Our first try at vegetable gardening. In our ignorance, we may have planted stuff near each other that we shouldn't have.
Thanks,
Brenda
What can't I plant together?
Basil is said to be bad for rosemary. Tomatoes will stunt the growth of carrots, but the tomatoes themselves might benefit from being near the carrots. Walnuts are bad for lots of plants. I think fennel is as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants
Thanks for the link - I am printing out for DH to read.
Hmm, I'm not sure about the tomato stunting carrot idea. I have a book on companion planting entitled "Carrots Love Tomatoes". :-))) It's a great book, been around a longgggg time and still popular and useful.
I do know about that book. But another guy named Craig Dremann wrote a response called "Companion Plants: Carrots Really Detest Tomaotes." He reports that carrots only grow to 6% of normal when next to tomatoes, and that tomatoes have this same effect on garlic.
According to Dremann, what carrots actually love are garlic and radishes.:-)
I do have a totally unscientific experiment going on at the moment. I planted some carrots near my tomatoes (to help the tomatoes) and some other carrots away from the tomatoes. Assuming anything grows at all, I'll report the results of my completely anecdotal experiment later in the season.
I am growing my gardlic in between the tomatoes and they are both doing great !
I have harvest just a few cloevs of garlic ...I am letting get bigger, but I have harvested already tons of tomatos.
I've never been concerned with companion planting, but it would seem to me that anything that has a large, strong root system (such as tomatoes) would not be good to grow next to a root crop (such as carrots).
Hmm, you folks make good points. I'll go dig that book out and get more details. Love the title of Craign Dremann's book.....I guess he took the point as well.
Love the tomato pic drthor!
I read, after I did it this year, that you shouldn't plant corn next to tomatoes. We'll see. I'm kind of a nut in the garden - some "rules" I can't bear to break and others I ignore (like if they don't suit me).
My major consideration when deciding where to put what is sun and shade -- if you plant the corn right in the middle of the garden, whatever's on the "wrong" side of it will be shady. So that's a good place to put your lettuce, broccoli, etc. Bad place for eggplant. Timing comes into play here too -- what's teeny weeny in May could be waving over your head come late July.
Pests and diseases. Avoid close planting of plants that share common enemies. Plant "trap" crops away from more desirable ones.
Beneficial pairings: corn grows tall and need lots of nitrogen. Beans climb and add nitrogen to the soil. Squash sprawls is prickly and sprawls on the ground where raccoons hate walking on it. Put them together and you've got a garden superhero A-team.
Radishes always share rows with the carrots in my beds (photo). Carrots take a while to get going -- radishes are fast. The germinating radishes mark the row and they're gone by the time the carrots need the room. The cucumber I planted in between the lettuce and peas will be climbing the pea trellis by the time those are done.
Read, read, read, experiment, and don't get too hung up on stuff. I read that pumpkins and nasturtium do well together so now I have nasturtium growing with the pumpkin. Dill deters flea beetles? Eggplant has trouble with flea beetles...so now I have dill growing next to those. Enjoy your garden!!
My only concern is that big plants bully little plants. Try to give each plant its necessary space. Corn and tomatoes make good neighbors if they they are not crowded up together. The high nitrogen requirement for corn is not desirable for tomatoes. Also the corn earworm is also the tomato fruitworm. Some "companion" plantings are made to deter specific pests as ireed states. I have not found it especially helpful, but every little bit helps if you are trying to avoid pesticides.
Plant Basil to improve the taste of your tomatoes.
This year I have planted catnip at the base of my eggplants and no flee beetles yet !!
Also ... I don't know if it is true ... but I cannot see any cucumber beetles on my cukes this year !! The only thing different is that I have planted sunflowers in between the cukes.
Dill, not necessarily on the topic of allelopathy, but regarding companion planting...I was wondering about planting butter peas or purple hulls under my young okra to make use of that ground space. The okra is only about six inches now. Do beans grow well with okra? I've got two rows, eight plants per row, spaced about a foot apart down the row and two plus feet between rows (16 plants). This is more open space than usual plant because I was hoping to interplant. I can harvest the okra from both sides and the ends so maybe something down the middle and between would make a good cover. I've got Rattlesnake, McCaslin, Christmas and brown seeded Kentucky Wonder elsewhere.
In my case, okra is the size of a small shrub. 5-6 feet tall and about 36 -48 inches in diameter. although I plant in 48 inch rows at 12-18 inch spacing, there is barely room to walk through the patch at maturity. There is no room for anything else.
Thanks.
Peas and beans do not like garlic or onions. I killed a planting of peas once with garlic spray. I planted garlic beside tomatoes this year and it is not doing well at all. I tried planting cantaloupes with my okra once, what a mess.
I always plant marigolds close to tomatoes to keep nematodes away. So far I have never had a problem with nematodes. Here's a link with other suggestions for insect control using herbs.
OOops .. forgot the link .. .sorry
http://toadstoolponds.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/why-plant-marigolds-in-your-vegetable-garden/
Thanks for all the advice. Live and learn I guess. We'll do better next year. Planted too close for sure!
Brenda