Co-Planting

Okay! Sorry it's been awhile between posts. Jenna and I recently took a trip to Ireland, which was wonderful! Now that we're back we hope to really get this blog going. A quick organic gardening tidbit we learned over there: in southwest Ireland, much of the coast is sloped, rocky, arid soil. To improve the soil, the locals take seaweed from the nearby ocean and work it into the soil to make it arable. Really cool eco-based, sustainable, organic gardening! Now they can use the slopes for sheep grazing, which will ensure that the ground stays fertilized and healthy. See the difference?

So, everyone ready to do their last minute garden planning? Got all your veggies in a row? Have you properly planned out your co-planting? Co-planting (short for companion planting) refers to the practice of strategically putting certain plants together to produce some benefits for your garden. Often co-planting focuses on plants that attract beneficial insects. This is a great benefit to your garden. Some plants attract pollinators that will obviously help your garden thrive and produce; others attract pest-eating insects like wasps and ladybugs that will keep the other plants in the garden pest-free and healthy. Co-planting can also help you keep weeds down. Instead of buying mulch or straw (or constantly pulling weeds) to put down around your tomatoes, why not plant lettuce or basil underneath the tomatoes? Lettuce and basil are shallow rooted, so they won’t really compete with the tomato plants for nutrients, but having something covering the ground helps the soil retain the moisture and keeps the weeds down. (If you’re growing your tomatoes upside down, just but some basil on top of the bucket!) Put some purslane (if you can find it!) in between your corn rows to do the same thing. Good stuff. Some co-planting aficionados even claim that co-planting improves the flavor of certain plants. So it’s really a great thing for your garden to find some companion plants that do these things. Plus, the plants with these great benefits are usually more colorful and delicate than the veggies in your garden, so they add an aesthetic dimension to your garden as well. Some of the more common plants that provide general benefits to the garden are marigolds, borage and lovage. Do a little research to match plants, herbs and flowers to match your specific needs. Gayla Trail has some good info on co-planting in her book, Grow Great Grub. Also, check out this site.