Companion planting in your vegetable garden is a great way to increase the size of the crop you will have when it comes time to harvest. The right combination of vegetables planted together improves growth, reduces disease, encourages beneficial insects to thrive in the garden, and discourages pests.
But vegetable companion planting does have it’s drawbacks, as some vegetables are much more fussy than others about who they are planted next to. This simple guide will help you with a few of the more common combinations you should keep in mind when companion planting vegetables.
What vegetable plants grow well together?
- Asparagus get on well with most vegetables, but their ideal companions are tomato, parsley and basil.
- Bush beans like potatoes, cucumber, corn, strawberries and celery, but hate onions. On the other hand, pole beans are a little more selective – they only like corn and radishes, and hate beets as well as onions.
- The cabbage family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale to name a few) like many companions – beet, celery, cucumber, lettuce, onion, potatoes and spinach. But they have a few hates as well – dill, strawberries, pole beans and tomatoes.
- Carrots get on well with a wide variety of vegetables – peas, lettuce, rosemary, onions, sage and tomatoes. In fact, deciding what to plant with carrots in a raised bed or garden is easy, as long as you keep them away from dill.
- Celery is also a very accepting vegetable, liking onions, the cabbage family, tomatoes and bush beans. Like asparagus, they don’t hate any vegetables.
- Keep your corn away from tomatoes, but to keep it happy plant it near potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkins, cucumber and squash.
- Cucumber doesn’t like being near aromatic herbs or potatoes, but plant it near beans, corn or peas and it will be happy.
- Lettuce is an accepting plant, not hating any vegetables but appreciating being planted next to carrots, strawberries and cucumbers.
- Onions generally like being planted next to beets, carrots, lettuce and the cabbage family, but keep them away from beans and peas if you want good results.
- Peas like being planted next to carrots, turnips, cucumbers, corn and beans, but be sure to not plant them near onions or potatoes.
- Speaking of potatoes, you should plant them near beans, corn and members of the cabbage family for best results, and make sure they are away from pumpkins, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers.
- Finally the humble tomato – one of the more popular summer vegetables for the gardener to grow. For the best results plant them near onions, asparagus, carrots, parsley or cucumbers, but keep them well away from potatoes or members of the cabbage family.
Vegetable garden: what to plant together?
This isn’t a fully comprehensive list of companion plants for vegetable gardens – obviously there are many more types of vegetables available for you to plant in your vegetable garden, and this article could easily double or triple in size if we tried to include everything. But this list of the more common vegetables should be a good start in helping you plan the layout of your vegetable garden for the next year.
So give companion planting in your vegetable garden a try. You’ll find you’ll have happier, healthier plants in your vegetable garden, which in turn will give you tastier vegetables to feed you and your family.
