Companion Planting

In one of the previous posts I mentioned using all available space that you can find, but what I forgot to mention that some plants benefit from being planted next to each other. Like for example tomatoes and parsley. Tomatoes grow tall and parsley can grow underneath and both will benefit from mutual coexistence. In my garden I planted several things together. Here are some carrots that are growing next to my strawberries. You already seen my broccoli (which btw I already removed yesterday after taking second round of crops). And I planted some fresh salads between rows of Dill - by the time salad grows enough to take space Dill will be picked.

I also spilled some salad seeds where my basket was when I was planting and it happened to be in the asparagus area. Asparagus will take at least two year to spread before giving any results so even though I wasn't planing on putting anything there it turned out to be for the good. This way I will harvest salad and asparagus will keep growing. It's a good combination.

And of course there are beans and peas which are good companions for most plants because they are natural fertilizers. They produce their own nitrogen - something that all plants need to grow properly. But do be careful with how much nitrogen you get in soil or some of your plants will be big and tall and leafy but not with much of fruits. For tomatoes it's better to be on a moderate side or you won't see whole lot of tomatoes later on.

And there are some combinations that really bad for each other - peas for example won't tolerate any of the onion family. There are many websites that have comprehensive lists of what's compatible with what plant so you can always google them. I know you can plant beans and corn and pumpkin - trinity of the farming world and they will grow wonderfully together. So keep experimenting. You never know what you might get :o)