Yard Companion Planting Chart, Plans, and Benefits ~ Homestead and Chill

Come uncover the attractive world of companion planting and get a free printable yard companion planting chart for easy reference. This article is going to uncover the benefits of companion planting, what flowers, herbs and greens to plant collectively in raised beds, and how one can observe companion planting in your yard. I’ve included inspiration pictures and construction plans from our gardens as examples too!

What’s Companion Planting?

Companion planting is the idea that some vegetation revenue from rising shut to one another, whereas others wish to be saved at a distance. Practising companion planting in your vegetable yard can provide a plethora of benefits – and look gorgeous too! Adjust to our companion planting chart beneath to see what vegetation develop biggest collectively.

The Faculty of Massachusetts extra explains: “companion planting is rising two (or additional) crops shut to 1 one other with the hypothesis that they help each other in nutrient uptake, improved pest administration and lowered pesticide use, enhanced pollination and elevated vegetable yields”.

Disclosure: Homestead and Chill is reader-supported. As soon as you purchase by hyperlinks on our web site, we would earn an affiliate charge.

Good Companion Vegetation

A useful companion planting combination usually offers some type of revenue to 1 (or every) of the vegetation, or brings an added perk to your yard on the entire. You will discover these listed as “good buddies” in our companion planting data beneath. Some may need a profound relationship, equal to relying on each others pure plant hormones to promote improvement or security. Completely different relationships may be as simple as one providing shade for the other.

Occasion: Take into consideration the standard Native American “Three Sisters” companion planting combination of corn, squash and beans. Wonderful for maximizing yield in compact areas, the corn grows tall and slender, leaving open space for sprawling squash vegetation beneath. The squash shades the soil to help it retain moisture. Pole beans can climb the corn as a assist trellis, all whereas together with nitrogen to the soil that feeds every the squash and corn.

A large squash plant is the center of the image. It is planted in a raised garden bed with four other beds in the immediate vicinity. There is calendula, basil, peppers, marigolds, flowering onions, collard greens, beans and zinnia growing throughout the area. There are large salvia and passionfruit vines growing beyond the garden beds and previously mentioned plants. — An occasion from our outdated entrance yard yard. Flowers throughout the squash to increase pollination and yields, onions throughout the collard greens to discourage aphids.

Incompatible Vegetation

Nevertheless, some vegetation are generally useful to not plant instantly subsequent to others – their acknowledged or suspected “foes” as I identify them in our companion planting chart. These combos may set off each other factors, equal to stunted improvement. For example, the cabbage family, fennel, and dill are acknowledged to inhibit the enlargement of tomatoes.

Occasion: You’ll sometimes see ideas to stay away from rising peas in shut proximity to onions or garlic. Why? Successfully, there in truth isn’t loads scientific proof to assist it, nonetheless theories suggest it’s because of garlic and onions are “heavy feeders” whereas peas mustn’t. This makes their fertilizing desires incompatible. Peas moreover add nitrogen to the soil, whereas onions and garlic don’t like an extreme quantity of. One different thought is that the pea’s delicate shallow root system may be disrupted by the enlargement or harvest of onions and garlic shut by.

Raised garden beds are set against the side of a blue green house. The back of the garden bed contains a trellis that stands about six feet tall. It has various pole beans climbing up the trellis, mostly filling out the structure with green foliage. There are swiss chard plants growing in front of the beans amongst a sea of calendula and borage plants. The sun is setting in the distance. — On this space, I wanted to develop pepper vegetation in entrance of the climbing pole beans… nonetheless then remembered that *peppers and beans are supposedly incompatible*. So we put the peppers elsewhere and planted Swiss chard on the bottom of the beans instead. They did fabulously collectively!

Benefits of Companion Planting

1) Elevated Pollination and Yields

Pairing fruit or vegetable vegetation with pollen-rich flowers like calendula, cosmos, zinnia, bachelor buttons, or borage is the correct methodology to attraction to pollinators equal to bees and butterflies to your yard. Many vegetable crops mustn’t self-fertile and rely upon pollinators as a option to develop fruit, along with zucchini, winter squash, cucumbers, melons, most berries and fruit bushes. Subsequently, additional pollinators = additional to reap!

