A Beginners Guide to Companion Planting: Companion Gardening with Flowers, Herbs & Vegetables

By Mel Jeffreys

©2013 Mel Jeffreys

Table of Contents

Copyright

Introduction

History of Companion Planting

Reasons For Companion Planting

Types of Companion Planting

Benefits of Companion Planting

Allelopathy

Soil Management

Chemical Versus Organic Fertilisers

Ideal Garden Soil Mix

Making Your Own Compost

Building a Raised Garden Bed With Cinder Blocks

Garden Planning

DIY Self Watering Container Gardens

Guide to Beneficial Companion Herbs And Plants

Other Beneficial Companion Plants – Flowers

Trees and Beneficial Plants in Companion Gardening

Planting Combinations to Use/Avoid – Fruit and Vegetables

Companion Planting Table

Companion Plants to Encourage Beneficial Bugs Into Your Garden

Companion Planting Ven Diagrams

Conclusion

Copyright

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author.

Introduction

You may also want to visit us at our blog

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Other books you may enjoy by the Author Include:

A Beginners Guide to Keeping Backyard Chickens

A Beginners Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening: Introduction to Composting, Worm Farming, No Dig Raised & Wicking Gardens Plus More…

A Beginners Guide to Home Canning & Food Preserving: Recipes, Jams, Marmalades, Jellies, Chutneys, Relishes Plus More… (Simple Living)

Companion planting of tomatoes & marigolds.

Fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden are a treat. Once you have tasted a truly fresh heirloom tomato, it is hard to go back and pick up the hybrid choices in the local supermarket. The trouble is that getting that tomato or that strawberry to grow isn’t as easy as we’d like it to be. Disease, pests, and other animals take their toll on the home grower’s garden. Plus, in a limited space, it’s difficult to grow all the vegetables you love if your idea of gardening is the traditional one or two rows per species of plant.

There are solutions to these and other problems. One of them is companion planting. Companion planting involves strategic location of the veggies and fruit that you plant to maximize space available, deter or distract pests and to take advantage of the nutrients available in the soil where you live.

While there are a few different types of strategies, there are no hard and fast rules for which strategy you should choose. Keep in mind the space you have available, the amount of time you have to put towards growing a successful garden and your favorite vegetables. Obviously, a successful crop of wax beans is great, unless you hate wax beans. We are going to look at the history of, reasons for, and the strategies of using polyculture, or more than one crop per row.

History of Companion Planting

China

History shows that Chinese farmers have used companion gardening for over a thousand years. Specifically, they use a plant called the Mosquito Fern to help their rice crops. The mosquito fern takes nitrogen from the air and puts it into the ground water where the rice is grown. The height of the Mosquito Fern also helps block light from getting to any plant other than the rice plants. They wait until the rice plants are taller than the fern.

Native Americans

Corn was a crop that was vital to the diet of Native Americans. The early Americans learned from the Native Americans to plant corn, beans and squash in the same hole with the disposed parts of a fish.

The corn grew tall and strong, the beans grew using the corn stalk for support while providing nitrogen for the corn and the squash grew under the cover of the shade providing a ground cover that prevented weeds from taking over while the prickly spines on the squash frustrated raccoons and other predators from getting to the corn.

All three plants benefited the other and increased the harvest. Some call this the “Three Sisters Method” where the crops are grown from the same hole. But these three are not the only combinations that can benefit your garden! In some combinations, you could actually do more harm than good. We will discuss the interaction between some species of plants so that you don’t make a mistake in planning your garden.

Reasons For Companion Planting

Organic Gardening

With growing concern at the levels of pesticides on vegetables, and the increasing use of hybrids and chemicals to rapidly accelerate the growth of some vegetables, more attention has been given to organic gardening.

Organic gardening is growing without the use of chemicals of any kind. If you can keep the pests that decimate your crops away using a non-chemical organic solution that is a good thing. If you can help your garden grow naturally, without the use of chemical fertilizers it means you can achieve the organic garden results you want.

One more negative of using pesticides is that the same spray that kills destructive insects also kills the beneficial insects that help keep the destructive ones under control. There are insects that pollinate your vegetable plants, without pollination, the fruit doesn’t grow. Bees and wasps may frighten you, but without them, your garden is doomed from the outset.

Alleviate Crowded Gardens

With the use of companion planting, regardless of which method you choose you can opt to grow more than one crop in the same location. In using the Square Foot Gardening method of companion planting alone you can grow an estimated eight times more vegetables than the traditional row method.

A well built raised garden can make weeds in your garden almost non-existent. Weeds grow everywhere, and the sole purpose of a weed is to grow, propagate and starve the nutrients from the soil your desired plants need.

Low Maintenance

With ground cover veggies keeping weeds under control, other companion plants keeping insects off the products of your labor and other plants serving as supports for your vine vegetables a lot of the work that goes into the typical garden is substantially reduced. Less time working in the garden and producing the same or more impressive results is a worthy goal. More importantly, it is attainable given the right amount of planning and attention to detail.

Increased Yield of Harvest

The right combination of soil management, proper planning and strategy can decrease the number of vegetable lost to pests and disease. A small garden yielding a modest amount of veggies can begin yielding increased harvests. Producing enough heirloom fruit and vegetables can multiply exponentially when you harvest a small percentage of them exclusively for the seeds they generate. This is something you can’t do with the seeds of the hybrids you purchase from the grocer.

Nutrient Management

The concept of allowing a plot of land to grow ‘fallow’ for a season comes from ancient times. It is when a field that has been used to grow the same type of vegetable for several seasons consecutively, that field is allowed to ‘rest’ during one season. While the technical details may have eluded the ancient people, they knew that crops were better when they practiced this technique.

The reason this worked is because of the nutrients found in the soil. These nutrients are used up by the vegetables each year. Tomato plants for example require a substantial amount of nitrogen in the soil. The problem is that the plants use up the present nitrogen at a rapid rate. Once these levels drop due to use, subsequent tomato plants grow slower and produce less fruit.

The fact is that some plants take nitrogen from the soil, while others help in creating nitrogen in the soil. Pairing two of these together in the same field can increase the harvest and keep the nutrient levels balanced in your favor. By the same token, there are some plants whose use of nutrients in the soil can be detrimental to other plants.

If your garden failed to produce last year, it may be a simple matter of what you are planting and not a lack of skill in gardening. A little knowledge goes a long way towards making you a successful gardener we will discuss the interactions of vegetable plants with other vegetable plants, with herbs and with flowering plants to help you plan your garden, so don’t start planting yet.

