Companion Planting Chart

It takes more than good soil, sun, and nutrients to ensure success in a garden. Gardening wisdom says that certain plants, when grown together, improve each other’s health and harvest. For instance, some plants attract beneficial insects that help to protect a companion plant, while other plants (particularly herbs) act as repellents. Additionally, plants that require a lot of the same nutrients as their neighbors may struggle to get enough for themselves, producing a minimal yield.

Which vegetables should you plant next to each other? Which shouldn’t you plant together? Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of companion planting.

Benefits of Companion Planting

There are plenty of reasons to plant certain crops together. For example…

• Large plants can regulate shade for smaller plants in need of sun protection.
• Tall plants like corn and sunflowers can provide Natural support for lower-growing, sprawling crops such as cucumbers and peas.
• Improved plant health: When one plant absorbs certain substances from the soil, it may change the soil biochemistry in favor of nearby plants.
• Healthy soil: Some crops, such as bean and peas, help to make nitrogen available. Similarly, plants with long taproots, like burdock, bring up nutrients from deep in the soil, enriching the topsoil to the benefit of shallow-rooted plants.  Remember to check the soil pH.
• Weed suppression: Planting sprawling crops like potatoes with upright plants minimizes open areas, where weeds typically take hold.

Companion Plants for Vegetables

Some plants, especially herbs, act as natural insect repellents. They confuse insects with strong odors that mask the scent of the intended host plants.

• Dill and basil planted among tomatoes can protect from tomato hornworms.
• Sage scattered about the cabbage patch reduces injury from cabbage moths.
• Marigolds are as good as gold when grown with just about any garden plant, repelling beetles, nematodes, and sometimes even animal pests, like deer.
• Some companions act as trap plants, luring insects to themselves. Nasturtiums, for example, are so favored by aphids that the devastating insects will flock to them instead of other plants.
• Carrots, dill, parsley, and parsnip attract beneficial insects—praying mantises, ladybugs, and spiders—that dine on insect pests.
• Much of companion planting is common sense: Lettuce, radishes, and other quick-growing plants sown between hills of melons or winter squash will mature and be harvested long before these vines need more leg room.
• Leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard grow in the shadow of corn.
• Bush beans tolerate the dapple shade that corn casts and, since their roots occupy different levels in the soil, don’t compete for water and nutrients.
• Tansy discourages cutworm, which attacks asparagus, bean, cabbage, carrot, celery, corn, lettuce, pea, pepper, potato, and tomato plants.
• Catnip, hyssop, rosemary, and sage deter cabbage moth, which is detrimental to a host of edible crops, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, turnip, and radish.
• Mint wards off cabbage moth and ants.
• Thyme thwarts cabbageworm, which munches broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard, horseradish, kale, and kohlrabi.
• Lavender is known to deter codling moths, which wreak havoc on apple trees.
• Zinnias attract ladybugs, so when planted near cauliflower, which is susceptible to cabbage flies, the ladybugs are there to control the pest population.

Companion Planting Chart