Related: Research additional about my 7 favorite easy annual companion flowers to develop from seed, or our normal excessive 23 biggest vegetation for pollinators proper right here. Even with a great deal of bees spherical, I nonetheless sometimes hand-pollinate my squash to forestall end-rot and improve yields!

A large backyard garden with a dozen raised garden beds full of colorful companion plants and vegetables, with gravel around the raised beds, green plants with many colorful flowers in every bed, and tall trees and white house in the distance.

2) Enchantment to Completely different Helpful Bugs

Bees and butterflies aren’t the one good guys we want to encourage in our yard! Companion planting with flowers and herbs like basil, cilantro, sage and dill creates habitat, meals, or in some other case attracts completely different small helpful bugs like lacewings, parasitic wasps, hover flies, predatory mites, or ladybugs. These guys all play a necessary operate in pure pest administration. For example, have you learnt {{that a}} single ladybug can eat over 50 aphids per day?

a close up of a ladybug perched on top of small yellow flowers, where there are tiny grey aphids inside the flowers that the ladybug will eat

3) Pure Pest Administration

Whereas many companion vegetation entice helpful bugs, some may help deter pests or sickness. As an example, garlic, chives, onions, and fragrant herbs like basil, dill, and cilantro will assist repel aphids – excellent for pure aphid administration spherical inclined crops like brassicas or leafy greens. The sharp odor of marigold flowers moreover reportedly retains pest bugs like whitefly away.

Apparently, scorching pepper vegetation embrace a substance inside their root system that is environment friendly at avoiding and stopping root rot diseases, equal to Fusarium rot. This helps maintain root rot away from completely different companions within the similar yard mattress as peppers.

Completely different companion vegetation DO attraction to pest bugs – nonetheless distract pests away out of your fruit and greens vegetation instead! These are referred to as “lure crops” or sacrificial crops. Nasturtium is a first-rate occasion of a lure crop. The flowers attraction to bees and hummingbirds, nonetheless nasturtium leaves are moreover magnets for aphids and cabbage worms. Lure crop vegetation should be away from the yard as quickly as they modify into intently infested.

A hand is holding ten cabbage worms that were plucked from a nearby nasturtium plant that is in the immediate background. Nasturtiums can be found in the companion planting chart as well. — A potted nasturtium plant doing an superior job as a “lure crop” near our yard mattress. Take a look in any respect these cabbage worms I hand-picked off it, however our shut by veggies had none. Be taught to dispose of cabbage worms proper right here.

A somewhat crowded raised garden bed. Swiss chard is growing amongst tall onions which have been planted around the outside of the chard plants. There is nasturtium growing in the same bed in the background while other vegetables such tatsoi and mustard greens are growing in the immediate foreground. — Just a bit crowded, nonetheless nonetheless a wonderful occasion! Our swiss chard on a regular basis get a ton of aphids. To the aim I just about gave up rising them! Nevertheless then I tried planting onions (acknowledged to repel aphids) between and throughout the swiss chard. Guess what? No aphids.

Prime Occasion: Marigolds and Root-Knot Nematodes

French marigolds are presumably one of many well-known companion vegetation, as their roots embrace a pure nematocide that kills root-knot nematodes. (Root-knot nematodes are a microscopic and harmful nematode that feed on root methods, reducing plant effectively being and yields.) This makes marigolds wonderful companion vegetation for tomatoes, squash, melon, peppers, and completely different crops steadily affected by root-knot nematodes.

This particular helpful relationship IS scientifically backed! Nevertheless it’s sometimes misunderstood by the well-intended gardener. With a view to reap the benefits of French marigold companion planting, the marigold root system ought to be left in place. Which means it’s biggest to cut marigold vegetation out on the soil line on the end of the season (leaving the roots in place, no-till gardening vogue) moderately than pulling the vegetation out. Even larger outcomes are achieved if many marigold vegetation are grown earlier to planting the veggie crop within the similar location.

Research additional concerning the excellent tomato companion vegetation (and foes!) proper right here.

