image_pdfimage_print

companion planting: marigold border around lettuce that has been covered in plastic

Companion planting is the practice of planting certain plants close to each other that benefit one another.

It’s an easy way to reduce garden labor, use less fertilizer, and grow healthy plants.

Companion Planting: Sources are Important

Before I give you some tips for companion planting, I caution that a significant portion of companion advice on the internet needs to be backed up by science. Some of the advice comes from folklore, people’s personal experiences, or tradition. Other advice is straight-up quackery.

Botanists and agricultural scientists are exploring which companion planting combinations offer benefits. They are finding great pairings that can reduce insect activity, share nitrogen, and improve soil quality.

Carefully review your sources before companion planting to ensure you don’t accidentally sow plants that are detrimental to each other too close to one another.

Classic Example of Companion Planting: Three Sisters Grouping

For generations, several groups of indigenous cultures of the Americas would plant corn, beans, and squash together. This grouping is called The Three Sisters because they do better when grown together.

Beans are nitrogen fixers, meaning they can absorb nitrogen from the environment and then secrete excess nitrogen as compounds that other plants can use.

The giant leaves of the squash prevent sunlight from reaching the soil, keeping the roots cool and preventing weed growth.

And the strong corn stalk is the perfect stake for growing beans.

This is a perfect example of how growing certain plants together can support each other and reduce the need for human labor in the garden.

Helpful Companion Planting Pairings

Below I outline a few beneficial companion pairings. If you have anything to add to the list, please leave us a comment below!

Cucumbers and Tomatoes

Cucumbers act as living mulch to prevent weed growth.

This happens in 2 ways.

First, the broad shape and size of the cucumber leaves block out the light preventing germination of weed seeds. This also help keep the roots cool.

Second, cucumber roots excrete allelpathic compounds that keep weed seeds from germinating. This means that you should not sow tomato seeds among cucumber plants, but instead transplant seedlings.

Green Beans and Potatoes

Green beans fix small amounts of nitrogen that it shares with the potato plants, increasing the size of the potatoes.

You can achieve this outcome in 2 ways. You can plant alternate rows of potatoes and green beans or you can plant alternate plants in the same row.

Sweet Alyssum and Lettuce

Sweet Alyssum attracts flies and wasps that feeds on aphids and other small insects. Plant sweet alyssum in the rows between the rows of lettuce or as a border around your lettuce patch.

Bonus Plant: Marigolds

Marigolds don’t get enough credit. They are cheap, beautiful and help deter tons of harmful bugs like aphids because marigolds attract beneficial insect like parasitic wasps and ladybugs. They may also secrete compounds that help protect the roots of nearby plants from parasites.

Conclusion

Companion planting is a great way to reduce labor and grow healthier plants, but it is a discipline that does not have a lot of scientific research available so be ware of suspicious advice.

Read More:

Tips to Prevent Winter Plant Damage

Gardens Add Life and Equity to Your Home

Troubleshooting the Seed Starting Process: Using Old Seeds

Ali Southerland
Ali Southerland

Ali is a work-at-home mom of 5. She spends her time homeschooling, gardening, and relaxing at the park.

Filed Under: garden tips Tagged With: companion planting, evidence based gardening, planting pairings

Previous Post: « Gift Exchange Ideas With Fellow Gardeners
Next Post: 9 New Year’s Resolutions for Gardeners »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar




Popular Posts

  • Garden For FreeGarden For Free by Steph Coelho Is it possible to have a lush flower garden, produce…
  • Using Shredded Paper As Garden MulchUsing Shredded Paper As Garden Mulch by Steph Coelho Should you use shredded paper as garden mulch? Normally, I…
  • How To Get Free Seeds From The GovernmentHow To Get Free Seeds From The Government by Steph Coelho   At first glance, seeds seem like a relatively inexpensive…
  • Vinegar Uses In GardenVinegar Uses In Garden by Steph Coelho 1. Clay Pot Cleaning: Vinegar will remove the white salt…
onions growing in a container on a kitchen counter, edible plants you can grow inside

Edible Plants You Can Grow Inside

Growing edible plants inside isn’t tricky. All you need is an appropriate container, enough light, and to pick varieties that grow well in containers. Picking the Right Container Whenever you want to grow edible plants inside, you need to pick a container that meets the needs of your plants. When picking a container, you must…

Read More

beets with snow on them, top 8 edible plants you can grow in winter

Top 8 Edible Plants You Can Grow in Winter

When temperatures start to drop, many people think gardening has to stop. That’s not true. Here are the top 8 edible plants you can grow in winter. Tons of edible plants can survive winter temperatures, rain, and poor soil drainage conditions. And purple varieties, in particular, contain a compound (anthocyanin) that helps prevent root rot…

Read More

tiktok gardener

The Best TikTok Gardening Channels

  Tiktok is a great place to feel community. And #gardentok does not disappoint. Below is a list of the Tiktok Gardening channels! Gardening with Goo Gardening with Goo follows Goo and his garden! He constantly grows tasty-looking veggies and spreads real know-how by sharing his experiences.  Growing with Gertie Gertie (aka Katie) shares top-tier gardening…

Read More

pile of vegetables, woman holding an eggplant

9 New Year’s Resolutions for Gardeners

New Year, New Garden, right? The new year allows us to start from a clean slate and decide what is essential and which is not. And that is where you should start your resolutions. Consider what things are important to you and which are not. Make a list. Below are a few things I will…

Read More

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework