How to make use of companion plants in your vegetable garden

If you start your own garden for the first time, and you start to research the best ways to grow your crops, you’ll most likely stumble quickly on tips like crop rotation, pest control, and soil health. But did you also know that companion plants will change how you look at your garden?

What are companion plants and what are the benefits of companion planting?

The principle of companion planting, not exact science, is to plant specific plants in the vicinity of other garden crops that are beneficial to each other. They can enhance each other’s growth, repel harmful insects, attract beneficial insects, and more. Let’s look at some of these beneficial properties that make the concept of companion plants such a good idea to use in your garden.

Benefits of companion planting

Pest control:
- Natural repellents: Some plants produce scents or chemicals that repel pests. For example, marigolds release substances that deter nematodes, aphids, and certain beetles.
- Trap crops: Certain plants attract pests away from main crops. Nasturtiums, for instance, attract aphids, keeping them away from other plants.
Enhanced growth:
- Nutrient sharing: Some plants improve soil fertility for their neighbors. Legumes, such as beans and peas, fix nitrogen in the soil, benefiting nitrogen-loving plants like corn.
- Microclimate regulation: Taller plants can provide shade and wind protection for shorter, more delicate plants, creating a more favorable growing environment.
Improved pollination:
- Plants with attractive flowers, like borage and lavender, can draw pollinators (bees, butterflies) to the garden, increasing pollination rates for fruiting plants like tomatoes and squash.
Weed suppression:
- Ground cover plants, such as clover or creeping thyme, spread out to cover the soil, reducing the opportunity for weeds to establish and grow.
Increased yield and crop diversity:
- Growing a variety of plants together can maximize the use of garden space and lead to higher overall yields, as different plants can occupy different niches and soil depths.

What are the benefits of companion planting in your vegetable garden?

For starters, your plants will benefit from each other. It can be so easy as plants that have strong odors, like aromatic herbs, which deter a pest that can harm another plant. For example: Carrots are harmed by carrot flies, and onions help to deter the carrot fly with their smell.

This is not the only benefit of planting onions next to carrots, because of their difference in the root system of these veggies. Carrots are called a root crop and have a taproot that will grow deep into the soil, onions have fibrous roots that will grow very shallowly in the soil. By planting these plants as neighbors they will repel each other’s pests and won’t grow in the space the other plant needs (and thus are a perfect combination in a small garden).

Another benefit of companion plants is that they have different needs or root systems. This way the root systems don’t interfere with each other or compete with each other for soil nutrients. That is a great way to maximize the space when you have a small, little garden!

Flowers as a good companion

Not only other vegetable plants are good companions in your kitchen garden, but flowers can also have the potential to be a good neighbor. Take Marigolds, these flowers attract beneficial insects like ladybugs that will feast on insect pests like aphids, spider mites, and cabbage moths.

Next to their ability to deter garden pests, flowers will also attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and bumblebees. This will make your job as a gardener a lot easier. Your plants will undergo pollination naturally, without requiring manual transfer of pollen from a male flower to a female flower.

Having a vegetable garden and a flower garden with beautiful flowers will thus increase crop yield!

Commonly known companion plant combinations

1. The three sisters

A very common combination of companion plants is the so-called ‘Three sisters’. It is a combination, from the Native Americans, of corn, winter squash, and beans. This method is a good example of the beneficial properties of plants that you can combine.

By using this method you can plant three crops fairly close to each other but they won’t interfere negatively. The corn stalks act like a trellis, the beans will climb this natural trellis, and the squash acts as a kind of mulch.

Squash has broad and large leaves that will act like mulch because they will retain soil moisture and suppress weeds. The beans will fix nitrogen in their roots, which is beneficial for the corn and squash, and provide stability for the corn that has a shallow root system.

When you plan to use this method make sure to plant the corn and beans together on a small hill, and to plant the squash in the mound in between the hilling soil.

Furthermore, some good neighbors:

2. Tomato plants and basil: Basil is believed to enhance the flavor of tomatoes and repel pests like whiteflies and aphids.

3. Carrots and onions: Onions can repel carrot flies, while carrots can deter pests that target onions.

a few small carrot tops next to a patch of red onions. The ground is coverd in mulch — *Plant some rows of onions and carrots next to each other, they will repel certain pests and therefore are good companions in the garden!*

4. Cabbage and dill: Dill attracts beneficial insects like ladybugs and parasitic wasps, which prey on pests that target cabbage.

Two pictures, on the right a dill plant, on the left a red cabbage — *Plant some dill next to your cabbages, these will attract beneficial insects that will hunt pests that target cabbage*

The power of the Marigold

As you can read in the list of companion plants below, the flower ‘Marigold’ is a fairly popular companion for a lot of vegetable plants. What are the benefits of planting marigolds next to your crops? For one, the Marigold is a beautiful flower that will attract beneficial insects, so your plants that need pollinating will love to be next to some Marigolds.

It is not only beautiful to look at, but will also deter certain pests like squash bugs, cabbage worms, tomato hornworms, thrips, whiteflies, colorado potato beetles, flea beetles, and so much more! How?

A picture of a marigold flower — *Next to a lot of benefits, the marigold flower is a beauty in your garden!*

Marigolds emit a strong scent that repels various pests. This strong scent will mask the smell of nearby plants so the pest has a harder time locating their preferred host plant. Furthermore, Marigolds produce thiophenes. These chemical compounds are toxic to many insects and nematodes and are released from the roots into the soil. This makes a protective barrier against soil-dwelling pests.

Next to the insects I mentioned above Marigold flowers can also help if your garden suffers from hungry rabbits or deer. The scent of the Marigold is strong and pungent, rabbits and deer don’t like it.

To conclude, the marigold is a really easy flower to have in your garden. It has a lot of benefits for other plants and on top of it all it looks beautiful! After the marigold has bloomed it will spread its seeds so you can enjoy this flower year after year. If you want to spread this flower through your garden you can easily save its seeds and plant them next season next to your veggie plants.

Good companion plants

Below, I’ll add a list of companion plants that benefit each other in your garden. I’ll add to the list as I find other good companions in the future.