Types of Companion Planting

Spatial Interaction

Spatial interactions involve placing certain plants that affect other plants in the same vicinity. These interactions can be chemical in nature, benefiting the growth of the other plant or they could attract beneficial insects to your garden. More of this is discussed later.

Nurse Cropping

Methods of nurse cropping include the Seven Layer System, where some larger plants shield the smaller ones.

Three Sisters Method 

This is the method discussed earlier with the planting of three different veggies together with each plant benefitting the others. Corn, beans and squash are the typical combination used in the Three Sisters Method, but there are others as well.

Container Gardens

Container gardens consist of simple plastic five gallon buckets with or without an automated watering system built in. These container gardens minimize weeds, help you eliminate problems with poor soil with the added benefit of being able to rearrange certain plants after they begin growing.

Square Foot Gardening

The square foot gardening method, popularized by Master Gardener Mel Bartholomew, protects plants from the typical problems through a combination of soil management, spacing and using companion planting to enhance the harvest of a garden in cramped quarters.

Seven Layer System

The seven layer system utilizes the size and type of plants in what is called a ‘forest garden’. These plants and trees grow together with each benefiting the others.

The Canopy Layer: is made up of large fruit or nut trees (not walnut trees). These trees provide the shade or canopy that protects the sixth layer plants (the ground cover) from too much sun exposure and from excess winds. These trees also provide support for the seventh layer of plants which are the climbers or vine plants.

Low Tree Layer: includes the dwarf fruit trees that sit under the canopy of the larger trees.

Shrub Layer: consists of the bushes that grow berries and other types of fruits. These are protected by both the larger trees and the low tree layer.

Herbaceous Layer: are the beets or herbs that grow in the shade of the shrubbery.

Rhizosphere Layer: Root vegetables like carrots, potatoes and more are the Rhizosphere Layer. They benefit from the shade and the water that the larger trees bring up from the water table.

Soil Surface: These are the ground cover discussed in the first layer. These include strawberries. The ground cover prevents weeds from infiltrating the ecosystem and provides yet another beneficial fruit in your garden.

Vertical Layer: Also discussed in the first layer, the Vertical Layer includes cucumbers, grapes and other vine fruits and vegetables.

Benefits of Companion Planting

Host Finding Disruption

This type of companion planting seeks to confuse or ‘disrupt’ the insects from locating the host or your vegetable plants. Scientists studied the pattern that insects use to find the host on which they wish to feed.

They are attracted to the scent of the host plant. If you have ever stepped into a greenhouse with thriving tomato plants you have experienced the sensation that these insects do. The insect avoids landing on bare soil, there are predators there that can kill them. So they land on the first ‘green’ thing they can locate.

From there, the insect begins hopping from leaf to leaf searching for the perfect perch on which to feast. According to studies done, if the insect cannot find a suitable location on something ‘green’ they will give up and fly away. What the scientists did was add clover to the equation, giving multiple ‘green’ targets for the insect to land on.

Clover as ground cover around cabbage gives the cabbage root fly more ‘green’ to plant eggs near. The emerging larvae crawl around to find only clover. The study showed that thirty six percent of the insects laid eggs next to the cabbage when bare soil was used, versus seven percent when clover was planted next to the cabbages.

The scientists also made decoys of green cardboard that also disrupted the insects patterns of landing and discouraged them from staying and feasting. 

Pest Suppression

Some plants give off a natural pesticide that repels insects, some repel weeds, while others repel nematodes and fungi. These natural solutions to pest suppression can help keep the man made chemicals from touching your garden while still keeping them healthy. You just have to know which plants to place where.

Pollinator Recruitment

Without bees, it is said that the Earth would begin to slowly die out. Bees pollinate the fruit and vegetables we eat, without fruit and vegetables, large animal populations would die off. Without large animal populations, herds of cattle and pigs would starve. Eventually that would work into the food chain leading to humans.

Since bees, as well as other beneficial pollinators are so essential to the survival of the Earth itself, think of the impact they will have in your garden.

The chemical means to keep the tomato beetle and aphids from your harvest will kill those insects that are helping your garden thrive! Chemical pesticides do not discriminate. There are plants, though sometimes these plants are not vegetables or fruits that will attract these busy garden workers to your garden. Planting a few of these nearby will allow them to do their work.

Predator Recruitment

While some insects help your garden through pollination, others will help by preying on the pests that wreck your garden. Some of these ‘predatory insects’ eat pests, others lay eggs on the bodies of pests, while still others lay eggs near the plant where their larvae will hatch and feast on the nasty bugs. We will discuss a few of these so you can plan your garden in detail before ever planting a seed or turning the soil.

Aphids are the bane of the rose garden. But they can also do substantial damage to vegetable plants and fruits as well. Planting marigolds near the plants that may attract aphids will help keep them away for two reasons.

First, the scent of marigolds is said to deter aphids from landing nearby.

Second, marigolds attract hover flies which produce larvae that feed on aphids that are on the same plants they are on. Marigolds are inexpensive annual flowers that can be purchased from many garden or farm stores.

Companion planting can also help with obtaining at least a part of a crop despite catastrophic damage to a crop nearby. If the borer worms destroy your lettuce, corn or cabbage plants, the other veggies in the same location may escape total destruction and still provide some fruit for you. The more plants in the same space there are, the greater the odds of harvesting at least one of those crops.

While some insects prefer one type of vegetation over another, some are voracious enough to devour whatever they find. So while the hedged investment gives you maximum use per square foot of garden space, other methods are needed to keep these pests at bay.

Ladybug beetle hunting aphids.

Increased Level Interaction

Also called protective shelter, this is an example of the seven layer forest garden discussed earlier with large trees providing shade and wind buffering for the smaller more susceptible plants. Or the larger plants or trees act as a trellis for vine plants to grow on keeping the fruit or vegetable high off of the ground where it remains vulnerable to many pests.

Nitrogen Fixation

Just as some plants thrive by using the nitrogen in the soil around them, others thrive by giving off nitrogen in the soil around them. When you know which veggie is which, you can pair them together and anticipate a rich harvest of both. The effects of plants on other plants and the effects of plants on weeds is a study called Allelopathy.

Some walnut trees, like the Black Walnut produces an allelochemical known as juglone. There are many crops that are affected detrimentally by this particular naturally occurring chemical. This observation was made thousands of years ago and farmers were urged to avoid planting in fields where large walnut trees grew. See section on Allelopathy for more information.

Positive Hosting

Positive hosting involves planting specific plants that attract the beneficial insects so that they can spread to your garden plants and eliminate the problem pests. These plants serve as a “host” that will eventually be consumed by the beneficial insects. If you have a colony of beneficial insects growing near your garden, you won’t have a need for the chemicals. We will look at a few of these positive hosting plants.

