It ’s sturdy to grow a garden .
You put in the right soil and compost . You ’re careful in what plant to grow . And you water your garden as require .
All the hard employment you put in pays off when you see the beautiful plants growing in the garden .
But then the garden goliath start come out of the shadows . The harmful pests do n’t waste clock time destroy your precious plants .
You ’re thinking about trying out some pesticides to get free of this job . You do n’t desire to use chemicals because we all cognise how harmful they can be to our garden .
Maybe an organic pesticide ? But will that really help get rid of the problem ? Is n’t there a good way ?
luckily , there is a method of planting that can help get rid of pests and diseases . A method acting that can help attract beneficial worm to your garden . And a method that can help grow more plant in less blank and sentence .
What is companion planting?
It should be obvious from the name that familiar planting means growing plants together as associate .
But there ’s more to it .
You need to cognise which works make estimable companions to each other . Like , true friends , they support each other and encourage growth .
It ’s a method that nature has been using since million of years to grow a variety of plants together and make a natural ecosystem .
Companion planting can assist dissuade pests , attract beneficial louse , maximize the use of space , dominance weed , and increase productivity in your garden .
What are the benefits of companion planting?
Let ’s take a look at some reasons why you should use companion planting in your garden .
Makes efficient use of growing space
Most of us have a small garden and that limits the plant we can maturate in it . But that change with the help of familiar planting .
You ’ll be able to spring up several types of plant together in close law of proximity . And this increases the number of plants you could grow in a special space .
you may use intercropping where you plant tall sun - loving plants along with shorter plant that call for shade . So you get to get two types of plants in a diminished space .
You could also use sequential cropping where you grow two or more type of plants that mature at unlike times . So you could plant Raphanus sativus longipinnatus along with tomatoes . The radish plant will be ready to glean a good deal quicker than the tomatoes . So you get a ceaseless harvest of vegetables than you would just by planting a single type .
Helps control weeds
The benefit of companion planting is that your garden is always full of works whether you stick with intercropping or sequent cropping .
Since there is no empty patch of soil in the garden , weedswon’t be capable to take over . And you wo n’t have to interest about look out for them every day and judge to get disembarrass of them .
Protects the plants from pests
The trouble with plant several plants of the same type is they tend to attract pests that want to feed in on them . And once these pests reach one of the plants , they play mayhem in your entire garden .
This problem is clear with companion planting where you have several types of plants spring up together . The pests are unable to reach their favourite plants as easily . Even if they do , the problem will be isolated to one works rather of an integral batch .
plant like onion , garlic , and marigold work great in deterring pests from make into your garden because of their aroma .
Protects the plants from diseases
Diseases can waste your garden if you ’re not deliberate .
This is a major trouble if you have a garden with the same type of plant . If one of the plants suffer from a disease , there ’s a gamey chance that it spreads to all the plants in your garden .
Companion planting will help isolate the disease to one particular works so you could take care of the problem or in the bad case get rid of the hurt plant .
There are also plant combinations that nullify disease in the first place . If you institute bean plant along with corn , it aid provide N to the maize and keep the foliage level-headed .
Attracts beneficial insects
We all jazz the benefits of attracting beneficial insects to the garden . They avail pollenate your plant life as well as get free of the harmful pests .
But if you plant just one type of plant , it does not good in trying to attract them . That ’s where companion planting can help you because you imbed a variety show of plants in the garden .
You should make certain to include plant life that develop flowers with plenty of nectar and pollen toattract beesand butterfly . You should also grow plants that attract beneficial insects that will destroy harmful pests .
It ’s good to farm such beneficial plant throughout the class with different periods of blooming to keep attracting the insects as much as potential .
Provides benefits to the plants
implant different type of flora together helps them prosper as ally .
If you plant legumes like beans along with other crop plants , they help provide important nitrogen to them .
If you use the method acting of cover cropping , you could till the plants into the territory where they will provide rich organic matter to your crop works .
Tall plants like tomatoes and peppers can provide auspices to tad - loving plants like bread . If the works are secure like corn they can provide support to vining plant like beans . The tall plant can also help protect the pocket-sized ace from hard confidential information and rainfall .
Does companion planting really work?
With so many welfare , can we say that associate planting is the holy Holy Grail of horticulture ?
The answer is yes and no based on what you ’re looking for .
If you believe that growing several case of plants together creates a magical relationship between them then there is no scientific grounds for it .
You may see several blog and website telling you to plant a specific combination of plants because it helps . But there is no scientific sketch that has been done with every plant life combination you amount across .
That ’s just anecdotal evidence of some gardener and we ca n’t say if it ’s true or not .
So does this mean fellow traveller planting does not work and you should abandon it ? Of naturally not .
Companion planting does serve if you recollect of it as polyculture where you cultivate several varieties of plants in your garden . This help you produce an ecosystem that is friendly for your plants as we will see .
Does companion planting deter pests?
Monoculture is the gardening method acting where you grow a mountain of a special case of works . Studies show that this method tends to draw in pests to these plant and damage a lot of them .
The other mode to plant is polyculture where you plant several motley of plant life together . This does help deter cuss from reaching plant and destroying them .
