Companion planting forum anyone?

I've not tried garlic with roses, but this year, when I put in a new small rose garden, I planted lavender among the roses because that was supposed to keep the aphids away. Well, I guess someone forgot to tell the aphids!

Here's my suggestion.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5818878

Gary, I don't know if they'll repel aphids or not (although I've never seen aphids on them, at least), but Garlic Chives (Allium tuberosum) have pretty white blooms in late summer... wouldn't interfere with your color scheme. They do reseed rather rampantly if you don't deadhead them, but I like them (and so do the butterflies).

Thanks critter. I've got chives (although not garlic) on the south side of the house in the herb garden area. Yes, they are prolific re-seeders and I've noticed butterflies like the white flowers. I don't know if I want chives out there any more than onions but I agree the white flowers (as long as they are dead-headed before dropping seed) would be beneficial.

Actually, I was hoping the CP: in the subject line would be more noticeable and it would draw attention to the post more than the rest of the subject line. If I saw CP: in the latest threads section of my home page I would know to check it out since it deals with Companion Planting.

I like the idea of using something like "CP" but I doubt it's an established convention (yet)... or have people been using it on other forums and I've just been missing out on some good CP threads 'cause I didn't recognize it? :-)

I know it's kind of off-topic, but Carrots were mentioned.

It seems to me that carrots would do best grown all by themselves with no competition from other plants. Carrots need very soft, fluffy, light soil to grow through. Some people even build boxes which are 1 foot high by 1 foot deep by 5 feet long, fill it with potting soil mixed with about 20% compost, and grow carrots in a single row down the middle. I had some very good results with carrots last year. I set up a garden bed with very loose soil, amended it well, planted some seeds, and then it rained the next day and washed the seeds all over the place. The ones that came up were very good though. After a few months I pulled some up and they were still very small. Then I neglected them. ;) After another month I had to clear that bed to plant beans and cukes and so I started pulling them up and this is what I found:

http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/v/memberphotos/morgan/fall2007/?g2_page=8

P.S. You know what you call a vegetable growing where you don't want it? A weed! :)

Well, in an article entitled Carots Love Tomatoes at Mother Earth News : http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1992-02-01/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes.aspx,
no mention at all is made of how or why (or really, even, IF) carrots and tomatoes should be good companions. I does say, however:

It seems to me from viewing above, there is an informative potential for companion planting dialog! I understand to a degree the concern about getting yourself overwelmed with too many forums; yet wouldn't it be easier to access this info if it were listed independently? My perspective may be naive as a new member?

I'm thinking that companion planting can be a wide spectrum, not limited to some sort of exact. I personally would like to garden organically and, letting nature do it's job is a great way to have a healthy ecosystem while combining beauty and purpose to my garden. Many plants have natural substances in their roots, flowers, leaves, etc. that can attract beneficial insects, repel pests, and/or confuse certain pests thus bringing balance to the garden. Some plants compliment others by providing the right stuff in the soil, helping it flourish, andonandon. Even one plant providing shelter, shade or as a windbreak for another could be CP..IMO:)

The bigger picture for me is the fact that companion planting is only one aspect of creating a balanced and healthy environment. I think it will be worth a try to say, plant some yarrow in the herb garden to repel pests and attract beneficial insects like ladybugs. I've read that if you plant it in your herb garden, it can increase the content of essential oils in the other herbs. Yarrow is also known as an excellent fertilizer and will benefit your compost pile, so it's a win-win.

IMO, the "experts" are the gardeners, many of them I'm guessing are right here at DG who spend year after year tending to their home-grown-crops. And tradition or folklore probably came-to-being for a reason. Generations before me had a deep connection to mother earth and I would follow the advise and knowledge of a supercentenarian gardener in a heartbeat! And I bet they could tell me something about companion planting, even if they didn't call it that.

I'll get back to you al soon. I just wanted to let you know I just got online YIPEE...Unfortunatly I gotta rush now.

Rosie

Allwild818 - I agree with you wholeheartedly and couldn't have put it better myself. The point of having a forum surely is to enter into debate and discussion, pass on information and discover what other people's experiences have been. I think adding companion planting to every other foum would just muddy the water. It's better if people discuss whaterver area they are interested in whether it's plant with plant or plant with veg or plant with tree. After all, there are certain to be other areas that no one has considered yet. I don't think we should limit people by deciding before hand what areas should be included in the discussion. Most people who are aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides and want to go totally organic may find it enthralling. Whether scientific or not - and I like some of you might argue that scientific or anecdotal, one generally precedes the other until some clever boffin has added a tag to it - isn't it better to lose a proportion of your crops and/or flowering plants than contaminate the earth and yourself with more poison?
OK I'm rambling now. Have soap box, will travel.

What if a DG bigwig posted a poll here asking "Would you participate in a Companion Planting forum?"

However one looks at it (and I remain skeptical), here is an interesting article (with references to others) that offers some good basic understanding of both traditional and modern approaches to the subject [might even be good to include in a 'sticky' if a Forum is ever declared].
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/complant.pdf

Good idea pirate.

I'm always interested in hearing about what everyone is successfully combining in the garden. I don't have a suggestion today, but I will go back over the photos of the past few seasons and if that jogs my memory about some combination I was happy with, I will be back.