Trap Cropping

Trap cropping involves planting a decoy plant near susceptible vegetables to draw away the destructive insects. These ‘decoy plants’ are then netted and removed when they become infested and are discarded. More decoy plants will be used to replace the ones discarded. One example of this is the use of Nasturtium. These are smaller flowering plants sometimes referred to as ‘watercress’.

Nasturtium attract caterpillars that will also attack lettuce and cabbage plants. The nasturtium plants are located near the patches of lettuces and cabbages thereby reducing the pest damage to the desired plants.

Pattern Disruption

Once one tomato plant has been infested, the monoculture planting method leaves an entire row of plants vulnerable to the infestation of the same bugs. Pattern disruption spaces out the similar plants from each other making a total loss of vegetables or fruits less likely. The key is in what plants to use to disrupt the predator insects typical pattern of infestation.

Allelopathy

The chemical interaction of a tree and its’ components on the surrounding soil, on other plants and on your garden is called Allelopathy. In this way, trees are no different than the plants and herbs in your garden. Your garden may be failing, not because of the soil or your efforts, it may be the nearby trees leaching that chemical in the ground.

One chief source of the most problems agriculturally is the Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) tree. The Black Walnut tree secretes a chemical called hydrojuglone. Ordinarily, hydrojuglone is nontoxic, but once oxidized becomes a highly toxic chemical called juglone to the surrounding plants. With drainage and root growth, plants as far as 5 meters away can suffer from juglone poisoning.

The leaves, husks and bark of the Black Walnut also release the toxic levels of juglone. But the Black Walnut is not the only tree with this chemical. Most walnut trees, pecan trees and even hickory trees produce it to varying degrees. Other trees with a similar effect on the soil include sugar maple, waxmyrtle, cottonwood, black cherry, red oak and the American elm and sycamore trees.

Be sure to locate your garden far from these trees or you will be facing an uphill battle in keeping your plants healthy. If your garden is already planted there are steps you can take to reduce the impact of these trees.

First, clean up the leaves and fruit that falls from the tree and keep the debris far from the garden.

Second, plant shrubs, grasses and other trees with minimal effects on the soil as a buffer zone between the garden and the toxic trees. Planting fescue or Kentucky bluegrass in the immediate area will ensure that the grass is kept healthy and is harmlessly absorbing the dangerous toxins. (Make sure to keep the grass well watered and they may actually grow better under Black Walnut trees than in bare soil.)

Trees that aid in absorbing the juglone include:

White Ash

Beech

Birch

Buckeye

Dogwood

Pine

Crabapple trees

Although dangerous to many fruit plants some may actually do quite well in this type of soil including grapes and berries.

Just as the Black Walnut affects some plants negatively, the Leucaena trees, dubbed the Miracle Tree, have positive effects on staple crops planted near them.

The Miracle trees planted nearby have been shown to actually increase the crop yields of both corn and rice. For wheat crops, however, the Miracle trees reduce the crop yield through the chemicals they release into the soil. So these interactions between tree and soil and other plants can be positive for some plants and negative for others.

A raised garden however, with a substantial weed shield can help reduce the impact of allelopathy of the surrounding trees on your garden.

Soil Management

Plowing up the area and beginning to plant right away may betray a certain enthusiasm you have for starting your garden. Unfortunately, doing so will ultimately doom any attempts you make at having your garden produce a single vegetable, much less thriving to the point of giving you enough veggies to brag about.

You need to put a little bit of planning into it before taking spade to soil. One of the first things you have to know before starting is the quality of your soil. You need to know if there are any nutrients there to begin with, what nutrients are missing and what you need to do before you start planting.

You can have your soil tested at a lab, and that is the best way to do it. If you don’t have the funds to pay for such a test, call around to the local feed stores and garden centers. There is a soil testing kit available for sale for less than five dollars.

There are also electric soil testers you can purchase that will help you keep a close eye on changing soil conditions. If you cannot find any of these, contact a few of the local farmers and ask them about the soil. You may need to begin with creating the soil-mix you need to ensure success.

If your soil is more sand than soil, (i.e. Florida, Arizona) you may want to consider a raised garden and starting completely over in regards to soil. If you have a lot of clay, rock, or just poor soil condition in general, a raised garden or a container garden may be the answer for you. If you live in a place where anything grows, consider yourself lucky.

Ideal soil for most garden plants includes nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur. To a lesser degree other nutrients that garden plants need include boron chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. If any one of these nutrients is out of balance, it will have an effect on the yield and growth of your garden. Many of these can be supplied with properly blended compost.

In addition to soil nutrients, the pH levels are important. Vegetable plants prefer a pH level of 6.0 to 6.8. If the pH is too low, you can blend in a little limestone. If it is too high you can add sulfur to bring it down.

Chemical Versus Organic Fertilisers

Your companion garden will need to have a steady supply of nutrients available as the plants continue to grow. This means regularly replacing soil or adding fertilizers to the soil at all times of the year. There are generally two options when it comes to fertilizing your garden, using chemicals or organic means.

Using organic fertilizers means either purchasing or composting the material yourself. Organic fertilizers take time for the existing vegetable plants to break them down into usable components. The advantage is that the organic fertilizers will last for a longer period of time than the chemical. The disadvantages include the time it takes to prepare good organic compost and the fact that it is generally more expensive to purchase.

Chemical fertilizers are available for the plants’ use right away, they are cheaper than organic and they are easy to use. They come in liquid, pellet and mulch form so it depends on your needs.

One disadvantage to using chemical fertilizers is like using chemical pesticides, it negates the “organic” label for your veggies that you may be striving for.

Another disadvantage to chemical fertilizer is that since the plant isn’t able to break down the fertilizer as it needs, often the chemical fertilizer can end up ‘burning’ the plants with the immediate influx of nitrogen at their roots.

If you choose to purchase fertilizer for your companion garden, there will be three numbers on the front of the container. Each of these numbers represents a percentage of one nutrient available in the mix. One common ratio mix is the 8-16-16. In this blend, there is 8% nitrogen, 16% phosphorus and 16% potassium. (Potassium is often identified by its chemical symbol ‘K’) The remaining 60% of the mix is inert matter. Check with the ingredients list to ensure that this inert matter doesn’t also include pesticides.

A complete fertilizer will have a number for each of the three main nutrients and a number for the minor nutrients as well. What nutrients your soil needs will of course depend on the results of the soil testing you performed earlier. If you do not have access to a soil testing kit, apply the fertilizer and/or compost and let the garden sit for a week or two before planting. This will give the fertilizer time to break up naturally in the soil.

