Amazing Benefits of Companion Planting
There are several ways that companion planting benefits your garden. We all want a thriving healthy garden. In today’s economy for many, a garden that does well is essential to feeding their families.
One thing you can do to increase the success of your garden is to take the time to learn about and utilize companion planting.
While it takes some research to learn what you can plant with what, it is well worth it to companion plant because companion planting can help to protect your garden and your harvest.
What is Companion Planting?
Companion planting is a great way to grow more food in the same space. This is the practice of planting several different things together to benefit each other.
Some plants can be great for keeping pests at bay while others help your garden thrive by improving the soil and preventing depletion from heavy feeders.
Companion planting is easier than traditional row planting. While it does have more research involved it allows you to make the most of every space and reduce the amount of work you need to do in your garden for basic maintenance.
Every step you take to help make your garden easier to care for can help increase your chance of success.
How Companion Planting Benefits Your Garden
Companion planting helps your garden in many great ways. You can use companion planting to help keep your garden healthy, keep pests at bay, and even help to nourish your soil while growing more food in the same space.
#1. It Protect Your Garden from Pests
The most common reason people start to companion plant is to help protect their garden from pests. This works well for two reasons.
One, it splits up your crop, making it hard for plant-specific pests to go from one plant to the next, helping to contain infestations before they can take out your entire crop. This works the same way as helping prevent the spread of disease through your crop.
If you plant in rows, it does not take long for the disease to spread down the row and take out the entire crop.
The other way that companion planting can help to protect your garden from pests is through planting things that are good for repelling unwanted insects from your garden. Heavily scented herbs, vegetables, and flowers can all help to keep pests out of your garden.
Interplanting throughout the garden is the best way to take advantage of this. Try planting garlic, marigolds, and basil for this effect. This works on both insects and wildlife like rabbits and deer.
#2. It Helps to Maintain Healthy Soil
Companion planting is a great way to help maintain healthy soil in your garden.
Some plants with long tap roots can be great for helping to pull nutrients up from the deeper parts of your soil to be utilized by shallow-rooted plants. This can help to improve the soil for heavy-feeding plants.
#3. It Nourishes the Soil
Another way that companion planting can nourish the soil is by companion planting lingams like green beans along with your heavy feeders like tomatoes.
This is because these plants have bacteria that live among the roots of the plants and help to improve the nitrogen levels in the soil and replenish it after heavy feeders use it up.
#4. It Helps You Maximize Your Garden Space
Companion planting allows you to plant more food in less space. When you plant multiple things in the same space instead of using properly planted rows you are making the most of every inch of your garden space.
People have been using this cultivation method for generations. The earliest known use of companion planting was the Native American story of the three sisters where they would crow corn, beans, and squash together.
#5. It Reduces Weeding and Other Gardening Tasks
Companion planting can reduce weeding and other gardening tasks. When you companion plant you can opt to plant lower growing plants among the more spaced out taller plants.
This creates a living mulch that helps to protect the soil from the drying sun and blocks out sunlight to help reduce the number of weeds you have to pull.
The Most Beneficial Companion Plants for Your Garden
Marigolds
Marigolds are one of the most commonly planted flowers for the garden. This is because marigolds are great for repelling unwanted insects. From mosquitoes around your entertainment spaces to keeping aphids out of the garden, these flowers are very useful.
Use them as a border for your garden beds but keep an eye out for snails and slugs that tend to love this plant.
Dill
Dill is a common companion plant for a few simple reasons. This long tap root is a great for fitting into tight spaces and the compound flowers found on dill plants is great for attracting beneficial insects to your garden.
This helps with pollination and pest control while the smell is considered unpleasant by several unwanted insects and wild animals.
Peppers
Peppers make a great companion plant because they tend to have a very strong scent that many wild animals do not like.
You can plant peppers in your garden to help keep deer and rabbits out of your garden in the spring when you begin planting. Blending peppers in water and spraying this around your garden can be a great way to help keep many pests out of the garden.
Garlic
Garlic has a very strong scent. This scent is great for helping to repel rabbits, dear, and unwanted insects from your garden beds.
Because these are planted in the fall, they will already be producing a strong scent to help protect your young tender plants when you put them in.
Green Beans
Green beans make a great companion plant because of how they help to fix the nitrogen in the soil.
These fast-growing plants can be planted in succession to allow you to have a great fresh harvest all summer long while helping to make heavy feeders like tomatoes and potatoes grow better than ever.
If you are looking to help your heavy-feeding plants thrive, companion planting these on a trellis on the north side of your garden is the perfect option. They will even reflect light back at your plants to help keep them warm and provide more light for photosynthesis, improving your garden’s harvest.
Final Thoughts on Companion Planting Benefits for Your Garden
There are several benefits of companion planting for your garden. It helps you maximize your space by planting more than one type of crop in the same space.
It can also help to keep pests out of your garden, and help to nourish and improve the health of the soil. That being said, be sure to know what plants to grow together and which ones you should not grow together.