Companion Planting Archives (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of companion planting? ›

While the exact origins of companion planting may be difficult to pinpoint, evidence suggests that ancient civilizations, including the Mayans, Egyptians, and Indigenous peoples, employed this technique to enhance crop yields and maintain soil fertility.

While the benefits of companion planting vary depending on the crops selected, certain benefits are common to most plant groupings, such as: Increased yields. The main benefit of companion planting is its ability to maximize crop yields.

To the Iroquois people, corn, beans, and squash are the Three Sisters, the physical and spiritual sustainers of life. These life-supporting plants were given to the people when all three miraculously sprouted from the body of Sky Woman's daughter, granting the gift of agriculture to the Iroquois nations.

The trio of corn, pole beans and squash are planted together in hills, a crop management system called interplanting or companion planting. All three of these vegetables are warm-season crops, so they should not be planted before soil temperatures have warmed to 60 F, which is around mid-May.

The fact of the matter is that YES the plants are related and YES they share some common diseases but most people do not have the space in their garden to separate them. The reality is that because the two have similar growth requirements, they can in fact be grown quite successfully together.

Plants that have known beneficial relationships (friends) should be planted within two or three rows of each other. Plants that are known to have detrimental relationships (foes) should be planted at least 2-3 rows apart.

Companion planting is a method of mixed intercropping most often used in small gardens; other methods of intercropping, such as row or strip intercropping, are intended for agricultural production at a larger scale, allowing for use of machinery.

What are the best companion plants for? ›

Rows Vegetable Garden Layout Plan

The other rule of thumb when using this layout plan is to organize your spacing so that your tallest growing vegetables are planted on the north side of your rows. Follow them with medium height vegetables, and then plant your shortest crop on the south side of the rows.

Nasturtiums. If aphids are chewing up your garden, it's time to plant some nasturtiums. Easy to grow and pretty in bloom, nasturtiums repel aphids, squash bugs, striped pumpkin beetles, and whiteflies. Plant nasturtiums near beans, cabbages, and cucumbers to ensure an insect-free growing season.

Victory gardens (originally called war gardens or liberty gardens) made their first appearance during World War I (1914–1918). President Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to plant vegetable gardens to ward off the possible threat of food shortages. Americans took up the challenge as a civic and patriotic duty.

*garlic. -chives. -dill. The concept of companion planting is also referred to as: natural plant association.

Companion planting, also known as intercropping, refers to planting multiple plant species in close proximity to impart both plants with benefits.

Gardening dates all the way back to the first time that humans decided to plant seeds deliberately. Over 23,000 years ago, our early ancestors began planting and growing their own food.