Vegetable Companion Planting For Abundance And Flavor

Vegetable Companion Planting for Abundance and Flavor is a popular gardening technique that involves strategically placing two or more different types of plants together in order to benefit each other.

Whether in the ground or in containers, a well designed garden can improve the overall health and esthetics and you can gain some benefits of homesteading through growing your own food.

Companion planting is a great way to efficiently grow plants that aid each other, providing many benefits, such as improved pest and disease control, enriched soil for fertility and fruit size, improved flavors, providing shade or weed barriers, and enhanced pollination.

In this post we will examine many plants that benefit other plants by improving taste or soil, reducing diseases, and providing shade or ground cover. We will also explore some combinations of plants to avoid planting near each other.

For companion planting to attract pollinators or reduce nuisance insects, see Vegetable Companion Planting for Insects.

For an easy reference, see this handy Vegetable Companion Planting Cheat Sheet.

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Blue-Ribbon Plants

Have you ever wondered how some people achieve growing blue-ribbon fruits and vegetables?  They may have incorporated companion planting to assist in their success.

Legumes (beans and peas) add nitrogen to the soil while they grow, which boosts tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, sweet corn, cucumbers, and squashes. To save space, summer plants, like cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, or summer squash could be planted just as peas are dying out because the weather has gotten hot.

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Dill is not just great as an ingredient for preserving cucumbers as dill pickles, it may also enhance the cucumber’s flavor and growth while on the vine.

Strawberries have enhanced flavor, health and growth by companion planting onions or borage with them.

Symbiotic Relationships that shine

Three Sisters – corn, beans, and squash or pumpkin: Once the corn is established in the center, plant beans around them. After the beans are underway follow with planting winter squash or pumpkin around the outside after the beans have sprouted.

The beans add nitrogen to the soil, keeping the others happy, the corn gives the beans support, and the squash or pumpkin shade the soil, and reduces weeds and pests, like racoons, from getting to the corn. All three may improve each other’s flavor, as well.

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Peppers and carrots: Carrot plants make a more humid environment, which is preferred by peppers, while the peppers create shade for the carrots and helps to make them sweeter. The carrots also loosen and aerate the soil.

Tomatoes or peppers and lettuce or spinach: They use different nutrients, so they don’t fight over them. Lettuce or spinach act as a mulch for the tomatoes or peppers, providing a more humid environment. Meanwhile the tomatoes or peppers shade the lettuce or spinach, keeping them cooler during the heat of the summer.

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Cucumbers and corn or sunflowers: The corn or sunflowers provide shade for the cucumbers. The can also offer support for the cucumbers, which prevents rotting due to ground moisture. The cucumbers keep away pests, like racoons, from the taller plants.

Enhance Flavor by planting these near each other

We’ve already mentioned the flavor enhancement of dill to cucumber, onions or borage to strawberries, three sisters, and peppers to carrots. Here are a few more…

Onion’s flavor is often improved when planted with chamomile, summer savory, dill or parsley.  Parsley also heightens the flavor of potatoes, carrots, and corn.

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Nightshades, such as tomatoes and peppers may have flavor enhancements from a variety of companion plants. These include basil, alliums (onion and garlic family), and parsley. Onions especially improve the taste of hot peppers.

A few other helpful combinations

Beets and onions don’t compete for nutrients and the onions safeguard beets against some fungal infections.

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White clover (low growing varieties) can be used as a living mulch, which reduces weeds and adds nitrogen to the soil.  It is great for peppers and other plants that need their flowers pollinated.

Avoid these combinations

Most plants which share similar soil, sun, and water needs are likely to be good companions with each other. However, there are exceptions because there are some plants which stunt the growth or negatively affect the flavor of others when planted nearby.

Additionally, some types of plants attract the same insect pests and diseases, which then pass from one kind to the next. Avoid planting these close together:

• Cucumbers with potatoes – The cucumbers don’t grow as well and the potatoes are more likely to get blight. They also compete for nutrient needs.

• Cucumbers or squash with aromatic herbs, especially sage and basil – They attract pests to each other and the herbs negatively affect the flavor of the cucumbers or squash.
• Cucumbers with melons or squashes – They compete for nutrients and vine space and share diseases and pests with each other.
• Corn with tomatoes – They attract tomato worms and corn earworms to each other.

• Potatoes with tomatoes or peppers – They share and spread diseases. It is best to not plant them in the same place for at least two years.

• Squash with root crops, such as potatoes, onions, turnips, beets, etc. – The root crops disturb the roots of the squash.

• Alliums (onion and garlic family) with beans, peas, asparagus, or turnips – The beans, peas, or asparagus will have stunted growth. Additionally, the asparagus and turnips’ (root part, not the greens) flavor will be contaminated.

• Families of plants, especially alliums (garlic and onion family) – They share their pests.
• Sage with alliums – Sage stunts the growth of the alliums.

• Fennel inhibits the growth of many plants, including tomatoes, peppers, and basil.

• Basil, sage and rosemary – They have incompatible growing conditions. Sage likes dry, sandy soil. Basil needs lots of moisture and rich soil. Rosemary prefers drier conditions.
• Tomatoes or peppers with brassicas (cabbage family) – The brassicas impede the growth of the tomatoes or peppers.

• Legumes (beans and peas) with sweet potatoes, watermelons, carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips – Legumes put nitrogen in the soil which the other plants are impaired by when there is too much.

Besides companion planting for the benefits of improved soil quality, enhanced flavor, shade, and creating a natural trellis, it can also be used to increase fertility through attracting pollinating insects and discouraging pest insects. For a more complete discussion of these and other companion planting benefits, see Vegetable Companion Planting for Insects.

For a quick and easy guide, be sure to check out our Vegetable Companion Planting Cheat Sheet.