Seasoned gardeners know that a varied combine of plants tends to make for a nutritious and attractive backyard. A lot of imagine that selected plant mixtures have extraordinary (even mysterious) powers to assist every other increase. Scientific study of the system, called companion planting, has confirmed that some mixtures have real advantages one of a kind to these pairings.
Companions assist every other increase and use backyard house efficiently. Tall plants, for illustration, present shade for sunlight-delicate shorter plants. Vines can cover the floor when tall stalks increase skywards, making it possible for two plants to occupy the same patch.
Some couplings also reduce pest issues. Crops can repel hazardous organisms or lure the lousy bugs absent from much more sensitive species.
These mixtures of plants do way superior, collectively:
Roses and Garlic
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Gardeners have been planting garlic with roses for eons due to the fact the bulbs can assist to repel rose pests. Garlic chives are likely just as repellent, and their little purple or white bouquets in late spring appear great with rose bouquets and foliage.
Marigolds and Melons
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Specific marigold versions handle nematodes in the roots of melon with no utilizing chemical solutions.
Tomatoes and Cabbage
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Tomatoes repel diamondback moth larvae, which can chew large holes in cabbage leaves.
Cucumbers and Nasturtiums
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The nasturtium’s vining stems make them a great companion rambling among your escalating cucumbers and squash plants, suggests Sally Jean Cunningham, master gardener and writer of Great Back garden Companions. Nasturtiums apparently repel cucumber beetles, but they can also serve as a habitat for predatory bugs like spiders and floor beetles.
Peppers and Pigweed
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Leafminers most well-liked both pigweed (also called amaranthus) and ragweed to pepper plants in a study at the Coastal Plains Experiment Station in Tifton, Georgia. Just be careful to get rid of the bouquets just before the weeds established seed.
Cabbage and Dill
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“Dill is a great companion for cabbage relatives plants, this sort of as broccoli and brussels sprouts,” Cunningham says. The cabbages assist the floppy dill, when the dill appeals to the practical wasps that handle cabbage worms and other pests.
Corn and Beans
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The beans draw in effective bugs that prey on corn pests this sort of as leafhoppers, drop armyworms, and leaf beetles. The vines can also climb up the corn stalks.
Lettuce and Tall Flowers
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Nicotiana (flowering tobacco) and cleome (spider flower) give lettuce the mild shade it grows very best in.
Radishes and Spinach
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Planting radishes among your spinach will attract leafminers absent from the nutritious greens. The injury the leafminers do to radish leaves will not reduce the radishes from escalating nicely underground.
Potatoes and Sweet Alyssum
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The sweet alyssum has little bouquets that draw in sensitive effective bugs, this sort of as predatory wasps. Plant sweet alyssum together with bushy crops like potatoes, or permit it unfold to sort a residing floor cover less than arching plants like broccoli. Reward: The alyssum’s sweet fragrance will scent your backyard all summe longr.
Cauliflower and Dwarf Zinnias
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The nectar from the dwarf zinnias lures ladybugs and other predators that assist guard cauliflower.
Collards and Catnip
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Scientific studies have found that planting catnip together with collards decreases flea-beetle injury on the collards. The aromatic plant may perhaps also assist repel mosquitoes.
Strawberries and Enjoy-In-A-Mist
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Tall, blue-flowered love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) “looks excellent planted in the centre of a huge row of strawberries,” Cunningham says.
