Take note of these great companion plants, placing them strategically in your garden and orchard, to help provide you with a healthy crop this spring and summer.
Here’s how companion plants help your garden thrive:
Plants in this family help deter slugs, snails, aphids and carrot flies and are good to plant around fruit trees, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, brassicas and carrots.
A low growing honey scented plant which self-seeds and attracts a range of beneficial insects.
Drawing butterflies when it flowers, basil also repels flies and mosquitoes as well as being particularly effective when planted by tomatoes, improving their flavour and helping deter pests and diseases.
Borage attracts predatory insects and pollinators and is a great companion for strawberry, tomato and cucumber plants.
This large, fast growing annual herb looks great and helps attract beneficial insects including shield bugs, drawing them away from tomatoes and beans.
Let a few go to seed for the bees in your garden or scatter near fruit trees to aid pollination.
Place by brassicas, cucumbers and corn as dill works as a natural repellent against aphids, some caterpillars and spider mites.
Yarrow lures beneficial insects such as ladybirds, predatory wasps and hoverflies while also being a useful addition to your compost, adding minerals and accelerating the composting process.
Thyme is excellent planted by cabbages, eggplants and strawberries.
Marigolds are often planted as a border around other flowers or veggies as their scent wards off many pests. Their roots produce an insecticide that will often deter pests in the soil (such as nematodes). The larger Mexican marigold may help keep rabbits from coming into your garden.
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