The Ultimate Companion Planting Guide + Chart

It’s easy to become overwhelmed when planning a new garden or improving an existing one. We talk consistently about permaculture, organic gardening techniques and ways to improve crop yields regardless of how much (or little) space you have available.

So let’s look at companion planting; what it actually is, why it’s beneficial and finally, just how easy it is to accomplish at home without years of gardening experience.

In this guide you’ll find a list of 67 common vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruit trees with their companion plants as well as antagonistic plant enemies that can actually hinder their development.

(Want to know about three companion plants that absolutely LOVE each other? Click to grab How to Grow the 3 Sisters Garden)

What is Companion Planting?

As John Jeavons writes in his excellent book How to Grow More Vegetables, a scientific definition of companion planting is: “The placing together of plants having complementary physical demands.”

He goes on giving a more accurate, living, and spiritual description:

Companion planting is the growing together of all those elements and beings that encourage life and growth; the creation of a microcosm that includes vegetables, fruits, trees, bushes, wheat, flowers, weeds, birds, soil, microorganisms, water, nutrients, insects, toads, spiders, and chickens.

Before we jump into the good stuff, keep in mind that while Nature has perfected companion planting over billions of years, it’s still an experimental field for us humans.

Much more research is needed to understand the intricate relationships between plants and other living organisms. So don’t see this as an exact science, but more as an exploration guide for your own learning.

Why Companion Planting?

No discussion about companion planting would be complete without first tearing apart our current monoculture (single crop planting) ideas about gardening. Think about it…whenever you drive through rural America you are likely to encounter countless fields filled with row after row of a single crop.

Corn is a perfect example.

Granted, most of us don’t have access to acres upon acres to grow our crops, but believe it or not monoculture is never beneficial.

In the past, farmers decided that focusing on a single crop was the best way to reap maximum profits. Sometimes, farmers would change which crop they focused on depending on current market prices. If the price of a bushel of corn went down, for instance, a farmer might decide to switch to soybeans or some other crop offering a higher profit potential.

Unfortunately, monoculture farming leads to a variety of problems. Increased disease, pests and artificial fertilizers have all become commonplace in the commercial farming industry. Let’s pick on corn again for a moment. Corn requires more nutrients (particularly nitrogen) than practically any other commercial crop grown in the United States.

If a farm concentrates solely on cultivating corn, where does the necessary nitrogen come from every year? In most cases, the answer is chemical fertilizers.

There is, however, a much simpler solution. A solution that our ancestors understood intimately. Not only does companion planting offer protection from diseases and pests, it also maintains healthy soil without the use of potentially harmful chemicals.

The Benefits of Companion Planting

Companion planting mimics nature. By growing crops together that naturally complement one another, many of the problems associated with conventional farming methods are avoided. The result is a healthy, high-yield garden that is much easier to maintain.

Did you know, for instance, that by planting tomatoes near asparagus you practically eliminate the threat of asparagus beetles destroying your crop? Or that by planting onions in between lettuce or cabbage, rabbits are more likely to leave them alone?

If you plant marigolds in rows of bean plants, Mexican bean beetles won’t show up and in general, marigolds are an effective form of nematode control (although the effect becomes more powerful each successive year marigolds are planted).

Another example of pest control is planting pumpkin within rows of corn. As the large vines and leaves of pumpkin plants flourish, they offer a physical protection barrier from corn-eating pests including raccoons.

Pest control isn’t the advantage to companion planting. Many plants are nitrogen-fixers. These plants – such as clover and alfalfa – only get about 5% of required nutrients from the soil. The rest comes from nitrogen in the air which these crops store in their root systems. This additional nitrogen is absolutely necessary for the growth of other crops including corn.

There are thousands of other beneficial plant companionships that science is only just beginning to understand, but experience has proven that they work for various reasons.

The idea is to stop thinking about gardening in the conventional sense and attempt (as much as possible) to mimic the way crops grow in nature.

The forest garden, or “food forest”, is the ultimate example of companion planting

For instance, in many climate zones within the United States, it’s possible to plant multiple crops in the same area depending on the time of the year. This is accomplished by understanding the requirements of your crops. Heavy feeders like, tomatoes and cabbage should be followed by legumes to help the soil recover from the demands of heavy feeders.

Finally, light feeders such as root vegetables, herbs, bulbs and protective flowers (marigolds and nasturtiums) can be added before starting the cycle over the following season. Understanding these relationships means you can effectively double – or even triple – current yields from even a small backyard garden.

Companion Planting Case Study:
The Three Sisters Garden

A perfect example of companion planting is the “three sisters garden”, which is a combination of corn, pole beans, and squash that has been grown together by Native Americans for centuries (possibly longer).

Think about what each plant needs to grow into a healthy vegetable.

1. Corn requires plenty of space to grow.
2. Beans need a support system for the stalks to grow straight.
3. Both squash and corn thrive on nitrogen, which typically does not flourish in sandy soils.

Now, let’s think about how the vegetable compensate for their growing deficiencies.

• Corn offers string beans the sturdy support to grow straight. Think of a cornstalk as a naturally developing trellis that ensures string beans remain upright.
• String beans absorb nitrogen from the surrounding air and replenish nitrogen-deficient soil. The upward growing vegetables also act as a bind that keeps the Three Sisters close together, further enhancing the space you have to grow other crops or raise livestock.
• Sprawling squash creates copious amounts of mulch that cools and moistens the soil.
• Squash leaves also contain prickly stems that thwart the best attempt of critters such as raccoons from enjoying sumptuous meals.

(Want to know about three companion plants that absolutely LOVE each other? Click to grab How to Grow the 3 Sisters Garden)

Now, corn, squash and pole beans are not the only plants that establish this kind of symbiotic relationship, as you will see below there are many others.

By combining a variation of fast- and slow-growing crops, nitrogen-fixers, edibles and aromatic herbs, and stacking plants with non-conflicting root zones and heights, it is entirely possible to double the annual yield of your current garden.

As an added benefit, planting a cover crop of white clover, alfalfa or a similar nitrogen-fixer in the off-season helps to replenish essential nutrients required by your crops during planting season. That’s companion planting over the longer term.

So let’s take a look at the plants…

Companion Planting Charts

I have not one but two charts for you. As you can see by these companion planting charts, and the plant index in the next section, there are quite a few combinations that work very well together.

The first chart is brought to you by Afristar Foundation, “a public benefit organisation that develops projects and strategies promoting Green Futures centered on a nature-based economy.”

The companion planting chart by Afristar Foundation. Right-click and “Save” to download PDF

The second chart is brought to you by the Yayasan IDEP Foundation, “a local Indonesian NGO based in Bali – Indonesia, founded in 1999, that develops and delivers training, community programs and media related to sustainable development through Permaculture, and Community-based Disaster Management.”

This chart contains a lot of information, and with that many plants in a single spreadsheet I find that it can get a bit… messy.

The companion planting chart by the IDEP Foundation. Right-click and “Save” to download PDF

Companion Planting Plant Index

If you want to jump around, use the “top” links to get back to the shortcuts.

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