Companion planting guide: the best plants to grow together
Combine vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs together in your garden patches to help control pests and encourage your crops to grow healthy
Companion planting is the practice of growing different plants close together for mutual benefit – for example, crops such as potatoes or strawberries are often paired with a fragrant herb, which helps deter pests
Often, the flowers and herbs planted close to your crops confuse pests with their smells or by acting as a sacrificial plant to lure them away from your crops. Most combination plants also attract pollinators like birds and bees to your garden, which are important in the plant reproduction and growth process. They also attract other insects like ladybirds and lacewings, which pray on aphids (a common bug which infects plants)
The idea is that by deterring pests and diseases, you’ll get a bigger crop of fruit and veg to harvest. It’s been an age-old gardening tradition for years, and a fantastic and natural way to not only control pests in your garden, but also to maximise your space - plus, it gives your garden a new aesthetic, adding some colour and life to fruit and veg patches
There are many different combinations of plants to grow together, but we’ve compiled some of the best and most common companion plant combinations to make it easy for you to start
Our gardening expert's top top:
While it’s best to plant companion plants as close to each other as possible, you still need to plant according to the plant’s normal spacing preferences, which can be found on the packaging
Tomatoes & marigolds
While we certainly love the strong smell of French marigolds, whiteflies certainly don’t! Planting these flowers beside your tomato plants, especially in a greenhouse, helps keep these pests away. Sow seeds or plant young plug plants in your tomato containers or as a row in your bed in front of your tomatoes when they’re moved into the garden
Carrots, leeks & lavender
Lavender’s strong floral fragrance deters insect pests and has the best results if planted alongside carrots and leeks. Not only this, but the flower attracts a range of pollinators - including bees, butterflies and hoverflies – so planting it close to any fruit or veg crop will increase the number of these insects visiting your patches, which will in turn help your plant during its growth and any future reproduction
Carrots and leeks (or other alliums like onions and garlic) also have mutual benefits when planted near each other. The strong smell of alliums helps deter carrot flies from carrot plants, and the smell of carrots can deter leek moths from leeks – a match made in heaven!
Strawberries & borage
Borage is an attractive, edible plant with leaves that have a slight cucumber flavour. It’s believed by many gardeners that when planted next to strawberries, borage makes them grow and taste better, while also repelling many garden pests. Borage flowers are also a magnet for pollinating insects that will help fend off aphids, which are common pests on strawberry plants
Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower & mint or sage
The strong scents of sage and mint leaves confuse flea beetles, deterring them from laying eggs on the leaves of brassicas such as cabbage, broccoli, radish and cauliflower
If you have extra mint or sage, you can plant some of it inside in your kitchen for easy access when cooking. Growing herbs in a trough or windowsill planter is a modern and stylish way to display them – plus you’ll have fresh leaves at a pinch whenever you need them
Roses & thyme
Thyme, another strong scented herb, is an excellent companion plant for roses as it deters blackfly. Its fragrance confuses the pest by masking the smell of the rose, which it’s usually attracted to
Courgettes, cucumbers & calendula
Planting Calendula, also known as pot marigolds, around courgettes and cucumbers is extremely useful, as it attracts many pollinating insects which are natural predators to many garden pests. On top of this, pollinators will also help with pollination, which can sometimes be an issue for courgettes, cucumbers, and other cucurbits