What is companion planting?
In our garden’s plants much like ourselves as humans we need companions. This is where the term companion planting comes from. Companion planting by definition is a combination of plants, planted closely together to benefit each other. These benefits are in terms of weed control, pest reduction & disease reduction. So much like humans the combinations of plants lean on each other for different levels of support.
Examples of companion planting:
Some basic examples would be growing Calendula’s near your salad crops. The idea being the Calendula’s attract greenfly (bear with me it will make sense) the greenfly attracts ladybirds because greenfly is the food for ladybirds. The ladybirds move into the area near your salad crops on the Calendula’s. These ladybirds will eat any greenfly that appear on your salad crops. That is one type of companion planting at a basic level so gardening with nature in essence. Vegetable farms and market gardens sow areas of flowers with flower varieties that attract insects both good and bad. This creates a natural balance and the crops stay healthy and pest free.
There are many more examples but one of the most popular being the three sister’s of companion planting.These are sweetcorn, climbing beans and courgette/squash. Plant all three closely together, the sweet corn grows tall with a stick like stems and corn on top. At the base of the sweetcorn, you plant climbing beans which need support to climb, and the sweetcorn stems provides this support for the bean to grow, the bean then produces at a lower level than the sweetcorn. The bean also fixes nitrogen in the soil which is needed by our third plant the courgette squash. The courgette/squash is planted at the base it covers the soil blocking out all weeds with its dense leaves. So, all three work in harmony supporting each other and each filling a need of the other. This is also a very productive way of planting as space is utilised to the max and you get a lot from a small area.
How to start
To begin companion planting in your garden, there are a few essentials. If these essentials are not present then companion planting will not work.
- Ideally there should be tree’s & hedging surrounding the area. These tree’s and hedging would act as a haven for wildlife including insects, birds as well as soil Bourne fungi and microbes which all act as a building block of your companion planting scheme.
- There should be a wild area in your garden, again to support and draw in wildlife which act as your garden friends. Birds which eat caterpillars and slugs, ladybirds which eat greenfly etc.
- Then in your planting the aim should be to mimic a forest with all its different layers of plants. So in the soil and soil surface you have the microbes and fungi. On top of that you have the bulbs followed by the shrubs and trees. The climbers including ivy grow up through the trees. This covers all space in the forest and each plant finds its own layer in which they all work together. Much like how I outlined with the “three sisters” each layer has a role in the eco-system.
- A final point is to combine edible plants with ornamentals and use herbs particularly. These will build up the population of all insects, microbes and fungi both the wanted and unwanted, because you can’t have one without the other. Then you end up with a balanced ecosystem which all works in harmony as companions.
Conclusion:
So as you can see we all need companions to survive and thrive. They key is to think of your garden as an ecosystem with everything working in harmony like a forest. Within this you will find companion planting at its highest level.
If you would prefer to listen here is a podcast episode on the topic.
Until the next time
Happy gardening
If you would prefer to listen here is my podcast episode on companion planting.
