Forum home Fruit & veg
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Companion planting

Hi All.

I would like to try companion planting to help keep away pests and encourage healthy growth in the allotment and vege garden at home.

Have any of you experienced growers some tips on this and are there any definite no-no's on this subject?

Many thanks

 

 

 

Posts

  • Orchid LadyOrchid Lady Posts: 5,800

    Hi Madeleine image The most common one I know of is Marigolds to keep away Aphids, plant them near tomatoes and I have also sown some seeds in my strawberry hanging basket. 

    I would be interested to hear of any other tips and sorry if you knew that one already.

  • NewBoy2NewBoy2 Posts: 1,813

    "They say " that onions , carrots and leeks sown together keep carrot fly away

    I have just done this so it will be interesting to see what results I get

    Why not collect all of our ideas and split sow and nore what results you get over the season

    Everyone is just trying to be Happy.....So lets help Them.
  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Hi Madeleine, Orchid, my mum bought me this lovely book in 1999. It's full if lovely drawn pictures and lots of useful and practical advice. I have taken a photo of the veg patch companion planting page. Can you see it enough to read? May have to magnify if you can on your PC. If not, let me any particular veggies you are planting and I'll see if they are listed with god and bad companions. 

    image

     

    image

     

  • Orchid LadyOrchid Lady Posts: 5,800

    Thank you Tootles, very interesting...it looks like beans are quite good for a lot of plants....good job I'm growing someimage

  • TootlesTootles Posts: 1,469

    Yum. I love beans. The summary on them says they don't thrive with onions though, but are especially good with sweet corn. It says bean plants give lots of nitrogen to the soil. It also says broad beans help deter a fly that goes for gooseberries. French beans give an earlier crop when planted with strawberries.

  • Orchid LadyOrchid Lady Posts: 5,800

    My strawberries are hanging from the apple tree....mainly because I have a 4 legged pest that like a to eat them and unfortunately I can't get rid of it image

  • Naturtiums are a good companion for amost anything. They tend to attrack blackfly even more than (broad) beans do, so they keep them away from them.

  • Thanks everybody.  Judging by Tootles book, it looks as if I have completely planned my veggie patches wrong this year and should have been armed with The Companion Garden last autumn when planning what to do.  image My brassicas are in the bed next to tomatoes and the tomatoes have potatoes on the other side of them.  I have sown some marigolds (do they have to be French ones?) to go with my runner beans to keep off black fly and some nasturtiums to put with my broccoli and cabbages.  I read also somewhere that cauliflowers do not do well with broccoli and cabbages.

    Re Sweetcorn - is it really practical to grow s/corn next to runner beans, given that they are both tall crops? Thinking about the light aspect for each. I had wondered about growing them at right angles to runners.

    All so mind boggling! image

  • Lori73Lori73 Posts: 41

    Nasturtiums attract butterflies too. Last year I was advised to plant them and I had zero catterpillars anywhere in my garden.....except on the nasturtiums. I hung some strawberries in one of those hanging bag things between baskets of nasturtiums and the strawbs were completely pest free. I intend to plant plenty of them again this year!  image

Sign In or Register to comment.