This year I have worked very hard to put certain plants together to try to repel some of those evil plant killing bugs.I have to admit, there is not a total reduction but a significant one so far. It is still early though. Those buggers can multiply quickly! If you companion plant, what do you pair together and how is it going for you?
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| corn planted with squash and beans ( you can barely see the beans over to the top left.) |
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| Borage with the tomatoes. The verdict is still out on this one. I found a worm on the tomatoes right behind the borage! And I see signs of others that I cannot find. |
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| Cucumbers planted with flowering radishes. |
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| Squash planted with Nasturtium and Marigold. |
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| And lets not forget my friendly bug eater...Hello Mr. Toad. |
I also have onions planted all over the garden! Except in the bean bed. And carrots with the tomatoes. The cilantro is in full flower! I guess we will have to see how the season goes to see if it worth so much extra planning and planting things I don't really care for, like radishes. But they flower so it doesn't matter. How is your companion planting going?
Hope you keep us updated on the results. I spent quite a lot of time planning beds to benefit from companion planting, but ended up just rushing to get things into the ground... mostly due to not actually owning the land we are gardening on quite yet.
ReplyDeleteI don't normally companion plant in the way you read about it but I do things like intermix my alliums, carrot family relatively with nigella. I am not sure if it works but I do find that in some weedy beds, the bugs have a harder time finding their targets. It's hard for me to tell if merely trimming a bed or row with another crop works well. Companion planting that hasn't hurt for me include planting dwarf, early shelling peas in the middle of my potato row, and interplanting my leeks with anything else - confuses the leek mothes I think. Trap cropping, polycropping, and attracting predators/parasitoids works better, I think.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of Nigella before. I will have to try that. I have my onions scattered to try to avoid the onion maggots going from onion to onion. Hadn't heard of polycropping, have to look that up! I believe i have a couple of things to attract some predators. Achillea and flowering cilantro. Maybe some others.
ReplyDeleteI was afraid of anti-companion planting, as in accidently planting together plants that shouldn't be near each other. For example, I've read in many places that onions and solanums shouldn't be near any beans, but I see from blogs that several gardners plant them together with no problems. This got me wondering how important companion planting or avoiding "enemy" co-planting really is? :-)
ReplyDeleteI currently have some onions next to carrots, beans near cucurbits, tomatoes with basil and nasturtium, etc. I think next year I will plant cilantro in just about every bed, because beneficial insects seem to love their flowers. I hope all your efforts pay out!
I haven't seen a single Woodhouse's toad this year. Hopefully the SW 'monsoons' bring them out to my yard this week. We have a 40% chance of rain on Wednesday. It hasn't rained more than a tiny sprinkle since December.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing thhis
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