Asthis study show , one style this is possible is that aromatic plants run to fuddle the pests making them ineffectual to incur the plants they ’re looking for .
fellow planting also defecate it harder for the pests to reach the plants they want . And even if they do , they wo n’t be able to damage all of the plant .
Does companion planting improve flavor?
Some gardeners think that plant sure kinds of plant together can help amend their flavor . A common exercise would be plant tomatoes together with Basil of Caesarea somehow improves the flavor of the tomatoes . There is no scientific cogitation that demonstrate this to be true so it ’s more of a garden myth .
raise plant life together does mean they bear on the level of moisture , sunlight , and dirt temperature . But it ’s at a very small exfoliation and improbable to have change in flavor .
The potential reason why fruits and vegetable from the garden taste perception better could be because of their variety and the time of harvest .
The fruit and vegetables from the garden have a much better flavor than store - bought one . That ’s because the store - bought ones have been alter to last longer butat the cost of tone .
Most nurseryman will plant heirloom multifariousness of plants in their garden . These have a much in effect tone .
Also , hold plant in your garden , mean you harvest the fruits and vegetables when you want to . This gives them sufficient fourth dimension to ripen with the maximum amount of sugar in the green groceries .
The storage - bought fruits and vegetables are glean when they are raw so they can survive the foresighted transport and last longer on the shelf . But this means they do n’t get to develop the sugars they would have on the industrial plant .
So as you’re able to see , the fruit and vegetables grown in the garden have a superior kind and sugar content which enhances their smell .
Does companion planting attract beneficial insects?
It ’s salutary to draw beneficial dirt ball to your garden . They help get disembarrass of harmful pests from your garden . And pollinators like bees pollinate plants and help develop fruits and vegetables .
The near way to draw in beneficial insect to your garden is to have flora that attract them . For the pollinators , this could be flora that formulate flowers with plenteousness of pollen and nectar . you’re able to also get plant that attract predatory insect to your garden .
This mean you may use fellow planting to originate several plants that include those that attract beneficial insects and wildlife to your garden .
How to use companion planting in your garden?
There are many books and article that will tell you how to apply companion planting . This involves looking at complex charts of which companions should be grow with which imbed to avoid which problems .
But this gets so complicated so tight that you ’ll wish you did not get down gardening . And the benefit of using such a combining of plants is not even scientifically test . Rather a lot of it ’s based on anecdotal evidence and might not act upon for you .
Instead , we can do something good if we take a look at the welfare that comrade planting stand for to cater . And then seek to get those benefit in as simple a personal manner as potential .
The chief welfare that we want in our garden include :
Polyculture
All of these can be achieved if we make use of the concept of polyculture . This means we will plant several type of works together in our garden .
It ’s different from companion planting in the traditional sense because we wo n’t vex about the combination of the plant that are supposed to work well . We just desire to have a variety of works grow in the garden and ideally with dissimilar flowering season .
Research has evidence that such a method acting of grow plants tends to beat back pestilence because it confound them from arrive at the plants they want to put down . Even if they reach a plant and set forth eating it , they wo n’t be able to distribute to other plants in the garden .
The inflorescence plant will appeal beneficial worm that feed the pests . They ’ll attract pollinators for the pollen and nectar that these plant life provide . And they ’ll also attract animals that eat the pests .
We bed that plant dissimilar types of plants together wo n’t do much to improve the flavor of the fruits and vegetables . That entirely depends on the multifariousness you grow and the harvest times . But since you have your own garden , you could pick out the best variety to grow and pick the produce at the proper metre to get the best flavor out of them .
Smart planting
Another way to look at this is to conceive smart planting instead of companion planting .
There ’s no penury to stress on which plants do well with which companion industrial plant . Instead , a little turn of vulgar sense when grow plants together can help oneself get the just out of the garden .
We know that herbaceous plant plant tend to emit perfume because of the essential oils they carry . And this odour tends to drive away pests . So it ’s a full affair to set some herbs like Anethum graveolens , basil , coriander , andthymein your garden along with the other plants as they ’ll help deter pests . You could also use plant like onion , chives , orgarlicthat also have scents that ride away pestilence .
Another small-arm of smart planting is to fend off set grandiloquent plants and little plants together in a way that obstructs the sun extend to the small plants . You do n’t want to implant tall corn along with small-scale spinach where the spinach plant are not getting enough sun they want .
The best matter to do is to plant the grandiloquent plants in the north side of the garden and the small plants in the Confederacy so all of them get dear sun .
You also do n’t want to plant a large industrial plant like a autumn pumpkin next to a small wampum plant . That ’s because the declamatory plant will overshadow the diminished one and suffocate it with its vines .
Conclusion
As you may see , fellow planting can be useful .
It can help you grow a garden that is free from pesterer , attracts beneficial insects , and helps your plant grow better .
All you need to do is the right affair . And the right affair is to mature a variety of plant in your garden .
expend companion plant not as magic but as science . And you ’ll get all the benefits that are a part of it .
Fact Checked , Written , and Published by Kevin Rodrigues
Kevin is the father of Gardening Mentor , a site that draw a bead on to teach people to grow their own food in a limited space . As a self - teach nurseryman , Kevin has expend several old age develop plants and creating gardening content on the internet site . He is endorse in Home Horticulture and Organic Gardening from Oregon State University . He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Horticulture and Landscape Gardening from Mumbai University . Read more
