Companion planting or interplanting is the practice of growing plants together that provide benefits to each other as they grow. They can help each other by deterring pests and diseases, providing nutrients, shade, or even a trellis. Practicing companion planting can help you have a more low-maintenance garden and improve your yields.

The History Of Companion Planting

In the United States, the most well-known example of companion planting is probably the three sisters garden method practiced by some Native American tribes. Corn, pole beans, and squash are planted together. The beans grow up the corn stalks while fixing nitrogen and the squash grows beneath both, shading the soil which keeps it cool and minimizes weeds.

Companion planting is not exclusive to North America. It has been practiced in different ways across the world for thousands of years – probably since the dawn of agriculture. Companion planting can be seen in the artistic blends of English cottage gardens and French potagers. It has been used for thousands of years in China where mosquito ferns are interplanted with rice crops. It can also be seen in modern-day permaculture practices like forest gardening and fruit tree guilds.

Companion Plant Pairs to Try

Companion planting is a really easy way to improve your garden! Try a few of the following pairs to get started companion planting this season.

Tomatoes & Basil

Basil is believed to repel flies and increase tomato yields. Plus they make excellent sauce together!

Carrots & Onions

Carrots and onions help protect each other from pests. Onions are believed to repel carrot flies and carrots are thought to repel onion flies.

Radishes & Cucumbers

Radishes are thought to deter cucumber beetles. Cucumbers can also be space hogs if they aren’t trellised. Growing a quick crop of radishes next to your young cucumber plants can help you make the most of your space. The radishes will be ready to harvest as the cucumbers are really starting to sprawl.

Sunflowers & Pole Beans

Mammoth sunflowers, in particular, make sturdy trellises for pole beans. While growing up the sunflower, pole beans fix nitrogen in the soil. You can also add vining squash to this combo for another version of the three sisters garden.

Melons & Dill

Many gardeners struggle to achieve good melon or watermelon yields. One of the keys to a productive melon patch is good pollination. Planting dill or another flowering herb can help attract pollinators to melons.

Peppers & Chives

Chives help deter aphids and other pests. They’re also believed to improve peppers when grown nearby. Chives will tolerate and thrive in a bit of shade from the peppers.

Buckwheat & Cabbages

Buckwheat attracts a plethora of beneficial insects including predatory wasps. Predatory wasps can help keep cabbage worms and other pests in check.

Collards & Catnip

Catnip helps repel flea beetles and can reduce damage to collards.

Cucumbers & Nasturtium

Nasturtiums benefit cucumbers in a few ways. First, they help attract pollinators. They also make an excellent habitat for predatory insects like spiders. Lastly, nasturtiums are thought to help repel cucumber beetles.

Carrots & Radishes

A common complaint among gardeners is struggling with slow or poor carrot germination. While they won’t necessarily improve germination, quick to sprout radishes make an excellent row marker for slower carrots.

Mix a bit of radish and carrot seed and plant a row. The radishes will come up first helping to mark your carrot row and aerate the soil as they grow. Most radish varieties will be ready to harvest before carrots start getting big.

Resources

Check out the following resources for more companion planting information.

Books on Companion Planting

• Native American Gardening Stories, Projects, and Recipes for Families by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac
• Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte
• Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual by Bill Mollison

SESE Blog Posts

• The Three Sisters Garden Guide
• 7 Benefits of Companion Planting
• 12 Strategies for Battling Cabbage Moths
• Planning a Fruit Tree Guild
• 9 Easy Permaculture Projects

Also known as pot marigold, calendula is one of those spectacular flowers that deserves a place in every backyard garden. It’s a truly multi-purpose plant and easy to grow. We carry two varieties Resina Calendula and Pacific Beauty Calendula.