A raised garden bed set against the side of a house. There is a trellis that is set on the backside of the garden bed that contains tomatoes with ripening fruit that is dark brown red to ruby red in color. The frontside of the beds contains numerous basil plants and marigolds that have been amongst the tomatoes. The sun is almost setting in the background which creates a bright glow. There are two chickens picking around in the grass outside of the garden bed area. Basil, marigolds, and tomatoes are considered friends in the companion planting chart. — A quintessential companion planting combination of tomatoes, French marigolds, and basil. Basil retains aphids away, constructive elements some shade from the tomatoes (to forestall sunburn) and supposedly make the tomatoes model larger! The marigolds help maintain root knot nematodes away from the the tomatoes, whereas moreover deterring completely different small pest bugs like whitefly.

4) Enhance Biodiversity and Magnificence

Choice is the spice of life! It’s gorgeous and pleasing to mix completely completely different greens, flowers and herbs collectively in your yard beds. Companion planting supplies curiosity, and is often larger for plant and soil effectively being.

Companion planting is a sort of polyculture, or planting plenty of forms of crops collectively in a small space instead of just one. Polyculture and companion planting help improve biodiversity and change your yard proper right into a mini-ecosystem – an esteemed achievement in pure gardening!

When as compared with standard agriculture or monoculture, a bio-diverse yard is far much less susceptible to be overrun with sickness or pests. It reduces the need for pesticides, synethic fertilizers, or completely different chemical merchandise. Quite a few gardens even have additional robust immune methods to take care of environmental stress equal to drought, heat, or chilly snaps.

A large garden with a dozen raised garden beds full of colorful companion plants and vegetables, with small orange marigold flowers and swiss chart in the foreground and two large arched trellises covered in vines in the background.

Companion Planting Chart

And now… what you attainable obtained right here proper right here for! Please get pleasure from this free printable companion planting chart as an easy seen helpful useful resource and reminder of what vegetation develop properly collectively (or not). I want to carry our companion planting chart on the fridge, along with the seed starting calendar for our zone. To create this, I gleaned knowledge from dozens of my favorite gardening books and on-line sources to compile one full companion planting data.

For rather more helpful yard sources, don’t miss our 20-page Free Yard Planning Toolkit. It incorporates tips to start a yard, raised mattress plot plan templates, journal pages, plus seed starting and planting calendars for every rising zone.

A companion planting chart that lists many types of vegetables in one column, their beneficial companion plants in another, as well as their suspect "foes" in the final column.

I perceive the font is small, notably within the occasion you’re on a cell gadget. There was quite a few knowledge to go well with on one internet web page! If it’s powerful to view on-line, get a printable PDF mannequin proper right here.

Tips about easy methods to Companion Plant in Your Yard

Make a plan. Fairly than heading outdoor with a bunch of seedlings and stuffing them in a mattress willy-nilly, test with our companion planting chart and sketch out a yard construction plan of the place you want to plant all of the issues first. You’ll be a lot much less susceptible to run out of room or unintentionally put incompatible vegetation subsequent to 1 one other. It doesn’t ought to be set in stone, nonetheless a traditional plan helps me preserve additional organized! See our vegetable yard plot plan occasion beneath.
Among the many biggest and finest companion vegetation to develop amongst your greens are flowers and herbs. Calendula, nasturtiums, basil, cilantro, oregano, parsley, thyme, and rosemary all haven’t any acknowledged “foes” – so be completely happy to mix them into your yard the place ever you probably can! Calendula is my all-time favorite flower (and medicinal herb) so that you simply’ll uncover it in just about every one in every of our yard beds. I’ve moreover develop into increasingly eager on planting cosmos, bachelor buttons, and zinnia amongst our greens, which are a magnet for a ton of pollinators! Get rising recommendations on our favorite easy companion flowers proper right here.
Bear in mind to observe good plant spacing – companions included. Over-crowding vegetation can thwart the benefits you’re making an attempt to comprehend with companion planting throughout the first place! Crowded vegetation compete for nutritional vitamins, water, daylight and air transfer. They’re additional weak to sickness like mildew and blight. Pests and sickness moreover additional merely transfer between them. The nice new is: most companion flowers and herbs take kindly to pruning, so be completely happy to cut them once more as needed to supply your veggies the world they need.
When companion planting in raised yard beds, I usually add flowers or herbs to the corners of each raised mattress at minimal. Then after I plant out all the greens, I assess the place I’ve room to tuck additional flowers or herbs between them.

