If you want to garden organically and ditch chemicals but still improve yields, companion planting is a very useful solution. This growing method involves establishing groups of plants that are beneficial to each other. An old idea, it was largely forgotten in the years when gardeners relied heavily on pesticides, but as more people want to go back to natural methods, companion planting has been rediscovered. So to find out more, take a look at our companion planting blog. We’ll be discussing the benefits of companion planting and have put together a handy companion planting chart to easily match up the ideal pairings for your growing space.
What Are the Benefits of Companion Planting?
Companion planting is a way of helping multiple plants in your garden to thrive by selecting particular types to grow within close proximity to each other. This is done as the qualities of one plant can benefit the other, sometimes even being a mutually beneficial combination of planting companions. Not all plants possess the same properties, so companion planting is based on selecting the right combinations for each plant's optimal growth. Through companion planting vegetables and fruits, you help to increase the diversity and balance of your ecosystem and avoid the shared pest problems of growing similar plants together.
The qualities of these plants that lead to these combinations being chosen vary. Some plants may protect crops from pests by repelling them or confusing them with their scent; others improve pollination by attracting bees and other pollinators; and others encourage predators that eat pests. Some plants may also act as 'sacrificial plants' to attract pests away from crops.
Companion planting vegetables and fruits improves crop growth and makes your garden a much healthier, more diverse ecosystem. By creating a favourable environment for your plants, you’ll enhance the entire food chain with more insects, invertebrates, small mammals, and birds.
Companion planting can be done in the smallest of spaces, even if you just have a couple of tomato plants paired with basil plants will be beneficial to each other and look good too.
It’s a very worthwhile practice, as it can help you to improve growth and protect your garden without the need for pesticides. As your plants will naturally take care of each other, it can take a lot of responsibility off your shoulders, providing you with a higher crop yield for much less work. So, take a look at our companion planting chart below to see which plants best pair up with each other.
Companion Planting Chart
Below is our companion planting chart, which details some known successful companion plants. Remember to plant them alongside the crops they are protecting:
| Variety | Goes Well With | Benefits of the Pairing |
| Dill (Anethum graveolens) | Cabbage |
Dill plants attract tiny beneficial wasps that control cabbage pests. |
| Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) | Potato | The tiny perfumed flowers of sweet alyssum attract many beneficial insects that prey on potato pests. |
| Nasturtium (Tropaeolum) | Cucumbers, French beans, and runner beans |
Nasturtiums are not only edible but also one of the biggest beneficial pest attractors. They are especially good around cucumber plants, French bean plants and runner bean plants. Cabbage white butterflies will lay their eggs on Nasturtiums, keeping caterpillars away from brassicas. |
| Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) | Carrots |
Garlic chives’ strong scent confuses and deters the carrot root fly, which can normally smell carrots from up to a mile away. |
| Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) | Carrots and leeks |
Lavender attracts bees, butterflies and hoverflies. Its strong scent can also deter aphids, so plant it with carrots and leek plants to confuse pests. |
| Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) | Beans |
Wormwood’s strong scent repels aphids and flea beetles from bean plants. Also, the yellow flowers attract hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds. |
| French marigold (Tagetes paluta) | Tomatoes |
French marigolds produce a strong scent that deters whiteflies on tomatoes. |
| Pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) | Beans and courgettes |
Pot marigold lures aphids away from beans. It also encourages ladybirds, lacewings and hoverflies to pollinate courgette plants. |
| Sage (Salvia officinalis) | Brassicas |
Sage’s scent confuses brassica plant pests. Its blue flowers also attract bees and hoverflies. Take a look at our blog on how to grow brassica plants for insightful tips. |
| Borage (Borago officinalis) | Tomatoes and strawberries |
The attractive blue flowers of borage are a magnet for pollinators. Borage can prevent attacks from tomato hornworms and is said to improve the flavour of the berries from strawberry plants. |
| Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) | Roses and brassicas |
Thyme plants look good as ground cover under roses and deter blackflies. Soak thyme leaves in water and spray on brassicas to prevent whitefly. |
| Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) | Peas, lettuce, and cucumber |
Fennel produces yellow blooms that attract hoverflies, which prey on aphids that could attack your pea plants, lettuce plants, and cucumber plants. |
| Mint (Mentha spp.) | Brassicas, onions, and carrots |
Mint plants deter flea beetles on brassicas, carrot root flies, and onion flies. However, be sure to grow it in pots, as it is invasive. |
| Summer savory (Satureja hortensis) | Broad beans |
Summer savory helps to repel blackflies, a common pest of broad bean plants. |
| Sweet peas (Lathyrus) | Runner beans |
Sweet peas attract pollinators to your runner beans (don’t eat pods of sweet peas, though). |
| Basil (Ocimum basilicum) | Tomatoes |
The strongly scented herb basil attracts greenflies and other aphids away from tomatoes. Basil reportedly improves tomato flavour. |
| Radishes (Raphanus sativus) | Spinach |
Radishes attract leaf miners away from spinach, leaving the radish roots unharmed. |
| Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and garlic (Allium sativum) | Roses and chrysanthemums |
The alliums repel pests that eat rose petals and chrysanthemums. |
| Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) | Cabbage |
Tomatoes repel the diamondback moth larvae, which eat cabbage leaves. |
| Borage (Borago officinalis) | Lemon balm |
The citrusy scent of lemon balm can help deter pests that attack borage. Additionally, borage attracts pollinators to lemon balm. |
| Spring onions (Allium fistulosum) | Carrots |
Sow spring onions among carrots as the smell of onion deters carrot root flies, whilst the scent of carrots wards off onion flies. If you are looking for more onion planting companions, you can read our blog to learn more about what to plant with onions. |
| Carrots (Daucus carota) | Leeks |
The smell of leeks deters carrot root flies and carrots help to deter leek moth. |
| Sweetcorn (Zea mays) | Squash and runner beans |
The traditional Native American Indian growing system, known as the "Three Sisters," involves growing all three of these plants together. The runner beans grow up the sweetcorn plant stalks, keeping them off the ground. The beans attract beneficial insects that prey on pests. The squash plants act as a living mulch, and spiny varieties deter predators. |
Shop Companion Plants at D.T. Brown’s
Now that you know the benefits of companion planting and which plants to grow together, your garden is all set to thrive. You can find further tips for growing plants in the most effective and efficient ways possible with all of our expert advice in our gardening blog.
If you’re looking for seeds or plants to get your planting companions growing, D.T. Brown’s is the best place to shop. We’re home to a range of quality gardening supplies to get you started, with many vegetable garden seed and plants, fruit seeds, fruit plants, and more with plenty of varieties selected for fruitful produce. If you’d like to ask us about our collection, feel free to get in touch with any questions. A member of our team will be more than happy to help.
