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Planting Companion Guide: Best Plant Combinations

Andrew White

Andrew White

Rhino's Gardening Enthusiast & Greenhouse Expert

Companion planting or companion gardening is an age-old methodology that has been around for centuries. This technique involves growing a combination of plants together that have a positive effect on each other to gain mutual benefits. Planting the right combination of plants can improve each plant's health and growth and enhance the overall beauty of your garden.

By encouraging plant communities in the same bed, container or pot, you use polyculture rather than monoculture, where you grow the same plant in one area.

Benefits of companion planting:

  • assisting plants in taking up nutrients
  • encouraging natural predators of garden pests, such as predatory insects
  • attracting pollinators to your garden, such as bees and butterflies
  • creating the right conditions for plants, e.g. by creating natural shade for plants that don’t like full sunlight
  • minimising the risk of diseases attacking your vegetable plants
  • pest control, as some plants will discourage common pests
  • improving the growth and health of your plants and maintaining a healthy soil
  • saving space, as this method allows you to place your plants closer together
  • reducing the proliferation of weeds
  • improving the flavour of your crop

Best combinations of plants to plant together:

  • Tomatoes and Basil
  • Carrots and radishes
  • Marigolds and vegetables
  • Beans and corn
  • Lavender and rosemary
  • Tomatoes and Basil:

    Tomatoes benefit from basil’s ability to repel pests, improve their flavour, and boost the health and vigour of the tomato plant.

    There are also several other plants which, when grown alongside tomatoes, will soon have your tomatoes tasting and looking terrific. Chives are known to deter pests and attract pollinators. Lettuce will fill the gaps to ensure good soil coverage to keep weeds at bay, reduce the risk of diseases and help with moisture retention in the soil. Borage is also reputed to improve the flavour of tomatoes. Planting lettuce around your tomato plant will reduce weeds and minimise the risk of diseases.

    Thyme is also said to improve tomatoes' flavour, and this Mediterranean herb also deters aphids, blackflies, and whiteflies. Similarly, mint has a pungent scent that repels aphids, one of the most common tomato pests, and other pest insects.

    Nasturtiums are often used as a trap or martyr crop when planted with tomatoes, as aphids and whiteflies love it and will leave your tomatoes in peace. Those nasturtiums the aphids don’t attack make gorgeous edible additions to salads. Asparagus repels nematodes, and in turn, the tomatoes deter the asparagus beetle. So, planting these two together will be a win-win!

    Carrots and Radishes:

    Carrots can benefit from radishes' ability to loosen the soil and deter pests. Radishes provide good ground cover, preventing weeds from growing and reducing the risk of diseases.

    There is a range of additional plants that you can grow with carrots that will help keep them pest free by repelling them. Tomato plants release a chemical called solanine, which repels the carrot fly. But make sure you plant your carrots 40 cm (15 in) away from the tomatoes because if they are too close together the growth of the carrots could be inhibited.

    Members of the allium family, such as leeks, onions, and spring onions, repel carrot flies by confusing them with their strong scent. Attracting natural predators of various