Most leafy green vegetables prefer a high nitrogen count fertilizer such as 12-12-12 or 15-15-15 mixes. Others that are bulb veggies, (onions, radishes, carrots, etc) prefer lower nitrogen to higher potassium and phosphorus count like 6-24-24.

One last note about fertilizers, these fertilizers that are giving your veggies and fruits a vital leg up in growth rate and productivity will do the same for the grass and weeds that surround the garden too. This will give the invasive species of weed opportunity to filter in and choke the life out of your garden plants. With a properly constructed raised garden, the chances of this happening are reduced.

Although we have given you the information needed to choose a chemical fertilzer if you want to go down that path we always advocate and use organic fertilisers. An option you may want to choose is a seaweed nutrient solution or a complete organic fertilizer like: Jobe’s 09526 Organic All Purpose Granular Fertilizer 4-Pound Bag or Neptune’s Harvest SW136 Organic Seaweed Plant Food, 32-Ounce

Ideal Garden Soil Mix

While there are many companies that sell garden soil and pre-made soil mixes for your garden, the best blend is always the one you make yourself. The ideal garden soil mix is made up of three main components compost, peat moss and vermiculite.

The Master Gardener who popularized the Square Foot Gardening method, Mel Bartholomew recommends a ratio of one-third of each ingredient mixed well. He calls this mixture, “Mel’s Mix” and it is truly an excellent blend of soil for vegetables of all types. You can get Mel’s book at amazon.com: All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition: The Revolutionary Way to Grow More In Less Space

Peat moss aids in helping your garden soil become lighter allowing for greater root function and aids in water retention as well. One of the first things you should know about peat moss is that it is sold in compressed bales that double in size when opened and mixed. So if your calculations for your garden size requires four cubic feet of peat moss in the mix, one 3.9 will give you close to eight cubic feet.

Calculate your measurements based on the amount of material in the bags, not on the number of bags used. Be careful in pouring it as peat moss is dusty and can easily blow away in the slightest breeze.

Vermiculite is a white almost Styrofoam like material that will help your soil in the same way the peat moss does in keeping it light and airy. Vermiculite will also aid in water retention. Some people use Perlite instead of vermiculite. The drawback to perlite is that it will float to the surface of the mix when it rains or when you water your garden. When it does dry up, it will blow away. Vermiculite stays in the mixture. And, like peat moss, it is dusty and will easily blow away.

Compost is the foundation of all soil mixtures. It is from compost that your vegetables will get 100% of their nutrients. The peat moss and vermiculite, though helpful in the blend, have no nutritional value. You have to be aware of what components make up the compost in the bags you are purchasing. Ideally, there should be five different types of composting materials in the bag. Many stores will sell compost made up of two or three components.

You want compost from five (or more) different sources so that your vegetables have the greatest chance at getting the combination of nutrients they need. Note, these are from five different sources, not five different companies making compost from the same sources. Check the side of the bag for a description of the contents or make you own compost.

Excellent sources of compost include:

Fish

Mushroom

Earthworm castings

Chicken manure (fully composted, not raw)

Rabbit manure

Decaying vegetable matter.

Other sources of compost material include: bat guano, kelp, pulverized oyster shell, and lime.

One rule of thumb for using animal manure for compost is that if the animals eat meat, do not use their manure. All five (or more) of these compost blends should be mixed together to come up with the one-third part of your garden soil mix.

A word of caution about using local municipality compost: There are many cities that take your land waste and compost it, then sell it back to you dirt cheap. (Pardon the pun.) While the cost is reasonable you never know what kinds of weed seeds or chemicals from treated lawns have leached into that compost. Avoid it if you can. Mix the three components together on the ground, use a tarp to keep it all, with a rake or a hoe and fill your garden with it.

Making Your Own Compost

The initial investment in constructing your companion planted garden is significant the good news is that you can reuse the same mix for more than one season. Invariably though you will lose some soil mix through erosion, or whatever means and you will have to replace some of that compost. The most affordable solution is to make your own compost.

The old way to make your own compost involved building a structure that would retain the materials and getting in with a shovel once a week or so to ‘turn’ the compost. Today, there is another option in making compost the modern way.

There are spinning compost containers that rest on an axle and require just a few spins every week to speed up the composting process. You can create one of these with a fifty gallon plastic drum or purchase one from the garden store or Amazon.com: Achla Designs CMP-05 Spinning Composter Horizontal. We have our own DIY plans available in the following kindle book, also available at amazon.com: A Beginners Guide to Keeping Backyard Chickens – Breeds Guide, Chicken Tractors & Coops, Hatching & Raising Chicks Plus More… (Simple Living)

Homemade compost can be made with a lot of different items you throw away anyway:

Grass and lawn clippings (unless you use chemicals in your yard that is)

Egg shells

Fruit and vegetable peelings

Newspapers

Chicken or rabbit manure and their bedding materials

and more all break down into a luscious loamy soil.

Don’t ever attempt to compost scraps of meat, fat or bone. These can contaminate your compost and don’t break down into usable components for a garden. There are organic compost liquids that you can add to the compost pile or spinning drum to speed up the process. As the process can take close to six months to produce usable compost, it is a good idea to get your composting organized and started before you get ready for your planting.

Great compost bins, made from recycled wooden shipping pallets.

Building a Raised Garden Bed With Cinder Blocks

There are several different types of a raised garden. For low growing plants, a water table is another type of raised garden that takes the bending out of garden work. We will look at those later. A typical raised garden is built with borders using treated wood or cinder blocks. While treated wood borders may last for a few years, and are a bit more attractive than cinder blocks, the blocks will be more or less a permanent structure with helpful square spaces.

First, measure off the space you want your garden area located in. The number of blocks you will need is determined by the total area of your garden. You will need two cinder blocks stacked on top of each other all the way around the garden.

Second, clear off any rocks or sharp sticks from the area these will rip through the weed prevention layer and leave space for weeds to infiltrate the garden.

Next, spread the weed screen over the entire area. Hold in place with a few cinder blocks, but don’t build the structure yet. The weed screen should be twelve inches larger than the border of the garden area on all sides. Weed screens are made of a breathable fabric, which allows water to drain from the garden that prevents weeds and grasses from growing up into the garden area.

Weed screen can be purchased from garden centers for a reasonable cost. Another option you have for a weed screen material is placing several layers of newspaper around the garden. The drawback to using newspaper is that it breaks down rapidly often only preventing weeds for one season.

On the flip side of this, the newspaper can be plowed underneath after harvest and makes a good composting material for the following seasons. If you do use newspaper, make sure to soak it well so it doesn’t blow away.

