Companion Planting Chart For 10 Popular Vegetables

Since I have to drive to Albuquerque and back today (320 miles!) for old man’s doc visit, I have to post early.

I have used companion planting for many years and it works beautifully. I started with Carrots love Tomatoes and also her second book and then went to other sources. I let the marigolds go wild as they keep the aphid population down, but be careful, they take over. After a week of being gone I had to find my tomato plants among the marigolds. Also Calendua aka Pot Marigold help plants keep insects away and the flowers are good in salves. Plant basil with tomatoes always.

At the end of summer I let my lettuce bolt and the seeds fly all over as it seems to like all plants and you get some nice surprises next spring.

In a 20×40 raised bed garden it is sometimes hard to keep plants separate, especially those dang potatoes, they don’t seem to get along with anyone! And broccoli isn’t much better.

OH MY I have Garlic everywhere in my raised bed garden right now. Have to find a new home for my Beans…. Although they did pretty well last year surrounded by garlic and onions lets see how much MORE production I get away from them.

OY might explain how I have had Zero Success with Peppers too.

Thanks for the input Ken! Did you get anything planted outside yet?

What has been my own companion planting experience? I forget about some stuff not really growing good together, where it becomes most evident is in the tunnel, confined space, incompatible plants= poor results. I have been testing a minimal disturbance approach, using straw mulch and not really cultivating anything, just pulling stuff out when its done, then replanting, my biggest challenge is weeds, have been short on spare time to work in the garden and its also been raining a LOT. Funny thing with year round growing, i think they mean the weeds grow year round, and everything else maybe. I may have to till it all in one more time, but will see. Anywayyy Back to companions, Have been working on growing beneficials for years. While growing kale for market i kept my borders growing in nasturtiums, and a whole slew of other stuff, all sorta wild, but my pest issues were not economicly damaging to production so it worked, never really had to use pesticides of any type. So know it works. I know this is a word mot o you will flinch at, “diversity” Yes this time its truly good, so dont let me lose you, having a diverse planting in borders and even in fallow fields as well as within the garden seems to be the best plan. I have all sorts of stuff growing, and the plants that naturalize tend to fall into their own seasonal rotation, its really interesting to watch, clovers, brassicas, flowers, grasses, at first it was all planted together, wild mass of stuff, now it just has fallen into a rhythm and at a certain point in the year each thing is dominant, do have issues with some invasive grasses, but a little glyphosate knocks that back every few years, yea whatever save the speeches you can spend your months pulling stuff that grows by rhyzomes. Anywhooo the point is that diversity has worked well in keeping pests to a minimum, we dont have that freeze every year that kills everything back so its a constant battle, better to let it fight itself! Am experimenting with naturalizing marigolds and other flowers and clovers in the garden, is interesting, i figure eventually thats going to be a pest as well🙄 but so far its keeping bugs down, the biggest thing and one that may make a huge difference in the long run is all the edibles in the borders that just keep growing, daikon and other radishes, kales, mustards, fennel, dill, black berry and potato, ground cherry (poha) and yacon, choyote (pipinola, is a small white squash, super prolific super invasive but the whole plant is edible) banannas and various herbs, as well as cherry tomatos, as well as the nasturtiums and other edible fruits, yes, sounds like a lot, looks like a mess, but is interesting to see peoples reaction, one gal went nuts when she started looking around, she left with two huge bags of stuff and a giant smile… Read more »

You should have posted this earlier. I already have peas planted next to my onions

Farmers used to plant peas or beans between the rows of corn. Served at least four purposes. The legumes (peas/beans/vetch/clover, etc) fixed natural nitrogen from the air into the soil as a nutrient retarded weed growth that would need to be dealt with, had the added bonus of being able to harvest edible fruit for the table while the corn was growing to maturity and harvest, plus the residual vines and fruit makes good fodder for your meat animals.

I haven’t ever tried companion planting before. But am planning on it this with our new raised beds. Have been doing a lot of reading and saving info for it. Excited to have the raised beds since I will put on a drip and hopefully have a better garden this year.

Remember the 3 Sisters method taught to the early settlers by the indigenous peoples.

Thanks for the guidelines Ken.

Lots of good advice on this site and our season on the left coast is going strong at present time.

Thanks Ken
This will come in handy when planting my garden this year. Hopefully soon if this nice weather continues.

I never had much luck with companion planting based on Ken’s or similar lists.

