Companion Plants: What Grows Well Together

There are some plants that do well together (companion plants) when they are planted next to each other and there are certain combinations of plants that slows the growth of one or both types of plants. Basically, certain plants love each other and certain plants hate each other.

Companion planting can be a complex and often overwhelming if you let it. But as you gain more experience and develop a feeling for gardening, companion planting will become clearer. Just be sure not to let too much planning spoil the fun and excitement of working in the garden!

This isn’t to say that you can’t grow these plants together in the same garden, just don’t grow them right next to each other. Below is a guide to help indentify what grows well together and what doesn't. The chart list the compatibility, both the good and the bad, of plants when planted next to each other.

Companion planting is a discipline in which further analysis needs to be carried out. There are a lot of unknowns and variables that must be considered. Such as, the age of the vegetables or herbs, the percent of each of the varieties of plants grown in combination, and how close together they are planted. It should be done with an inquisitive approach to see what actually works well together and what doesn't. Are the benfits or negative influences due to root excretions, plant aroma, or the pollen of composite flowers that attracts cetain beneficial insects? Further study on the causes of some of these beneficial relationships is recommended and can be found in the articles on this website. They are listed in the box on the right of this page for your convenience.

Planting techniques are for: health; nutrition; physical complementarity; and weed, insect, and animal relationships.

Companion Planting Chart for Vegetables

Plant (Vegetable)	Good Companions	Bad Companions
Asparagus	Tomatoes, parsley, basil
Beans	Potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflowe, cabbage, eggplant, summer savory, most other vegetablesand herbs	Onions, garlic, gladiolus, chives
Beans, bush	Potatoes, cucumbers, corn, strawberries, celery, summer savory	Onions
Beans, pole	Corn, summer savory, sunflower	Onions, beets, kohlrabi, cabbgae
Beets	Onions, Kohlrabi	Pole beans
Cabbage family (cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kolrabi, broccoli)	Aromatic plants, potatoes, celery, dill, hyssop, chamomile, sage, peppermint, rosemary, beets, onions	Stawberries, tomatoes, pole beans
Carrots	Peas, leaf lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, rosemary, sage, tomatoes	Dill
Celery	Leeks, tomatoes, bush beans, cauliflowe, cabbage
Chives	Carrots, tomatoes	Peas, beans
Corn	Potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squash	Tomato
Cucumbers	Beans, corn, peas, radishes, sunflowers, lettuc	Potatoes, aromatice herbs
Eggplant	Beans, potatoes, spinach
Leeks	Onions, celery, carrots
Lettuce	Carrots and radishes (lettuce, carrots, and radishes make a strong team grown together), strawberries, cucumbers, onions
Melons	Corn, Nasturtium, Radish
Onions(garlic)	Beets, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, summer savory, leeks,chamomile (sparsely), pepper	Peas, beans
Parsley	Tomatoes, asparagus
Peas	Carrots, turnips, radishes, cucumbers, corn, beans, most vegetables and herbs	onions, garlic, gladilus, potatoes, chives
Potatoes	Beans, corn, cabbage, horseradish (should be planted at the corners of the patch), marigolds, eggplant (as a lure for the Coloradopotato beetle)	Pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes, raspberries
Pepper	Onion
Pumplins	Corn	Potatoes
Radishes	Peas, nasturtiums, lettuce, melons, cucumbers	Hyssop
Soybeans	Grows with anything, helps everything
Spinach	Strawberries, eggplant
Squash	Nasturtiums, corn	Potatoes
Strawberries	Bush beans, spinach, borage, ettuce (as a border), onions	Cabbage
Sunflowers	Cucumbers	Potatoes
Tomatoes	Chives, onions, parsley, asparagus, marigolds, nasturtiums, carrots	Corn, Kohlrabi
Turnips	Peas

Oak tree: Concentrates calcium in its bark (bark ash is 77% calcium). In a special tea, it helps plants resist harmful diseases. The oak tree provides a beneficial influence around it that helps create excellent soil underneath its branches. This is a great place to build a compost pile for the same reason, but keep the pile at least 6 feet from the tree trunk so the environment near the tree will not be conducive to disease or attractive to harmful insects.

Continue on to the next page for a chart on mutually beneficial herbs, weeds, and flowers and their companions.

Sources: thevegetablegarden