Build the first layer of the cinder block border. Make sure to leave a one inch gap in between the cinder blocks located in the corner of the garden that is closest to the outdoor faucet. Attach a regular garden hose from the faucet to the garden border and then attach a soaker hose to the end of the garden hose.

Insert the soaker hose into the gap between blocks and pull it over the weed screen. Unfurl it inside the garden border so that the entirety of the garden in a spiral pattern toward the center. Close the gap between blocks as much as you can without pinching either hose.

Build the second layer of cinder blocks. Tuck the extra four inches of weed screen in between the two block layers. This will create a ‘cup’ which will hold both the soil and plants. It will also keep the screen from blowing away or shifting.

Fill the garden with the pre-mixed soil discussed earlier. The soil represents what will likely be the largest investment financially in the garden, but with proper soil maintenance can be used over and over again. Remember those nice spaces inside the cinder blocks? Fill those with soil as well, right up to the top.

This wall that serves as a border that separates your garden area from your lawn area can also serve as a barrier to insects as well. Plant a single bulb of garlic or an onion in each square. The scent will surround the garden keeping pests away and produce a vegetable as well. Make sure to keep plants sensitive to onions and garlic toward the center of the garden. You could also use these handy squares to create an herb garden for planting beneficial herbs near your vegetables.

These herbs include:

Mint

Bay

Anise

Catnip

Chamomile

Chives

Basil

Lemon balm

Each herb should get one square per plant for maximum effect. The scent of the herbs, garlic and onions should sufficiently discourage many of the garden pests from even hovering over your yard.

Below is the beginnings of a raised garden bed, just fill the blocks and get started.

Follow your garden plan and begin to create your raised garden. What’s that? You don’t have a garden plan? No problem! We cover that next.

Garden Planning

As mentioned previously the key to a successful companion garden is in the planning. You will want to include in your garden your favorite veggies and fruit so your garden may be different from the sample we discuss in both size and selection. There are a few simple steps in planning your garden.

First, write a list of the vegetables you definitely want to have in the garden. Keep it to the top ten you would prefer. Then make a list of vegetables you wouldn’t mind having in your garden, but that aren’t essential. Keep that one to a limit of five.

Next, determine the interactions that would be detrimental to each one of the first ten you want to plant in the garden. Use the information at the end of this book for a list of common vegetables and fruit and the detrimental effects when combined with another vegetable.

Next, think about the height of each full grown vegetable plant and the effect that the taller plants will have on smaller ones.

Tomato and corn plants will cast long shadows into the garden so plants that need full sun exposure will suffer if placed in between them.

Lettuces, Cabbages and more delicate plants benefit from some shade time. But don’t forget the rules of companion planting!

Corn and tomato plants don’t grow well together and neither do lettuce and cabbage.

Finally, read through the list of non-vegetable plants that can benefit the vegetables in your garden and decide whether to plant marigolds along the borders with garlic and onions to help keep the pest population to a minimum.

There is a lot of information to piece together based of course on the vegetables you choose to include in your garden and the various interactions these vegetables will have with the surrounding plants. No one starts building a house without a plan, you shouldn’t build a garden without one either.

As just one example of a planned companion garden, we will use the 4’ X 4’ square foot area discussed in the building the raised garden section.

There will be sixteen ‘cells’ or squares in this garden. You can plant one row or four squares of each vegetable or a different vegetable in each square.

Don’t forget your garlic and onions should already be growing in the cinder blocks!

In some cells or squares there will only be enough growth room for one vegetable. This depends on the size of a full grown plant of that species. The garden example below will produce eleven different types of vegetables.

The corn and tomatoes are separated by two rows because they don’t grow together well.

The carrots are in a row away from the tomatoes although they could grow in the same square to avoid stunting their growth.

The summer squash will provide good ground cover for the tomatoes without interfering in the growth process. All these elements work together well.

The garlic and onion borders are safely sequestered in the cinderblocks and won’t affect the growth or development of any of the veggies. The addition of herbs or flowers can aid in the growth of some of these vegetables.

Planned Cinder Block Garden Bed

DIY Self Watering Container Gardens

If you are companion planting using container gardens because you don’t have room for a large garden they give you the ability to move them around if one or two plants are not doing well. The five gallon buckets are most of the time, free from local businesses and they are more than happy to give them away.

Make sure the bucket you choose has not had chemicals, paint or tar in it. Use only food grade plastic buckets. Creating a self watering container garden doesn’t take a whole lot of work and can yield good results.

First, take the lid of the five gallon bucket and drill about twenty evenly spaced holes into it over its surface. It’s usually safer to secure the lid to the bucket during the drilling process. Next, cut the edges of the lid so that it fits neatly into the bucket.

Next, drill a 1/2 inch hole into one side of the bucket two inches up from the bottom. Cut a six inch piece of plastic tubing and fit into the hole in the bucket. If need be, use electrical tape wrapped around the tube to ensure a snug fit. Insert a screw or nail through the tube on the inside of the bucket to keep it inside the bucket.

Add a two inch layer of clay pebbles into the bottom of the bucket. This layer of clay pebbles will both serve as a wick to pull water into the soil, and will keep the roots out of standing water. Set the cut lid on top of the pebbles.

Set the bucket on top of a cinder block and place a milk jug next to the bucket where the small hose comes out.

Cut a hole in the side of the jug and insert the hose.

Fill the milk jug with water.

When the clay pebbles dry out, the wicking action will pull water from the milk jug through the tube and into the planter.

If you don’t have clay pebbles or can’t find them you can use three pieces of PVC pipe cut into two inch high sections.

Plant your chosen vegetable or fruit and check on the water levels in the milk jug every three to four days.

Below is an example of a DIY great self watering pot from: http://growit.umd.edu/YouthGardening/ContainerGardening/SelfWateringContainers.cfm They have other great images available and is well worth a look.

Image source: http://growit.umd.edu/YouthGardening/ContainerGardening/SelfWateringContainers.cfm

Guide to Beneficial Companion Herbs And Plants

The herbs listed below make excellent companion plants for your garden, keep in mind you will have to consult the guide following to determine the appropriate planning as these same plants that benefit one species may be detrimental to another.

• Alfalfa – For thousands of years alfalfa has been used in fields that have been allowed to grow fallow to help replace the nitrogen depleted by years of tomato, corn or other crops. The field is planted with alfalfa, allowed to grow wild and plowed under the following season. In addition to supplying the soil with nitrogen, alfalfa also increases the levels of iron, phosphorous and potassium. It makes great ground cover to distract pests looking for the “green” they need to see to land on.

