Companion Planting to Help Your Garden Grow

When planning your garden, it’s a good idea to add plants that invite bees, butterflies and beneficial insects.

Here are a few suggestions:

Add Nasturtiums – Nasturtiums help prevent insects, particularly aphids, from attacking other plants. Aphids love Nasturtiums and will surround them instead of their neighboring plants.

Mix a few flowering herbs like dill, parsley and oregano with your melons, zucchini and squash plants. All vegetables need to be pollinated to produce so help attract beneficial insects to do just that.

Another option is to plant Sweet Alyssum around or between the rows of your vegetable garden. These will attract beneficial insects that will control the pesky aphid population.

Add Calendula to Broccoli or Cauliflower- These edible flowers create a sticky substance on their stems that attract and trap aphids in your garden, keeping them away from your broccoli plants. They also attract ladybugs that love to eat the aphids.

Dill and Basil – Dill and basil are natural protectants for tomato plants, keeping away the dreaded hornworm.

Marigolds – One of the best companion plants out there, marigolds help virtually any vegetable. They are particularly helpful for tomatoes, repelling the grubs that like to attack the roots of vegetables.

Mint – Mint repels both ants and cabbage moths.

Sage – Another helpful herb in the garden, sage can protect from cabbage moths.

Zinnias – Zinnias are excellent companion plants and attract ladybugs into the garden. Ladybugs are known to control unwanted pests like cabbage flies.

Why not plant your tomatoes and eggplant beside your lettuce or spinach? They both grow tall enough to eventually give some shade to crops like lettuce that are tender if the sun gets too hot. This can keep your leafy greens producing longer in the season.

Just a few ideas to ponder.