Companion Planting

Saw this pretty infographic this morning showing some common companion planting combinations. I think that some of these are more often employed in annual crop  rotation instead of strictly companion planting (eg Beans & Brasicas), but still good stuff.

Companion planting is the method used when planting several varieties of plant close to each other, so that they mutually share their benefit with one another. 
For example, sewing rows of pongy onions or garlic between carrots masks the smell that the carrot fly loves (I kid you not) and planting leafy fast growing salad plants can help to mulch and suppress weeds for larger more established brassicas.


On further reading I discovered that Native Americans would have a set-up known as the three sisters, with Corn, Beans and pumkins or squash. Corn would act as the structure to support the beans. The beans fix nitrogen into the soil and benefit yield of all three and the leaves of the squash cover the ground and provide water retention and keep off weeds.


Harriet is keen to have lots of flowers on the plot this year, which sounds like a great idea to me; not only will it brighten everything up, but also attract in lots of pollinators and give us other benefits too, such as keeping away nematode worms and acting as sacrificial 'honey pot' plants.

We've got some marigolds that we were planning to put with our peas and aubergines, and have some larger bulbs too, but it looks like Borrage could be a winner. I'd never heard of it before (not much of a surprise there), but its quite a pretty little thing and attracts pollinators for strawberries and other plants whilst also repelling pests. Great stuff!