Introduction:

Eventually every gardener is introduced to the concept of companion planting.  It is the concept of placing plants near other plants that will aide them in their growth; hide, repel or trap insect pests; provide a habitat that attracts beneficial insects; provides shade or nutrients.  Incorporating plants with particularly useful characteristics into your vegetable garden is the art of companion planting.

How does it work?

Certain plants will add nutrients to the soil.  All plants will extract nutrients from the soil.  If you plant a variety that will give off the nutrient that another variety needs, they will do well together.

The same concept applies to toxins, aromas or other plant activity that will detract from another variety if it is close by.

Sometimes it is just a matter of growing together or close by, plant varieties that do not compete with each other for the nutrients in the soil, sunlight and moisture.

I had a good experience of companion planting in my garden this year.  I have a bed of egytptian onions that is next to the raised beet bed and the spinach bed.  No problems with that, but this year I sowed some zinnia seeds in the onion bed to fill in some bare spots.  What zinnias that did emerge were stunted, deformed and eventually pulled out.  The Zinnias is every other part of the garden where I planted them did beautifully.  I planted some at the end of the turnip bed and they are doing well there.  So, I will not plant zinnias with the onion family again.  I am wiser than I was last year.