• Anise – This herb, popular with chefs worldwide, gives off a scent that attracts the species of wasp that preys on the aphid. Aphids, with the same senses as their natural enemy the wasp, can smell the anise and will generally stay clear of areas where the herb is prevalent. The scent will also “mask” the scent of nearby veggies which will effectively hide them from other predatory insects.

• Basil – The scent repels many insects bent on feasting in your garden like thrips. It is also used to repel insects that feast on you, the mosquito and even flies avoid basil.

• Bay – Bay leafs are used to flavor meats, but will also repel weevils and moths that plant eggs in your veggies. Crushed, dried bay leafs can be mixed into the soil to keep these bugs at bay.

• Borage – At the same time that borage plants are attracting the pollinating bees and wasps that prey on destructive insects, it is also deterring tomato hornworms and cabbage worms. In addition to attracting the right bugs and repelling the wrong ones, the borage also helps increase the disease resistance of your plants. Even after the borage plant has died, it can be cut up for mulch and still retains much of its pest fighting properties.

• Buckwheat – Acts as fantastic fertilizer even while growing. Some call it “green manure”. Buckwheat attracts hover flies, wasps, lady beetles and more. A field planted with both alfalfa and buckwheat will break up the tough top layers and make it more tillable.

• Caraway – Attracts the same insects that alfalfa and buckwheat attract and can be used to flavor foods.

• Catnip – Although not a herb that humans eat (some people like catnip tea), catnip repels aphids, squash bugs, ants and weevils. It may attract neighborhood cats though, so keep that in mind.

• Chamomile – Another tea plant that acts as a positive host plant for hover flies and wasps that prey on aphids.

• Chervil – Chervil deters another type of garden pest that can and does devastate crops of lettuce, cabbage and other leafy vegetables, the slug. Slugs leave slime trails that act as a beacon to other slugs toward your garden.

• Chives – Chives repel aphids, Japanese beetles and others. They can also help reduce diseases in the garden, but they take as many as three years to grow to the point of being able to do that.

• Coriander – Break off a leaf from the coriander plant and you have one of the prime ingredients in many Italian dishes, cilantro. The seeds of the plant are also used in cooking. Coriander repels aphids, spider mites and the potato beetle.

• Dill – The same herb used in pickling can repel squash bugs and aphids at the same time it is attracting hover flies and wasps that prey on aphids. One caution, dill is a favorite food of the enemy of tomato plants, the tomato horn worm. Make sure you keep the dill away from the tomato plants!

• Fennel – This is one herb to keep out of your garden soil. It has detrimental allelopathic properties that can kill some vegetable plants. It does however attract those beneficial insects that keep your garden safe from predatory bugs. As a plus, fennel makes a good flea repellent as well.

• Horseradish – For help in increasing the disease resistance of your plants, horseradish may be the answer. The root of the horseradish plant is crushed and placed in spray bottles as an effective insect deterrent and prevention of detrimental fungi.

• Kelp – Kelp is actually a herb! It repels aphids, slugs and Japanese beetles. Kelp can also be used as mulch or as a spray directly on the affected plants.

• Lemon Balm – the scent of the lemon balm will successfully repel mosquitoes and squash bugs. The lemon scent is what is used to keep mice away from homes as well. Plant enough of this and you won’t have to worry about a rodent infestation.

• Marjoram – Planting marjoram near your vegetables doesn’t deter insects, disease or fungus, it will aid in improving the flavor of those vegetables and herbs, though.

• Mint – Many forms of mint will attract predatory wasps. They also help in the fruiting for tomatoes and peppers. The menthol in the leaves and stems is an effective repellent for moths, ants, flea beetles, and aphids. If you want to attract earthworms to help improve the vermiculture nature of your garden, they are attracted to the mint and will spend a lot of time there. Mint is also a good scent used to repel rodents. The drawback to mint is that it can take over a garden given enough time.

• Mustard Plants – Is often used as a cover crop to help reduce erosion and add nitrogen to the soil. They also help to control nematodes. They are used in regularly used in vineyards as a cover crop

• Oregano – This herb repels the cabbage butterflies and cucumber beetles. The beneficial aspects of oregano aid in the growth of many vegetables including cabbage and cauliflower.

• Parsley – When steeped in hot water, parsley can help discourage the asparagus beetles from attacking your crop of asparagus. The scent attracts hover flies and wasps.

• Rosemary – Rosemary repels moths, beetles and flies. They also aid in the growth of beans and carrots.

• Sage – When sage flowers, the good insects find it irresistible and will continue to visit your garden. Before it flowers it is a good repellent of cabbage moths, beetles, and more.

• Summer Savory – An herb that attracts honey bees to the flowers and repels moths, beetles, weevils and aphids. It can also improve the flavor of beans and onions.

• Tarragon – Tarragon repels almost every bad insect there is and has no ill effect on vegetable plants. It improves the flavor of most vegetables and helps them grow as well.

• Thyme – Thyme can either be used as a ground cover or on trellises surrounding the garden. Cabbage worms do not like the scent of any variety of thyme.

• Yarrow – The pungent odor of the yarrow herb attracts ladybugs and predatory wasps and helps enhance the flavor of many fruit and vegetables when planted near them.

Other Beneficial Companion Plants – Flowers

• Alyssum – Alyssum attracts hoverflies and bees.

• Chrysanthemum – Flowers in the chrysanthemum family have been used as natural insecticides for years. Growing close to vegetables, the living blooms repel moths.

• Clover – Another plant used as ground cover to keep weeds under control and to distract cabbage worms from reaching the cabbage when they lay eggs. The clover also provides a good environment for a predatory bug known as the ground beetle.

• Comfrey – Acts as a good trap crop for slugs.

• Four O’Clocks – See Larkspur and White Geraniums

• Hyssop – Hyssop is a favorite attractant for bees while deterring moths and beetles.

• Larkspur – The larkspur is in the same family as the White Geranium and has the same effect.

• Lavender – Beautiful purple flowers repel fleas, white flies and moths.

• Marigolds – As discussed previously, marigolds deter most pests, they also help deter nematodes in the soil.

• Morning Glories – The blooms are beautiful and attract hover flies.

• Nasturtium – Many professional gardeners consider the nasturtium the best natural remedy for pests acting as a trap crop for aphids and repelling cucumber beetles, whiteflies and more. The same scent that repels these insects also attracts the beneficial insects for your garden.

• Petunia – Petunias repel beetles, aphids, tomato worms as well as other harmful insects.

• Purslane – Although technically a weed, purslane leaves, stems and seeds are all edible. Some farmers use purslane as a ground cover to prevent weeds in corn fields.

