The AgriPost What’s Old is New Again: Happy Gardening Everyone!

By Brenda Hunter

There is a “new” old practice that is making a comeback in gardening circles. While container planting and raised beds are now quite common along with conventional ‘in-the-ground’ gardens, companion planting is garnering attention for its naturalistic qualities.

Companion gardening is quite simply the practice of planting certain plants in close proximity of other “companion” plants so that they can benefit from one another.

My Mom practiced this method to some extent and passed it on to me some 25 years ago. While I certainly don’t consider myself to be an environmentalist (nor did my mother), it is a practice that just makes sense. It is the way nature intended for it to be – working harmoniously with the most simplistic principles and with the greatest of ease. The seeds have to be planted anyways, so why not plant them in a way that is the most beneficial and pleasing for everyone involved?

There are many reasons for practicing companion gardening, but some of the main ones are to repel or attract insects and animals to promote pollination or ward off threat, plant cooperative species to provide shade, nutrients to the soil, or to save space, and also ultimately to increase crop productivity. The results are good for the environment and for the pocketbook.

Plants are smart. Given the choice, they choose the neighbour that is friendly, helpful and that they like, instead of the one that is annoying or uncooperative. Some even produce chemicals to either ward off insects or attract them. Yet, other plants produce valuable nutrients that added to the soil and can provide a natural fertilizer.

If we understand how they behave in a natural state of being, we can use this to our advantage in an artificial setting (i.e. our gardens) to perhaps limit pesticide and fertilizer use.

Flowers and herbs can be used alongside your vegetables for both eye appeal and for their specific companion characteristics of either repelling or attracting.

For example, marigolds are companions to many plants including tomatoes and potatoes. They are easy to grow, add eye appeal, and attract pollinators like bees and butterflies to your garden, while helping to control harmful nematodes in the soil. They are also a very aromatic flower so have the ability to repel pests like flea beetles from your vegetable garden. An added bonus is that the petals are also edible! Use some to add a little burst of color and interesting flavour to a salad!

Love gladiolus? Well so do I, but perhaps don’t plant them next to your asparagus patch! Glads, as well as onions and garlic are antagonists for asparagus, even though the early spring shoots do like most other vegetables and herbs.

Planting the annual herb, borage, is thought to be useful in multiple ways. Firstly, planted next to squash or pumpkin, it is said to repel the squash bug. Secondly, planted near tomatoes and strawberries, it attracts honeybees while adding potassium, calcium and other nutrients to the soil.

A border of highly aromatic herbs and plants can deter insects as well as animals such as raccoons, mice, deer and rabbits from bothering a garden.

Planting lots of flowering plants and herbs are great for attracting not only bees and butterflies, but also predatory insects that help to drive away or feed on harmful insects.

Plants like parsley, alyssum, dill, yarrow, zinnia, coriander and cilantro can help to attract beneficial insects.

Another well-known companion planting is known as “Three Sisters” and is said to have originated with Native Americans. By planting corn, pole beans and squash together, this trifecta of companion gardening serves many purposes. The corn acts as a trellis for the pole beans and shade for the squash below. The pole beans provide nitrogen for the other two while the squash shades the roots of the corn and pole beans covers the ground to control weeds and preserve moisture.

Below is a list of common garden vegetables, their companions and antagonists, as taken from the Brandon University Hortline webpage.