Raised Mattress Yard Construction Plans

A garden plot plan that has been been completed. There are six garden beds that have been drawn on and colored with colored pencils. Each bed has multiple letters scattered throughout each one, spaced according to plan. Below the area that contains the drawings, there are 26 lines, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet, from A to Z. Most letters have a particular plant written into the blank line, this plot plant has pole beans for A, Onions for O, and Zinnias for Z to only name a few. Use the plot plan in conjunction with the companion planting guide to effectively plant your garden. — That’s the planting plan I drew up for our summer season 2019 entrance yard yard space, whereas defending companion planting in ideas. The plot plan template is part of our Free Yard Planning Toolkit.

A raised bed garden layout plan on graph paper, showing over a dozen raised beds and letters in each bed to show what vegetables will be planted there, along with a key at the bottom of the page showing "F" for flowers, "T" for tomatoes, "P" for peas, "M" for melons and so on. — Our new raised mattress yard is sort of a bit greater, nonetheless I nonetheless use the similar devices to plan our yard planting construction! I don’t guidelines every type of flower, nonetheless “F” usually means a spot for calendula, zinnia, cosmos, bachelor buttons, marigolds, or sunflowers. Bear in mind that we develop points like broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy and completely different cooler-season crops in our fall vegetable yard instead.

The Science: Does Companion Planting Really Work?

Some benefits of companion planting are plain, equal to rising biodiversity and attracting additional pollinators to your yard. However some companion planting ideas are additional based on precept or anecdotal proof. That could be very true with reference to the supposed incompatible vegetation.

I’ve tried to evaluation scholarly articles that once more companion planting with science, and actuality be told, they’re sorely lacking. That doesn’t primarily indicate it’s all bunk though! Some points are well-studied, like the benefits of marigolds. Plus, experimentation and personal comment is how all scientific theories get started, after all. If many gardeners have seen the outcomes of companion planting of their very personal yard, I say it’s value considering.

Several raised garden beds showing companion planting by mixing vegetables, flowers and herbs, such as one bed of vining squash plants with flowers and chives in the same bed. — A mattress of winter squash with flowers in a single nook for the bees, and chives throughout the completely different nook to repel pests.

My Experience and Closing Concepts

Companion planting might want to have some actuality behind it, or it wouldn’t be such a most well-liked matter throughout the gardening world. However, I personally pay most consideration to the helpful planting combos. These make clear sense to me! Plus the pleasing and vibrant combination of points convey me pleasure. When doable, I try and stay away from the frowned-upon combos too – nonetheless with a lot much less scrutiny.

I like to think about the “incompatible” plant combos like neighbors. We don’t adore all of them, correct? All of us have completely completely different desires, existence, and tolerance for nuisance. Nevertheless will I up and die if I’ve to remain in shut proximity to any person I don’t considerably take care of? No, more than likely not. I am going to chug alongside and keep my life, possibly only a bit a lot much less fortuitously…

For example, we have inter-planted beans with peppers before now, along with garlic near peas – every supposed incompatible foes. They nonetheless grew, though I do admit they appeared a lot much less healthful and vigorous than frequent. Possibly it was merely an off yr? Or probably it was the nuisance neighbor.

In all, I try and set my vegetation as a lot as keep their biggest life, with as few hindrances as doable. My suggestion is to make a modest effort to adjust to the “tips” of companion planting. But when restricted space or completely different circumstances leads you to interrupt the rules, don’t stress about it an extreme quantity of!

A large garden with a dozen raised garden beds full of colorful plants like green and purple eggplant in the foreground, tall tomato trellises and a small patio seating area in the background, plenty of orange and pink flowers everywhere, and the sun setting in the distance.

And that’s companion planting 101!

Have you ever ever experimented with companion planting however? What are your concepts? Do you suppose it actually works, or is the jury nonetheless out? As far as I am concerned, there’s no harm in making an attempt. Plus, the additional flowers and herbs, the upper! Please be completely happy to ask questions, depart ideas, or share this textual content. Blissful (companion) planting!

Completely different pure gardening articles it is attainable you may get pleasure from:

Yard Companion Planting Chart, Plans, and Benefits ~ Homestead and Chill