Companion Planting

I have often spoken to people about the benefits of companion planting. One common theme always ran, nobody was really sure what went well with what. I then found this table, (see below), in the book 'Old Wives' Lore for Gardeners' (Maureen and Bridget Boland, Bodley Head pub), showing exactly which plants make good neighbours and which definitely do not. For example beans and peas will do particularly well together but surprisingly two other plant belonging to the same family as each other (The Solanaceae family), potatoes and tomatoes can be harmful to each other when placed together. The vegetables are numbered from 1 to 12 and herbs W X Y and rue Z. So for example if you wanted to know what went well with asparagus I could see that 11 tomatoes and W parsley will work well.

	Plant	Helpful	Harmful
1	Asparagus	11 W
2	Beans	4 5 8 10 12 W	7
3	Cabbage Family	X Y	7 10 Z
4	Carrots	2 5 6 7 8 12 W
5	Leeks	2 4 8 12
6	Lettuce	4 10
7	Onions, Garlic	4
8	Peas	2 4 5 12 X	7
9	Potatoes	2 1 X	11 Y
10	Strawberries	2 6	3
11	Tomatoes	1 W X	9
12	Turnips	2 4 5 W
	W Parsley, Y Rosemary, mint Camomile, thyme	X Marigolds, Z Rue

The reason marigolds (X) are planted next to some vegetables are to do with the problem of aphids. This works with any yellow flower and will attract preditorary insects that will hopefully prey on the aphids. This year I have planted a number of nasturtiums and marigolds around my plot for this very reason. The bonus with these two plants is nasturtiums are edible and marigolds can make a rather pleasant tea.

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