• Rue – Rue is another multipurpose plant. It deters aphids, moths, onion maggots, slugs and snails and even small animals.

• Southernwood – The lemon scent of the southernwood plants makes for a delightful addition to your garden.

• Sunflowers – Sunflowers make great trap crops as the aphids that infest your garden love them. Since these flowers are very hearty, the damage that aphids can do to a sunflower is minimal. They also attract hummingbirds which feast on whiteflies.

• Tansy – The tansy plants repel certain kinds of ants, Japanese beetles, squash bugs and mice. These plants are also helpful in replacing the potassium that other vegetables and fruits take from the soil. The leaves of the tansy plant can be dried and used indoors to keep flies out of your home.

• White Geraniums – Japanese beetles love the scent of white geraniums and flock to it to feast on the leaves. Unfortunately for them, the white geranium is toxic and kills them.

• Wormwood – Although the wormwood plant has beautiful flowers, the poisonous nature of the leaves discourages many from using it in their gardens. Nevertheless, the wormwood plant repels cabbage moths, slugs and snails and small animals as well. Since the wormwood is highly poisonous to humans as well as animals, this plant needs to be kept well away from the fruit and veggies. Use as a hedge around gardens.

• Zinnia – The Zinnia is helpful in attracting hummingbirds that prey on white flies that feast on fruit and vegetables. These plants also serve as excellent trap crops for beetles as they are easily discarded once they are infested.

Trees and Beneficial Plants in Companion Gardening

• Apple Trees – Planting garlic at the base of the apple tree helps to repel the insects that would eat the leaves and fruit. Garlic also helps protect the tree from apple scab a condition that causes the fruit to deteriorate. Chives will also aid in protecting apple trees from beetles, mites, nematodes and aphids. They will also help protect the tree from apple scab.

Leeks and Onions will also help the apple tree by repelling pests and attracting predator insects.

• Avocado Trees – Planting comfrey nnearby serves as a trap crop for the slugs that invade avocado trees. Comfrey will also replenish the supply of calcium, phosphorus and potassium used by the avocado trees.

• Peach Trees – Garlic helps peach trees in much the same way it helps apple trees and your garden. Borers that could destroy the peach tree are repelled by the scent of the garlic. It will also help prevent a condition known to affect peach trees known as leaf curl.

Basil planted at the base will also help keep the pests away, too.

Asparagus and strawberries can also keep peach tree pests at bay, if you can only keep the pests off of the asparagus and strawberries.

• Citrus Trees – Whether it is lemon, orange or grapefruit all of them absorb a lot of nitrogen from the ground. Beans and peas growing around citrus trees will help replenish some of the nitrogen.

Planting clover and other flowering plants around the trees will attract those busy bees.

Borage, yarrow, dill, lemon balm, mint, and thyme will work for the pollinating. To attract the predatory insects, you can plant fennel, parsley, coriander, carrots and other ground cover flowers.

Planting Combinations to Use/Avoid – Fruit and Vegetables

• Asparagus – Asparagus takes a long time to propagate and grow to edible size from seeds. You want to make sure you give its development all the advantages it can use.

Planting asparagus with carrots, tomatoes, and parsley can help improve the flavor and increase production.

Avoid planting near onions, garlic and potatoes.

• Beans – Beans grow fast and will continue to produce as long as you harvest them prior to their maturity.

Beans grow well with many veggies and fruit including carrots, celery, corn, eggplant and peas. Like asparagus, beans with onions, garlic and potatoes is not a good idea.

Any allium planted near beans will suffer and will affect both the growth rate and productivity of the bean plant.

• Beets – The beet is one of the few vegetables that benefit from a direct planting with garlic. In addition to garlic, beets also thrive when in the general vicinity of lettuces, onions and kohlrabi.

• Broccoli – Broccoli plants require a lot of calcium. Vegetable companion plants that are good for broccoli include beans, cucumbers, garlic, lettuces, onions and potatoes.

Grapes, berries,and mustards of all types introduce chemicals into the soil that broccoli plants just can’t handle.

• Cabbage – Cabbage is almost like the “O Positive” of companion plants as it improves the growth and flavors of many plants.

The only vegetables that cannot tolerate the presence of cabbage include tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, lettuce and pole beans.

Strawberries and grapes also have a negative effect on cabbage growth.

The herb, dill, planted together with cabbage can attract the wasps that prey on cabbage worms.

• Carrots – Carrots and lettuces, onions and tomatoes go perfect together in the garden. Although some species of tomato plants can stunt the growth of the carrots, the flavor will still be good.

• Celery – Celery can be most successful when planted with beans, cabbages, onions, spinach and tomatoes. Unfortunately, the high nitrogen levels required by corn and some potatoes make them a bad companion for celery.

• Chard – Chards are those leafy lettuce-like plants that end up in many a southern cooking dish.

The chard can be planted near beans, cabbages, tomatoes, and onions.

The effect that Chards have on melons and corn though can affect both plants negatively.

• Collard Greens – These vegetables seem to favor others that grow underground. Garlic, Onions, potatoes and radishes will do well with collard greens as neighbors.

Beans, cucumbers, and lettuces also do well.

The collard green plant cannot do too well planted near grapevines.

• Corn – The second in the pairing of the Three Sisters method.

Corn does well with just about any other vegetable with the exception of celery and tomato plants. The nitrogen levels tomato plants demand will starve the corn.

Corn can act as a trellis for more than just beans, so keep that in mind when planning your garden.

• Cucumbers – The spiny vines of most cucumber plants do well with both corn and bean plants.

Potatoes however don’t do well with cucumber plants nearby.

• Eggplant – An eggplant and pepper combination is a win-win for both plants. Beans, peas and spinach also help eggplant growth and taste.

• Garlic – Garlic is nature’s antibiotic and a valuable addition to your garden. Many gardeners use garlic as a border plant to repel aphids and other insects including moths, Japanese beetles, snails and more.

• Grapes – To produce healthy and delicious grapes, the vines need a trellis of some sort to keep the fruit off of the ground. Beans, peas and blackberries all do well near grapes. Mustard plant is also beneficial to grow with grapes to help control nematodes.

Radish and cabbage however should be planted well away from the grapevines.

• Leeks – Leeks are a little like onions and while they help improve the growth of carrots, celery and onions, they do not like potatoes of any kind.

• Lettuce – Lettuce grows well in almost any combination of vegetables and fruits with the exception of cabbage. Planting tall flowers like sunflowers or nicotiana can help shade the lettuce from the harsh rays of the sun.

Cabbage will affect both the growth and flavor of lettuces.

• Melons – Melons get along with everyone in the garden. Ideal companions are corn, radish and the different types of squash.

