Companion planting is a key to organic gardening. It helps reduce the need for pesticides, weeding and even fertilizing! How so? Well take corn and beans–neither of which Mandy is planting at the moment, but it makes for a great case in point.
Beans fix nitrogen into the soil, while corn uses lots of nitrogen! It’s a heavy feeder you know. So you could plant beans and corn next to one another. Add a line of squash around their base and voila! You have weed protection. The wide leaves of the squash will shade the ground thereby reducing the ability of weeds to grow! In fact, this is a technique used by Native American Indians years before the invention of fertilizer sprays and such.
In Mandy’s case, she’s planting cabbage and rosemary together, carrots and beets in the row just below them. Rosemary makes a wonderful companion for cabbage and carrots because it repels cabbage moths and carrot flies. Carrots and beets are great friends too, so lining them in the same bed makes perfect sense. I mingle beets with my garlic as the garlic helps to improve the flavor of the beets. And beets could use a little help in this department if you know what I mean.
The only words of advice in companion planting are the obvious: make sure they are indeed companions and second: each plant has enough room to grow and mature without being overtaken by its pal. Otherwise, the friendship may suffer. 🙂 You see, these red cabbage may have been planted too close to the struggling rosemary transplants, but only time will tell. Stay-tuned and happy gardening!
Leave a Reply