Won’t you be my neighbor
Everyone knows the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but it takes two to tango.” Companionship matters in this wild, wild world, and it matters to plants in the garden, also.
Smarty-pants researchers have determined that we gardeners have used interplanting of crops since before recorded history. Before European interlopers arrived, Native Americans had already developed the strategy of planting the Three Sisters – corn, beans and squash – together because they complemented each other. Corn stalks provide a place for beans to climb, beans fix nitrogen in the soil which benefits the corn, and squash leaves provide shade which keeps down weeds (except in my garden).
This strategy is still applied, especially with beans, in South and Central America. Ninety percent of the beans grown in Colombia are interplanted with potatoes, corn or another crop. Cowpeas in Nigeria are almost always planted among other vegetables, and intercropping is so important in China that the government began keeping records of successful companion planting experiments such as cabbage and eggplants grown together. I never would have matched those two together.
Plant symbiosis is the name for plants helping each other just by being in the vicinity. J.I. Rodale, inspired by the work of Rudolph Steiner and Sir Albert Howard, encouraged gardeners to take advantage of plant symbiosis or companion planting as he initiated the move away from chemical gardening toward organic gardening. The idea was to work with nature rather than try to defeat it.
Here are a few examples for home gardeners regarding the beneficial or deleterious effects plants might have on each other, and, yes, some of this evidence is anecdotal.
A curiosity is that bush beans and pole beans seem to have different companion preferences. Pole beans appreciate growing near corn but apparently do not like beets. Bush beans, however, do well near beets, cauliflowers, strawberries or cucumbers. Marigolds and nasturtiums benefit bush beans because their scents deter bean beetles. Opinion is divided on whether beans and the onion family are good neighbors.
Bees like borage but hornworms do not, so borage is useful at the corners of a tomato or pepper bed. Basil is also beneficial beside tomatoes because it reportedly increases the vigor of nearby plants, and its scent repels bad bugs. There are several wonderful varieties of basil, and your garden deserves patches of them all around.
Carrots appreciate the onion family because their strong smell deters carrot flies. A row of carrots between lettuce plants or bush beans is mutually beneficial.
Members of the cabbage family might have individual favorites but as a group they suffer from the same diseases and insects such as the white cabbage butterfly. Smelly things nearby such as dill, marigolds, garlic or sage helps limit how many insect pests gather on the brassicas. Sprinkle dried mint or sage leaves around brassicas as a mulch.
The theme for companion planting is mixing things up a bit but in beneficial combinations. According to folks who pay attention, beets prosper near bush beans but do poorly beside pole beans. Go figure. Beets also appreciate garlic and onions.
Cucumbers reportedly do well with corn because corn stalks provide some shade. One source suggested cucumber rows between potatoes and cabbage. I often plant cucumbers and pole beans in alternate four-foot sections in a bed. Maybe I should mix them up a bit more and mix in radishes as well because they repel cucumber beetles.
On a downer note, cucumbers and potatoes growing near each other increases the chance of a certain blight.
The point is to lively up the garden. Grow yarrow, for example, along an edge and use the scented dried leaves for mulch. Flowers on every corner, and plant basil with tomatoes but not with rue… basil and rue disagree… who grows rue anyway?