Friends & Foes

Friends and Foes

By: Jane Harpenau

Many years ago, when I first started vegetable gardening, I had a problem in my garden. My snap beans, looking lush and green, produced only a few pods. What had gone wrong? I later found out that planting beans next to onions (which I had done), is a big NO-NO.

I learned an important lesson. Some vegetables thrive better together (I’m still learning), than others.

Here’s some information about plants and the neighbors they like.

Tomatoes: They are quite sociable and will tolerate most plantings next to them, even onions. They like abundant phosphorus, but be careful with the nitrogen.

Snap beans: Good neighbors with cucumbers and beets. Again, keep the nitrogen low.

Cucumbers: Radishes and beans do well next to them and they aren’t too picky with the soil they are planted in.

Peas: Grow well with carrots and beans. Need fertile soil.

Cabbage: They will neighbor with onions. They do best in humus-rich loam soil.

Potatoes: Neighbor well, but like fertile soil.

Corn: Also neighbors well, but likes plenty of nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.

Beets: They like just about everyone.

My sister mixes sand into the soil where she plants her potatoes. Then, when she robs young potatoes from the mother plant (when the plant is still green), they come out almost dirt free.

Of course, till into the garden soil proper amounts of compost or fertilizer before planting. One dry, hot summer I had added only Andy’s Organic Matters compost to my tomato patch with the results of an enormous crop of huge, delicious fruit. Must have been just the right amount of nitrogen. As noted above beans and tomatoes like low nitrogen soil.

So, save the fertilizer for corn, potatoes, and peas—might be wise to plant these in the same area of the garden. 

Take care in fertilizing after your garden plants are up and growing. Too much can burn and kill your vegetables.

I often plant marigolds and nasturtiums at the ends of the rows. They have a tendency to repel garden pests, but attract bees for pollination.

So, just like people, some vegetables neighbor well, some don’t. Don’t you wish we could all get along?