Companion Plants for Summer Squash & Zucchini

It can be difficult to find companion plants for the zucchini and squash, as these two plants take up a lot of room and are big eaters. There are three plants that can be beneficial to the squash and zucchini when planted together in your garden:

Nasturtiums: these little edible flowers are a trap crop for certain insects such as flea beetles and aphids. If these types of pests are giving you problems in your garden then you may want to consider planting nasturtiums around your squash and zucchini as a border plant.

Beans: beans release quite a bit of nitrogen into the soil, which can make them beneficial to the heavy eaters squash and zucchini. However since they tend to be a running crop also, you will want to train them to grow up trellises or poles in order to plant them with the squash and zucchini.

Corn: this plant grows well with squash and zucchini as it grows up while they grow out. Also the squash and zucchini will benefit the corn by shading the ground and preventing weeds that tend to choke out corn from growing.

Another note: Nasturtiums are a great addition to salads, they have a sharp peppery taste. When you harvest your nasturtiums you will want to pick or cut the flowers and leaves as needed. Floral shears make easy work of harvesting nasturtiums.

Carrott Companion Planting

Carrots have a few plants that will help to benefit them during their growth. Beans provide nitrogen that carrots tend to need more than other vegetables do. Sage, Rosemary, and Radishes are under controversy as some recommend them as companions for carrots (they help repel the carrot fly) but other sources list them as incompatible.Alliums also help to confuse the carrot fly. If you are using carrots to attract beneficial insects to your garden then you will need to allow them to flower or plant Queen Anne's Lace (a wild carrot) in your garden. Flax is believed to help carrots since it produces an oil that is thought to protect root vegetables like carrots from some pests.

Debating planting with Beans as a companion? Visit: Bean Companion Planting and Companion Planting with Beans.

How you preserve your carrots is up to you, but many are pickling more different types of vegetables. And the carrot has not been left out. So get out your mason jars and check out this recipe for pickled carrots.

Companion Planting with Beans 2

After our original post on Companion Planting with Beans we learned a little bit more about plants that should not be planted with beans, etc. So here is our new Companion Planting with Beans image:

When harvesting your beans you may want to have a harvesting basket on hand. Hope this helps you with your summer gardening!

Companion Planting with Sweet Peppers

Sweet peppers have a few companion plants that will help them in the growing season.

Basil: this plant helps sweet peppers by repelling flies and mosquitoes and also by promoting growth and flavor of the peppers.

Parsley: attracts the beneficial parasitic wasps and hover-flies that help the sweet pepper stay healthy.

Okra: this plant shades the peppers from being burned by the sun and also helps to keep wind off the fragile stems.

Avoid planting sweet peppers near fennel, kohlrabi, and apricot trees.

When harvesting, it is best to cut peppers off using pruning shears, rather than breaking the stem.

Cucumber Companion Planting

Thinking about your 2012 summer garden? Are you planning on planting some cucumbers? If so you should keep the best companions for cucumbers in mind.

These cucumber companion plants consist of:
Radishes, Peas, Beets, Corn, Beans, Carrots, Dill, and Sunflowers.

However, you should not plant your cucumbers near potatoes or sage as they tend to grow poorly when planted next to these plants.

When growing cucumbers, you might want to consider using a trellis with them as most cucumber plants are vines and the trellis gives them the space they need to climb.

Most people like to pickle their cucumbers for storage, there are many pickling mixes on the market to help you do this if that is how you wish to store your cucumbers.

What are your cucumber growing recommendations?

First time garden? Read: Starting a Garden.

Companion Plants for Tomatoes

It is still a little early to actually do any gardening, but winter is a great time to reflect on how you want your garden to look, and what you want your garden to grow. Companion planting is a great way to allow plants to do their best while benefiting one another during the growing season.

Since tomatoes are a very popular plant in gardens, we will start our companion planting series by discussing different plants that complement tomatoes.

These plants help the tomato in a myriad of different ways. Each has its unique benefit to the tomato.

Basil attracts butterflies and repels other pests.

Oregano repels aphids.

Carrots attract insects beneficial to the garden particularly the tomato. (See more Carrot Companions)

Onions/Chives repel pests.

Many of the companion plants help by repelling pests, however, if you still have pest problems in your garden you can use sprays (chemical or organic) in a garden sprayer to help keep your plants pest free.





January Gardening Tasks

A few things that you can be doing in January to prep yourself for the gardening season:

• If you need to purchase any seeds, plants, replacement tools, etc. go ahead and start placing your orders.
• If your garden design wasn't quite right last year, rework your design to something that is more suitable for your needs.
• If you kept a garden journal review it, and start a new journal now being sure to record the plants and seeds that were ordered.
• Check any stored bulbs or vegetables that you may have.
• Take a class on gardening.
• Sharpen, clean, and test your gardening tools.