:-)
lisabeth

I need to start taking photos this year. It never really occurred to me to do so before. It sounds like a great idea. We older folks still think of photography as an expensive hobby even though we own digital camreas. It takes awhile for it all to gel in the old brain. lol

Hey, kathy, I count myself among the "older folks", especially since the AARP seems to be after their bit of my limited income! Still, once I got my digital camera and spent about a week with it, I never looked back! How cool!

I used to spend forever setting exposure and aperture, framing, etc.m and then waiting until I was home and the local developer got around to producing some prints. With digital, I quickly learned that I could shoot and shoot and shoot, using either automatic or "best-estimate" settings or both; see the "results" immediately and trash the worthless ones; and work on the good ones with software on my PC to end up with photos like I never took before.

And, because of the easy "delete" on the camera and the free download to my computer, the final cost was a minuscule fraction of what a roll of film used to cost me. I finally had to admit that I will never be Ansel Adams, but my photos come a lot closer now than they did when we were younger and more exacting.

And once it DOES gel in our old brains, WOW! What fun we can have! The old eyes and the old brain see stuff that our young ones passed by; and this technology helps us preserve it (and, so, our way of seeing the world) for our kids in a way that our parents just never had.

In case you missed it; I love this new stuff!

LOL I do heartily agree and when I get the camera out I take tons of pics. That is usually family gatherings and such. I forget that pics are not just for special occasions anymore. I do love it!
I am jealous of my kids and grandkids who are growing up with all this cool stuff. Like all kids, they do not appreciate what they have. They do not spend hours of quiet time at the library doing research and do not save for weeks to pay to develop a roll of film. I wonder what their kids will not appreciate LOL.

Hey, Kathy, I hear you!

I don't really care what my grandkids don't appreciate/take for granted.
What is important to me is what they do appreciate; what they value.

We have come thru so many revolutions that we never saw coming!

I used to wonder what is was like for my grandma to go from the horse and buggy that she was photoed in as a child going to Thanksgiving "dinner" at HER granma's in one of the old photos she had in her album to flying off to see her grandson's university graduation.

I suspect that it was not too different for her than it has been for us: just what has happened; "life in the fast lane"!

I give thanks almost every day for a mother who had no understanding of what the "new world" was offering her sons except new opportunities, but who took them for walks where she showed them how light glistened on water or how delicate an ugly insect was on a blade of glass, and who gently insisted that they help her take produce from her garden down to the bad part of town to the mission to feed men who "have no family". Less often, I remember and give thanks for an old alcoholic, a failed sports coach, who lived in our neighbourhood, a local joke, who gave me some of the best lessons I ever received in believing in myself and pushing whatever abilities I had to their limits.

Life's lessons come in so many "hidden" guises. All our kids will learn whatever we teach them.

So well said! When my children were small, I told them one day that we were going to grandma's and one asked which grandma? Is it the grandma that takes us for walks or the grandma that takes us shopping? They preferred the walks. I quickly learned to emulate my mother in law and took my children for walks where we observed and discussed what we saw. We browsed like deer, meaning we nibbled here and there on on leaves and berries and they learned about wild edibles. Life is good if you remember to let it be good to you..

I just happened to come across this page today and thought some here might be interested. It's on a CA native plant site, but is basically talking about different plant groups (ruderals, etc.) and how they do/don't benefit from being planted together. It gives a few examples and is not overly scientific.

http://www.laspilitas.com/easy/easycompanion.htm

I posted in the wrong place. sorry.

This message was edited Dec 15, 2008 10:49 AM

This message was edited Dec 15, 2008 10:50 AM

Browsing around the net this morn, gathering info about French marigolds and ran across a website with a "companion planting forum". although it wouldn't seem right to name the competative gardening site, I will say that it has all kinds of discussion about companion planting with members experiences and advise. Very interesting too.

I'm a little late in the discussion, but I would like to also voice my support for a companion planting forum. I was actually a little surprised that there wasn't one already.

I'd also like to throw one more idea out there.... a forum for "companion planting" and "permaculture" as they're very closely related (what plants grow best together, how combination of plants can fulfill multiple roles in the garden, best use of small spaces and resources, etc.) Not sure if it could be combined into one forum, or best separated out, but I'd argue that Dave's Garden would benefit from both topics.

I suppose they would be a lot of "add-on" topics under companion planting that many folk haven't even thought about. I daresay many of them could be incorporated under the one umbrella. Thanks Sarah. Just wish admin would get something going before the spring season. For a gardener I have very little patience LOL.
C'mon admin, what's keeping ya?.

I agree. Fire up the new forum. If it fails, delete it ... but I doubt it will fail.

Good argument, PuddlePirate.

Thanks.

I guess what we're waiting on is to see activity:

1) enough interest (currently it's a pretty small group); and
2) enough subject matter (companion planting overlaps heavily with vegetable gardening.)

I strongly encourage anyone interested in this subject to use the existing forums. (Vegetables and herbs come to mind.)

- Do a little searching and find the older threads on the subject. If you have something new to add to those threads, add a new post, which will "bubble" an older thread to the top again.

- Start new threads if you don't find an existing thread that answers the questions you have.

If it appears there's enough sustainable activity in an existing forum, we can create a dedicated forum for this topic at that time.