Good Companions

Whilst I was researching for this article, I was reading Janet Street Porter's column in the Independent on Sunday. She was saying that as oil prices hit record levels and the cost of food increases by 20 per cent this year, we're going to have to face up to the fact that hard times are upon us and we should rediscover the forgotten skills of growing our own vegetables. I have been growing my own vegetables organically for some years with varying degrees of success and I was delighted when I was asked to write about companion planting. I have learned so much during my research.

I was lucky enough to go to a workshop on Permaculture run by expert Hannah Thoroughgood, who co-founded HEAP and is a tutor at Designed Visions. She explained that Permaculture offers a radical approach to food production and urban renewal giving high yields for low energy outputs and working with nature rather than against it. Permaculture was coined in the mid seventies by two Australians, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, to describe a design system pioneered as a response to what they saw as serious challenges to the survival of us all. Derived from the words Permanent Agriculture, Permaculture looks at strategies to create sustainable food growing methods and in doing so encompasses all aspects of how we as human beings can live harmoniously in relation to our Earth and its finite resources. To find out more about the courses, visit http://www.designedvisions.com

One way we can improve the productivity of our vegetables is to try companion planting, which is a method of putting different plants together so one plant improves the growth of another. Hannah explained that a rule of thumb is that if plants taste good together, they usually grow well together. She used the example of tomatoes and basil. Using the scents or chemicals produced by some plants can be useful if placed next to a plant that cannot defend itself from a pest attracted by its own scent. A good example of this is carrots, and the Carrot Root Fly. The Carrot Root Fly is attracted to the smell of carrots especially when the crop is being thinned. By placing a smellier plant like onions next to carrots, the scent is masked by the strong odour of the onions and the Carrot Root Fly finds it more difficult to seek out the carrots.

Some plants don't give off scents and we need to find another way to deal with invaders. Slugs love lettuce but I am told they love marigolds even more therefore the answer is to put a border of marigolds around the lettuce. However I do think being slug vigilant helps as well. Bill Mollison once famously said in answer to a slug question, "You haven't got an excess of slugs, you’ve got a duck deficiency". I'm not sure this is the answer because my experience of ducks is they can do a lot of damage in the garden if allowed free rein over the vegetable plot. But we get the point.

Marigolds are an essential to the companion planter. Not only good at keeping slugs away from precious vegetables, they attract Hoverflies, and the larvae of Hoverflies like to eat Aphids. Larvae will eat around 800 Aphids before they transform into Hoverflies. Ladybirds also like Aphids therefore planting Dill, Fennel and other Ladybird loving plants among the veg is a good idea. If you want to purchase Aphid eating insects visit http://www.greengardener.co.uk/aphidout.htm However, a new Ladybird called the Harlequin is becoming more widespread in the South East and has even been found at Yalding Organic Gardens. This Ladybird preys upon our own native ones. If you find a Harlequin Ladybird; see the following website for identification http://www.harlequin-survey.org and then let the survey team know the location.

You can also use plants to repel pests and the charts below give an indication of good companion planting. It is said that Tansy will repel ants and some people swear by this and others told me it doesn't work. I can only suggest you try and see.

Just as there is good companion planting, there is also poor companion planting and the charts below tell you which plants not to put together. Some plants really are incompatible with each other and can restrict each others growth.

For more information on companion planting visit the BBC website listed below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/organic_companionplanting2.shtml

For more information on the tables listed below, visit http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/companion.htm

Penny Kemp is a broadcaster and writer and runs The Headcorn Sustainability Group and is currently working on making Headcorn and the surrounding area a low carbon community. www.headcornsustainability.co.uk

Crop	Companion Plants	Incompatible With
Asparagus	Tomato, Parsley, Basil
Beans	Most Vegetables & Herbs
Beans, Broad	Potato, Cucumber, Maize, Strawberry, Celery, Summer Savory	Onion
Beans, Runner	Maize, Summer Savory, Radish	Onion, Beets, Kohlrabi, Sunflower
Cabbage Family	Aromatic Herbs, Celery, Beetroot, Onion Family, Chamomile, Spinach, Chard	Dill, Strawberries, Runner Beans, Tomato
Carrots	Pea, Lettuce, Rosemary, Onion Family, Sage, Tomato
Celery	Onion & Cabbage Families, Tomato, Broad Beans, Nasturtium	Dill
Cucumber	Beans, Maize, Pea, Sunflowers, Radish	Potato, Aromatic Herbs
Aubergine (Eggplant)	Broad Beans, Marigold
Lettuce	Carrot, Radish, Strawberry, Cucumber
Maize (Corn)	Potato, Broad Beans, Pea, Pumpkin, Cucumber, Squash	Tomato
Melon	Maize, Nasturtium, Radish
Onion Family	Beetroot, Carrot, Lettuce, Cabbage Family	Beans, Peas
Parsley	Tomato, Asparagus
Peas	Carrots, Radish, Turnip, Cucumber, Maize, Beans	Onion Family, Gladiolus, Potato
Potato	Beans, Maize, Cabbage Family, Marigolds, Horseradish	Pumpkin, Squash, Tomato, Cucumber, Sunflower
Pumpkins	Maize, Marigold	Potato
Radish	Pea, Nasturtium, Lettuce, Cucumber	Hyssop
Spinach	Strawberry, Cauliflower, Celery
Squash	Nasturtium, Maize, Marigold	Potato
Strawberry	Broad Beans, Lettuce, Onion, Spinach	Cabbage
Tomato	Basil, Onion Family, Nasturtium, Marigold, Asparagus, Carrot, Parsley, Cucumber, Mint	Potato, Fennel, Cabbage Family
Turnip	Pea	Potato