Gardening is an eco-friendly practice in itself. But did you know that you can make your home gardening efforts even more fruitful?
Companion planting or gardening is a practice that you can implement to ensure that your vegetable garden is reaching its highest potential. When growing your own vegetable garden, co planting is one of the best ways to ensure that your precious plants grow perfectly.
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This blog will tell you more about companion planting and about some of the best pairings that you can grow in your garden for a more successful and wholesome experience. So, let's get into it!
• Benefits of Companion Planting
Companion planting is a conscious practice where two or more types of plants are grown together to create a harmonious synergy in their growth. These plants can benefit each other by enhancing taste and growth, deterring pests, and substantially improving overall yield.
When placed near each other, they tend to offer a lot more benefits than when they are planted alone. Co planting thus not only benefits your crops but also your garden and soil health.
All in all, companion growing is a sustainable, eco-friendly approach that improves garden productivity, promotes healthy plant growth, and minimizes chemical use.
• Companion Planting Chart: Your Go-To Guide
Companion planting may seem a little complicated at first. But once you begin to understand the basics of balanced gardening, it will get simpler with each step.
So, here is a small companion planting chart for when you need a quick reference:
| Plant/Crop |
Best Companion Crop
|
| 1. Basil |
Peppers (Bell & Chili) |
| 2. Tomatoes |
Asparagus |
| 3. Asparagus |
Tomatoes Marigolds |
| 4. Beetroot | |
| 5. Broccoli |
Basil Beans Celery Garlic Marigolds Mint |
| 6. Onions |
Cabbage Carrots Peppers (Bell and Chili) Tomato |
• Companion Vegetable Planting Pairings
Some of the best pairings for companion planting are definitely going to be some of the most unexpected ones for you to find out about.
But their friendship is like jam with bread or cookies with milk - its perfect and it works! So, here are some companion crops that will really work their magic when grown together:
1. Tomatoes and Basil
Just the way you pair Tomatoes and Basil to make the perfect pasta, they are also great when paired together as crops.
Since they need the same type of soil to grow, they start off at the right foot. But the magic really happens when basil plants deter pests like aphids and hornworms - bugs that are otherwise common on tomato plants.
When they grow together, not only do they benefit by growing better yields but also by deterring pests for each other. This gives you a better harvest for both crops and wonderful synergy in your vegetable garden.
2. Beetroot and Onion
Did you know that beetroots are commonly affected by beet-fleas that can uproot their entire growth process from the ground-up (quite literally)?
It is exactly these beet-fleas that onion plants are great at repelling. Onions become great natural pest repellents for beets and eventually, both plants help improve garden soil structure, making onion a great companion crop for your beets and vice-versa.
3. Broccoli and Oregano
One line will tell you all you need to know about this companion planting pair - oregano is a brilliant pest deterrent!
Broccoli is rather prone to pests, making the oregano crop its match made in heaven. Some common pests that affect Broccoli, such as cabbage butterflies and cucumber beetles, are easily deterred by oregano.
Additionally, the pair also improves soil health and overall garden biodiversity when planted together.
4. Pumpkin and Beans
This companion growing pair is another heavenly match because of the way the plants complement each other.
Here are a few ways in which they are complementary to each other:
a. Pumpkins have shallow roots and beans are more deeply rooted
b. Bean plant roots are great at fixing nitrogen, which is highly beneficial for pumpkins as they need extra nutrients
c. The large leaves of pumpkins are also great at shading the bean plants, thus aiding better growth and pollination.
Nature is an absolutely wonderful thing as it often creates marvels that complement each other perfectly. If one does well, the other does too.
This complementary nature is exactly what the practice of companion growing recognizes and aims to implement in order to get the best results, for gardens and their gardeners.
With the right knowledge, you can even grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers with one and another for the best results. Moreover, through the journey of gardening, you might just be able to reach a point in life that allows you to reconnect with a part of you that resides in nature. A part of you that remains untapped unless you really let it heal in the green arms of the bounties of our planet.
So, start growing and discover yourself in the process of gardening. Happy gardening!
