jocundi
gopher
Tinkering with fruits and veggies in Eastern Boreal Forest on Canadian Shield.
Posts: 28 
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Post by jocundi on Mar 29, 2016 16:30:05 GMT -5
Hello!
I'd love to get someone's reaction to what I am planning to do this year. The aim is to find beneficial combinations to plant, while reducing weeds/weed work and try not to leave any bare patches.
Garlic beds: I will try to interplant 1/3 with arugula, 1/3 lettuce and 1/3 spinach to see which garlic/green turns out better.
Potatoes: bush beans.
Carrots: radish, arugula.
Tomatoes: I could see basil benefits from shade, but don't know whether tomatoes got anything out of it. Someone suggested brassicas?
Squash beds: lettuce. Anyone has a better, more impactful combination?
Onions: Carrots.
Thanks!
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Post by ferdzy on Mar 29, 2016 17:18:54 GMT -5
Only thing I've actually tried is the potato/bean combination, and that's because we always miss some potatoes when harvesting and they are followed by the legume rotation. They coexist pretty happily. I've also planted pole peas and beans along the outsides of the tomato trellises to grow them out for seed - just a few plants I wanted to keep track of. Worked fine.
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Post by richardw on Mar 30, 2016 13:24:43 GMT -5
From experience i do know that Garlic and lettuce growing together is not beneficial to the development of the garlic bulb, the lettuce grows fine but any garlic thats had to side step an encroaching lettuce seems to end up half the size of garlic that has no competition.
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Post by ferdzy on Mar 30, 2016 15:40:36 GMT -5
Yes richard, I think garlic really doesn't like to "share". I'd stick with growing it by itself.
Not sure I wouldn't also want to plant POLE beans with the potatoes.
I often use radishes to plant a row between different types of carrots; helps me remember which is which but doesn't really save any space. My carrots always spend half the summer looking frail and tiny, and I wouldn't want anything else in there with them, and then they bulk up quickly and shade out most weeds for the second half of the summer.
I grew carrots between tomato plants one year and they both did well; carrots might have been a little smaller but we also put them in fairly late. Could save some space there.
In general, I'm not sure companion planting is all it's cracked up to be. I've gone more for succession planting as I've learned more about gardening.
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Post by steev on Mar 30, 2016 18:38:35 GMT -5
What I've found does really well with ANY vegetable is weeds.
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jocundi
gopher
Tinkering with fruits and veggies in Eastern Boreal Forest on Canadian Shield.
Posts: 28
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Post by jocundi on Mar 30, 2016 20:01:53 GMT -5
Thanks!
I always wonder whether there are any truly beneficial combinations (i.e. Both harvests are bigger).
Each plant will absorb water and nutrients, so unless there's an overload (which in my soil, there's not) something's gotta give.
Ouch... it was such a beautiful perfect dream!
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Post by diane on Mar 30, 2016 20:54:56 GMT -5
Carol Deppe has a whole chapter on companion planting in her latest book, The Tao of Vegetable Gardening. She found it often didn't
work well.
One combination that did well: Various brassicas, like kale, for fall and winter harvest , planted in midsummer between winter squash.
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Post by raymondo on Mar 30, 2016 23:44:39 GMT -5
I like mixing things up in the garden. I don't follow any particular regime though I do try to avoid combinations that haven't worked for me in the past, like peas or beans with alliums. If a gap appears, I'll find something to put there. I plant a lot of rocket this way. I could do radishes too I guess but I rarely eat them so don't see the point.
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Post by steev on Mar 31, 2016 1:08:54 GMT -5
Well, if you plant some of the Asian types, like watermelon, they're a pretty addition to salad.
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Post by philagardener on Mar 31, 2016 5:28:05 GMT -5
One combination that did well: Various brassicas, like kale, for fall and winter harvest , planted in midsummer between winter squash. By midsummer, there isn't any space left between my winter squash  |
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Post by kazedwards on Mar 31, 2016 11:43:08 GMT -5
Corn is good one with squash. Just like with three sisters although the people I know who have tried it said to space thing out more for it to work. I like to plant lettuce and basil in between tomatoes for shade. I also saw a guy with a cucumber arch once that did a lot of greens underneath it in the shade.
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Post by kazedwards on Mar 31, 2016 11:43:44 GMT -5
Also have heard of planting mint as a living mulch.
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Post by reed on Apr 1, 2016 7:57:14 GMT -5
I'm like raymondo, I interplant stuff all the time. Not because I know of any real beneficial partnerships between any two or more different things but because I have limited space and tend to crowd things. I also stick something in any open spot if it matches what else is there or not. I think those "this loves that" books are a bunch of manure except lacking the usefulness as fertilizer. I do plant basil with tomatoes but only because we like those flavors together as snacks while working in the garden. I would strongly advise against planting mint anywhere near the garden. |
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Post by kazedwards on Apr 1, 2016 9:58:54 GMT -5
What I have heard about mint was more of an orchard setting. What I read was that it's scent helped prevent certain pest with fruit trees.
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Post by johninfla on Apr 1, 2016 10:49:14 GMT -5
Why not plant mint near the garden? Is it that invasive? I've not grown it before.
By the way, it isn't used to keep plum curculios away is it? I could use something for those beasts!
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