Topic: Companion Planting

[Kazum]

Can anyone give me some hints regarding companion planting to keep pests at bay around the various veggies?  I know marigolds are good for something but without wading through books, not sure what for!! 

[Georgie]

Hi Kazum.  Marigiolds repel white fly so are good planted with tomatoes.  Also, they are useful sacrificial plants as snails love 'em over and above all other food  (in my experience).  Chives and garlic are good planted with carrots because they repel carrot root fly.   I also grow nasturtiums next to my veg pots as they attract blackfly and caterpillars thus keeping them off other plants.  Bob Flowerdew does an excellent companion gardening book btw.

G xx

[supernan]

Oh goody I need some help with this subject too.

last year I planted African marigolds in with my tomatoes in the greenhouse, not one aphid! Plus the marigolds loved it grew huge flowers and looked lovely. So on that success I am going to try some more.

bonus with nasturtiums try eating the flowers, they are wonderfully peppery, wash 'em first as they are usually full of those little black bugs.

[chrispea27]

sounds good to me supernan will try it

thanks

[westsussexlottie]

I bought carrot seeds in France which were on a tape. They are already interspersed with chive seeds so the carrot fly is tricked (and I don't get confused about what I am planting....)
I have also bought tagetes as they are good for whitefly.

I also scatter cornflower seeds around as hoverflies love them, and hoverflies are a gardeners friend.

[wardy]

Nasturtium are said to repel woolly aphid and I can honestly say it's the best year my ancient apple tree has had for ages when I underplanted it with some of the dwarf Alaska variety last year.  The tree has at some time in its past fallen over so it grows quite near the ground and it gets covered in this woolly coating all over it.  I tried it and seemed to work.  It may have been something else but it was better than spraying with chemicals.

I companion plant roses with garlic and I use garlic as an aphid spray too.  Basil and fr. marigolds do well together.  I usually plant a clump of nastirtium to lure caterpillars away from brassicas. 

Have a look at this link www.allotments.btinternet.co.uk/complants

[gavin]

Hi Kazum - now that is a huge question!

I've seen companion planting work - peasant farmers in Yemen do NOT waste their time or their land on frivolities.  And I've seen it work on my own plot to my own satisfaction.

But there are an awful lot of daft ideas about the concept  :( ; my own rules of thumb when looking at ideas of companion planting

- are there any weeds included?  (if not, why not?  If a carrot is a good neighbour, why aren't the rest of the carrot family?)
- is there any explanation of the beneficial linkage?
- does it "make sense" ---- I'm sorry, but I will NEVER try growing mint with my brassicas, nor rhubarb with my parsley!  Or vice versa for that matter.  Just a coupleof the daft ideas I've seen.

Bob Flowerdew's "The Companion Garden" - I enjoyed that for the basic practicality and explanation, and for what I learned.  

All best - Gavin

[supernan]

 :) Hey brain is in gear guys. Here are two sites with companion gardening info.

www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/organic_companionplanting.shtml

www.simplytheweb.com/garden/company.htm

Hope I've typed them correctly!!

Off to the auctions to see what bargains I can bag. Have a good digging day  8)

[Kazum]

Great tips guys thanks!  Will have a shifty at those websites too.
Only hope I have some plants left after all this rain!  Expecting to find a swimming pool instead of my allotment when I eventually venture down there this weekend!

Kazum 

[LesH]

       Hi Kazum    There is a book on the market called "Carrots love Tomatoes" by Louise Riotte. This contains the secrets of companion planting. Available from Rodale books, Stirling Road,
Swindon, SN3-4YZ. Or try Amazon to see if you can get a second hand version. Good Luck LesH

[ellkebe]

I read today that rosemary is good with carrots as it confuses the carrot fly.

Any one have any experience of this working?

Ellkebe

[gavin]

Hi elkebe - I'm quite sure it might.  But I have grown to deeply distrust a lot of these partnerships we read of :( .

Sowing 3x10 foot rows of carrots needs enough rosemary to keep the family eating the stuff for the next 20 years?  Rosemary stays in one place and becomes a shrub - so what do I do with my carrots?

I do wish these magical lists of daft companion planting could disappear!

Oooops - do I sound curmudgeonly and ill-natured?  Sorry!

All best - Gavin

[wardy]

Elkebe     The carrot fly doesn't like the smell of rosemary so is diverted away from your carrots and onto Gav's carrots as he hasn't taken any precautions to protect his apart from a moat, an acre of fleece, a 3 foot high barrier, garlic, Crucifixes, klaxons and a whole gamut of pathological controls  ;D  ;D  ;D

Only jokin  ;)

[redimp]

You coul always prune the rosemary and throw the clippings around your carrots.  That way you would not have to move your shrub around too much.

[gavin]

The carrot fly doesn't like the smell of rosemary so is diverted away from your carrots and onto Gav's carrots as he hasn't taken any precautions to protect his apart from a moat, an acre of fleece, a 3 foot high barrier, garlic, Crucifixes, klaxons and a whole gamut of pathological controls     

Only jokin 

Hey, who's joking!  I'm working on the laptop - hiding behind the apple trees.  Got the shotgun, mace, flyspray - been doing this every night for a week - haven't slept a wink since I sowed the blasted seeds!  ROFL  ;D ;D ;D

All best - Gavin

[Sprout]

Or you could leave the rosemary (or any other perennial companion plants) in pots sunk into the ground and then next year, dig them up and replant them in whichever bed your carrots (or whatever) will be in.

[Multiveg]

Not sure I am going to make total sense here, but here it goes: Monoculture, eg. just carrots, would allow carrot root fly to have a field day. Companion planting to, say deter carrot root fly, increases the diversity of things there - some plants produce noxious toxins to deter pests/other plants. Whether it works to deter the pest is another question - I think I read somewhere that you need 7 rows of onions to one row of carrots to deter carrot root fly... Perhaps someone else could make more sense of what I am trying to say here (typing in a hurry)....

[ellkebe]

Thanks for input everyone.

I'm growing so few carrots - really just trying my hand at a few things - that they'd have to be pretty committed carrot flies to find them anyway I reckon.  My main preventative measure is hoping some one else has planted a whole load nearby that are all just calling out to be visited  ;)


I do love rosemary though - rather more than carrots!!

Ellkebe

[wardy]

Gavin    Have you bagged any carrot fly yet? ;D

[wardy]

Multi veg  I hear what you're saying about monoculture.  I have planted in my carrot bed, carrots (of course  :))  rows of spring onions, beetroots, onions sets and nigella.   

A local large scale veggie grower has taken up loads of our allotments and will grow acres of cabbages..   I think all the pests on our plots will find much richer pickings there and our veggies will be left alone (hopefully)