Companion Planting = Happy Plants

So last week we were supposed to start the garden at my grandparents’ house. Well the weekend before my grandma heard it was supposed to snow, yes snow, joy. So we decided to hold off just in case. That was definitely the right call because it did in fact snow last Wednesday, we were going to start planting on Friday.

Well this weekend Todd and I are going to the Green Festival in San Francisco and the weekend after that is Tyler’s birthday, he turns 11 on the 16th. So now it’s looking like it we won’t be starting until at least the 24th. That’s probably a good thing because I recently heard about companion gardening (from my Shaklee selling friend Carissa) and I hadn’t yet gotten to reading up on it. I know, you’re shocked.

Companion planting is basically what it sounds like; certain plants can benefit others by being planted next to or close to others.



I found this site, Companion Planting, that has a great list of compatible plants as well as plants that aren’t compatible. I think knowing what doesn’t grow well together is possibly even more important than knowing what does. Garden Harvest Organics also has a lot of really great info on what the specific benefits of each plant are.

It turns out that marigolds are great to plant with everything because they have a chemical that they give off that naturally repels pest. Now that’s organic pest control!

I also learned that strawberries and asparagus make great companions which makes me very happy because I love asparagus!

So since I have about 2 weeks until we start the gardens, I plan on reading up and getting super familiar with companion planting. Ok fine, I’ll probably forget until right before we go buy all the plants and have to speed read through the sites, but that’s not the point.

The point is I’m super grateful to Carissa for telling me about companion gardening because I really would like for this garden to survive and to find natural pest control so I don’t have to worry about my grandpa spraying stuff.

I am so excited and can’t wait to get going!

You know what, I’ve seen lettuce plants at the farmers market and the boys really want to plant carrots which are companions to lettuce, and my grandparents have an extra big barrel at their house.



Hmmm…maybe I’ll have to pick some lettuce up when I go to the farmers market this weekend.

Have you ever heard of companion planting? Have you given it a try?