My luck changed when I began to pay attention to the pH and tilth of the soil. All vegetables like a well-drained and somewhat loose soil which doesn’t compact and is deep enough to support good drainage and healthy roots. 50 plus yards of composted manure, plain compost, mulch and 6 years later my current garden beds have a deep layer (12-16 inches) of rich non compacted soil to grow in.
Some vegetables prefer more acidic soil while others prefer more neutral to alkaline soil. My experience shows me that most vegetables prefer somewhere between slightly acidic to moderately alkaline (somewhere between 6 and 7.5 where 7 is neutral). Some vegetables tolerate both acidic and alkaline but will produce better when grown in soil closest to their preference. That’s the only guide I use regarding companion planting. If the plants prefer the same or similar soil pH then they are ok to plant together or in succession and this includes most of the vegetables we grow. If they are not compatible in this regard then I don’t plant them near each other and don’t generally plant them in succession with their opposites. For example potatoes and beans are opposites. While beans fix nitrogen in the soil, they don’t produce as well when planting in the same soil I plant potatoes in. Beans apparently prefer slightly acidic to moderately alkaline while potatoes prefer more acidic. I add enough organic materials to my soil to boost the nitrogen and don’t need to plant beans for that purpose. I plant beans to eat and prefer the higher yield by growing them in a soil medium they prefer. I add soil amendments accordingly to the soil for whatever vegetables I’m planting.
A lot of our soil amendments and mulch tend to acidify the soil over time (pine straw, sulfur, lots of organic matter, Ammonium sulfate, raw and composted animal manures) therefore we also add an appropriate amount of other amendments to help alleviate that and keep the pH balanced as best as we can (lime, bone meal, wood ashes, crushed eggshells, ground oyster shells). It is a constant balancing act. I grow potatoes and eggplants in separate beds away from the main garden because of this since they like a more acidic environment than all the other stuff. Anyway… that’s my 2 cents. Just saying.

Here is what we use in our garden to date (In no particular order).

We’re not totally organic because we use some synthetic fertilizer, in small amounts, but we’re closer to it than most gardeners, including government certified organic gardeners.

Bone meal – alkaline – tilled in, pre-planting.
Wood Ashes; hard wood only, pecan / oak – alkaline – tilled in, pre-planting.
Composted Horse Manure – tilled in, pre-planting and mulch.
Compost; regular, from rotted vegetable matter – tilled in and mulch.
Potting soil – top layer mulch and around plants when setting them out.
Chicken manure, raw – acidic – tilled or mixed in with compost into centers between rows.
Elemental Sulfur – acidic – tilled in, pre-planting.
Ag Lime – alkaline – tilled in, pre-planting
Oak leaves, whole – acidic – mulch – Oak leaves chopped – compost, tilled in centers between rows and mulch.
Pine needles, whole – acidic – mulch
Alfalfa hay; mulch
Rice straw – mulch
Grass clippings, compost, tilled in centers between rows and mulch.
Wet garbage (coffee grounds, chopped vegetable/fruit peels, chopped vegetable waste etc.) – composted into centers between rows. Chickens get first dibs though on the vegetable waste.
Fish heads, raw, chopped; shrimp heads, raw, chopped; fresh shrimp shells & crab waste crushed plus fresh fish offal and whole junk fish cut up in small pieces. Buried under row prior to planting or composted into centers between rows. (Do not use shrimp-crawfish-crab shells/waste from a shrimp or crawfish or crab boil – contains too much salt.)
Crushed pecan shells, composted then tilled in between rows.
Crushed egg shells. Compost tilled in centers between rows.
Crushed oyster shells. Tilled in centers between rows.
8-8-8 NPK fertilizer, small amounts tilled in, pre-planting and side dress.
13-13-13 NPK fertilizer, small amounts tilled in, pre-planting and side dress.
Ammonium nitrate – side dress occasionally with very small amounts.
Magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts) – side dress
Ammonium sulfate – side dress occasionally
Miracle-Grow all-purpose plant food. Added every two weeks during watering.
Muriate of Potash (Potassium Chloride) – tilled in pre-planting.
Azomite – Crushed volcanic rock – tilled in pre-planting.

Companion planting works real well for me. Tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, basil and marigolds all do well together. I planted vining cukes with sunflowers this year and they seem to like each other. Blue lake pole beans with summer squash and corn, and another section with corn and kabocha pumpkins and red butternut (and other assorted winter squashes). I tend to grow my zipper peas by themselves.

I have a whole other section of the yard devoted to medicinal herbs, garlic and onions and plant them near fruit trees in a sort of permaculture way. This has been very successful. I highly recommend bocking #4 comfrey plants (I get mine from coe’s comfrey) for compost, fodder and medicinal value. Yay gardening!

What about plant rotation?
Seems like we’ve planted garlic in the same spots.for years. The first couple years it was great, now it seems to be dwindling. Not sure if it’s the cloves or what?? But the past over cloves left in the garden seem to come up.

Well since we’re talking about gardening…..
It’s been a past week of poo for me.
Cleaning up dog bombs in the back yard, from ALL winter.
More horse poo on the hay fields.
Rabbit poo on the non-tilled (yet) garden.
My life this past week has gone to nuthin’ but $ hit. 😒

Gone for the past 2 days. Just returned home and was wondering while away. Has anyone planted sugar boots? If so how do you process them?