1. Calendula makes an awesome healing salve for minor skin problems.
   To make salve you’ll need to begin by making infused oil. Start with dried calendula flowers, place them in a glass jar, and cover them with an oil of your choice like coconut or olive oil. Avoid fresh flowers as they can cause the oil to go rancid. Cover the jar with a lid and leave it on a sunny windowsill for 2 weeks, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, you can heat your oil and flowers in a double boiler to speed up the process but be careful not to fry the flowers! After they’ve infused, strain the oil and add it to a double boiler. Then, add grated beeswax and stir until its completely melted. How much beeswax you add will depend on how thick you want to make your salve. About 2 Tbs of beeswax to every 1/2 cup of oil will make a fairly firm salve. Pour into a container or tins and allow to cool and set up.
2. It’s edible!
   Calendula’s other nickname is “poor man’s saffron” because its flowers can be used in place of the more expensive spice. It can be used fresh or dried. Add it to salads, stews, and soups.
3. It can be used as a natural dye.
   Calendula flowers can be used to dye clothing, food, and Easter Eggs. It creates a beautiful brilliant yellow. To make dye, add fresh or dried calendula flowers to a pot and cover with water. Let soak overnight. Mash the flowers a bit and bring them to a boil. Simmer for 1 hour. Strain out the flowers and your dye is ready! To dye fabric or yarn you should mordent it before adding it to the dye.
4. Livestock can eat calendula too.
   Feeding calendula to your chickens is thought to help brighten their egg yolks.
5. Calendula flowers are great for adding to relaxing herbal baths.
   It has anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal properties. It’s wonderfully soothing for mosquito bites, dry skin, or rashes.
6. It’s an excellent cut flower.
   Though it’s typically grown as a medicinal herb, calendula flowers are long-lasting and make a great addition to bouquets.
7. It might deter mosquitoes.
   Some folks find that calendula makes good bug repellent. Grow it around your porch or patio.
8. Calendula is a great choice for herbal teas.
   As I mentioned above it has anti-innflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-fungal properties. It has been used to help soothe sore throats and coughs as well as treat headaches, cramps, and fever.
9. It’s a great companion plant.
   Calendula should be planted with asparagus, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It’s believed to help repel harmful nematodes and asparagus beetles.
10. It attracts pollinators.
    Calendula’s showy yellow blossoms are good for more than looking beautiful. The fall blooms help attract pollinators like bees and butterflies.

Do you grow calendula? What are your favorite things about this awesome herb?

Healthy, productive plants start with healthy soil. One way to look at soil health is through the soil food web. It’s similar to a food chain but it’s non-linear. For example, earthworms consume decaying plant material but plants also consume the nutrients in worm castings. In a food web, there’s back and forth. Plus, many organisms don’t rely on a single food source. A food web is made up of plants, animals, and all the organisms in the soil from visible insects and fungus to microscopic bacteria. A healthy soil food web is key to a healthy garden and ecosystem.

The soil food web can be looked at in trophic levels.

First Trophic Level

The first tropic level is made up of the primary producers that photosynthesize, using the sun’s energy to fix carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These producers include plants, shrubs, trees, lichens, moss, photosynthetic bacteria, and algae.

Second Trophic Level

This level is made up of decomposers, mutualists, pathogens, parasites, and root feeders. These include nematodes, fungi, and bacteria.

Third Trophic Level

The third level is made up of shredders, predators, and grazers. Shredders include anthropods like earthworms, leaf-eating insects, and millipedes that break plant material down into smaller pieces. Third level predators include nematodes and some protozoa which feed on fungus and bacteria. Grazers are also composed of different types of protozoa.

Fourth Trophic Level

The fourth trophic level includes predatory anthropods and nematodes that eat other soil organisms. These include beneficial garden insects like predatory wasps and beetles.

Fifth & Higher Trophic Levels

These levels are made up of higher-level predators; birds and animals that consume other organisms.

Increasing Complexity

A complex and diverse food web is a healthy one. Here are some steps you can take to increase your soil food web’s complexity.

If you garden on a large plot, breaking it up can increase the number of anthropods present in your soil food web. This can be done through the use of permanent vegetative pathways (clover is great for this) or hedgerows within your garden.

Tilling is detrimental to protozoa and fungus and can create an unbalanced web. Using reduced or no-till methods can increase the diversity of helpful bacteria, fungus, and protozoa present in the soil.

Keeping soil covered can also increase fungal, bacteria, and insect life. This can be achieved through the use of cover crops and mulches.

Studies have shown that fields with 4-year crop rotations have more beneficial fungi and bacteria than those with 2-year rotations.

Pesticide use significantly decreases the number and diversity of a wide variety of soil organisms. Having healthy soil and therefore healthy plants can help prevent the need for pesticides in the first place.

Carbon Sequestration

A healthy soil food web is important to climate change mitigation. Plants take in atmospheric carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and add carbon to the soil. In a healthy ecosystem, it’s used in the soil by fungus and bacteria where it can remain for hundreds of years!

Water Quality

A soil food web also impacts water quality. Healthy soil food webs help create and maintain organic matter which helps to hold moisture and prevent erosion.