• Okra – Okra serves a multi-function purpose in gardens. It can be used as a shield from high winds for peppers and eggplants.

It grows well with cucumbers, melons and peas.

Okra also repels aphids.

• Onions – Other than peas and asparagus, onions can help the other veggies in the garden in growth and flavor.

They are also planted with strawberries to help fight diseases.

• Peas – Like beans, peas contribute nitrogen to the soil which is a real benefit to corn and tomatoes.

Beans, carrots, celery, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and turnips all enjoy the company of pea plants. Onions and potatoes do not grow well with peas.

For fruit, keep grapes away from peas.

• Peppers – Most species of peppers do well in locations with tomatoes, onions and carrots. One curious combination of peppers and apricot trees can lead to a common fungus that afflicts many pepper plants killing the entire apricot tree.

• Potato – Potatoes appear to be the most picky of all vegetables when it comes to companion planting.

Asparagus, cucumbers, pumpkins, rutabaga, squashes, tomatoes and turnips all have a devastating effect on potato plants.

Corn, peas, onions, celery and carrots are just fine.

Use a border plant to keep the potato bugs away, like garlic or horseradishh.

• Pumpkins – Pumpkins are hardy squashes. They do best companion wise with corn, melons, and other members of the squash family.

• Radishes – Another multi-function veggie! Radishes planted around leafy vegetables draw away insects from those veggies. The insects infest the leaves of the radish plant leaving a healthy bulb safely tucked underground. They keep bugs away from broccoli, spinach and more. Cauliflower and Cabbage plants do not like radishes. Even if you eat them, they make a great addition to the compost pile as a good supply of calcium for your gardens of the future!

• Rhubarb – Rhubarb acts as a deterrent to mites and aphids.

Cabbage, beans and broccoli all benefit from rhubarb in their area.

• Spinach – Spinach plants benefit from the shade that pea and bean plants give. Spinach also grows well with cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, onions and Hannibal Lecter’s favorite, the fava bean.

Radishes planted amongst spinach plants can help draw away the leafminer insect that can devastate a spinach crop.

• Soybeans – The crop that is planted in the fallow years in corn fields is soybeans. They replace the nitrogen levels that the corn has depleted.

They can also be planted with the corn if you are harvesting manually.

• Squash – There are just as many bugs that love squash as there are people. Other than the potato, most other vegetable plants do just fine with squash.

It is after all the third member of the three sisters grouping.

Cucumbers, melons, onions and pumpkin all provide excellent companion skills for the lowly squash.

• Tomatoes – Other than potatoes, kohlrabi, cabbage and cauliflower, the tomato plant is every vegetable’s best friend.

• Turnip – Turnips do not like other root growing vegetables near them. That includes potatoes, radishes and more. Peas replace some of the nitrogen turnips use and make a good companion plant for turnips.

Companion Planting Table

Companion Plants to Encourage Beneficial Bugs Into Your Garden

Planting a diversity and variety of different plants in your garden can not only add colour and life to your garden, it can also encourage useful and beneficial bugs. These bugs can help to pollinate and also control unwanted insects.

Bumblebees: are the most effective and natural pollinator in your garden. To encourage bees into your garden you need to plants species that are high in nectar and pollen. the following is a very small example, choose a wide variety of plants in different vivd colours:

Local native plants

Borage

Hollyhock

Cornflower

Bellflower

Cosmos

Globe artichoke

Geranium

Ladybug Beetles: will eat up to 5 000 aphids in it’s lifetime, they also help to control asparagus beetles. Encourage ladybug beetles into your garden, by planting:

 Fennel

Dill

Coriander (cilantro)

Caraway

Tansy

Yarrow

Green Lacewings: Adult lacewings and their larvae eat aphids, caterpillars, mealybugs, scales, thrips and whiteflies. To encourage these pretty little bugs into the garden plant:

Coreopsis

Angelica

Cosmos

Sweet alyssum

Trichogramma Parasitic Wasp: help to control asparagus beetles, and cabbage worms. These wasps don’t sting and won’t bother you while having your a BBQ. Plants to encourage these helpful wasps into your garden:

Queen Anne’s lace

Carrots

Jerusalem artichokes

Dill

Lemon balm

Masterwort

Orange

Parsley

Pennyroyal

Damsel Bugs: feed on aphids, small caterpillars, leafhoppers and thrips. Plant alfalfa over the winter to encourage them come back year after year. Plants that will help to bring them into your garden include:

Caraway

Cosmos

Fennel

Spearmint

Goldenrod

Marigold

Ground Beetles: The nocturnal ground beetle is a voracious predator of slugs, snails, cutworms and cabbage worms. Plant perennials like:

White clover is also useful as ground cover in orchards

Minute Pirate Bugs (Orius): these black-and-white bugs will attack almost any insect. Plant:

Daisies

Goldenrods,

Alfalfa

Yarrow

Soldier Beetles: feed on aphids, caterpillars and other insects. A little word of warning though they may also feed on including harmless and beneficial species. Attract them by planting:

Catnip

Goldenrod

Hydrangea

Milkweed

Wild lettuce

Companion Planting Ven Diagrams

COMPANION PLANTING VEN DIAGRAM FOR GARDEN

PLANTS WITHIN THE SAME CIRCLES CAN BE PLANTED TOGETHER AS COMPANIONS.

COMPANION PLANTING VEN DIAGRAM FOR FRUIT TREES

TREES AND PLANTS IN THE SAME CIRCLE CAN BE PLANTED TOGETHER AS COMPANIONS.

Conclusion

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Other books you may enjoy by the Author Include:

A Beginners Guide to Keeping Backyard Chickens

A Beginners Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening: Introduction to Composting, Worm Farming, No Dig Raised & Wicking Gardens Plus More…

Table of Contents

A Beginners Guide to Companion Planting: Companion Gardening with Flowers, Herbs & Vegetables

Table of Contents

Copyright

Introduction

History of Companion Planting

Reasons For Companion Planting

Types of Companion Planting

Benefits of Companion Planting

Allelopathy

Soil Management

Chemical Versus Organic Fertilisers

Ideal Garden Soil Mix

Making Your Own Compost

Building a Raised Garden Bed With Cinder Blocks

Garden Planning

DIY Self Watering Container Gardens

Guide to Beneficial Companion Herbs And Plants

Other Beneficial Companion Plants – Flowers

Trees and Beneficial Plants in Companion Gardening

Planting Combinations to Use/Avoid – Fruit and Vegetables

Companion Planting Table

Companion Plants to Encourage Beneficial Bugs Into Your Garden

Companion Planting Ven Diagrams

Conclusion