Companion Planting Guide for Vegetables

What Is Companion Planting?

Friends can offer support and help protect you from some of the bad stuff out there. Your plants know this too! Companion planting is simply when two plants are grown close together for the benefit of one or both of those plants. So the benefit could go one way or be mutual. That could be as simple as growing nectar-rich flowers among crops to attract pollinators or two vegetables grown side by side to confuse or repel pests. 

A familiar example of companion planting is the Three Sisters trio—maize, climbing beans, and winter squash—which were commonly planted together by various Native American communities due to the plants’ complementary natures: the tall corn supports climbing beans, the low-growing squash shades the ground to prevent moisture loss and its big, prickly leaves discourage weeds and pests; and the fast-growing beans are ‘nitrogen fixers’ which make nitrogen available to other plants.

7 Benefits of Companion Planting

There are plenty of good reasons to plant certain crops together:

1. Deterring pests: Certain plants act as insect repellents or deter critters. For example, garlic’s smell is unappealing to many pests.
2. Attracting beneficials: Some plants also attract beneficial insects. For example, borage attracting pollinating bees and tiny pest-eating wasps.
3. Shade regulation: Large plants provide shade for smaller plants in need of sun protection. For example, corn shades lettuce.
4. Natural supports: Tall plants, like corn and sunflowers, can support lower-growing, sprawling crops such as cucumbers and peas.
5. Improved plant health: When one plant absorbs certain substances from the soil, it may change the soil biochemistry in favor of nearby plants.
6. Improving soil fertility: Some crops, like beans, peas, and other legumes, help to make nitrogen more available in the soil. Similarly, plants with long taproots, like burdock, bring up nutrients from deep in the soil, enriching the topsoil to the benefit of shallow-rooted plants.  
7. Weed suppression: Planting sprawling crops like potatoes with tall, upright plants minimizes open areas, where weeds typically take hold.

3 Updates to Our Companion Planting Philosophy

The Old Farmer’s Almanac has practiced Companion Planting for over a century, based on time-honored wisdom. Over time, as we’ve gathered more scientific evidence, we’ve evolved our thinking on the best companion planting combinations.

1. Traditionally, it was thought that vegetables had “friends” and “foes”—companion plants that either benefitted the vegetables’ growth or impeded it. This isn’t necessary wrong, but we’ve found that nearly all the associations are positive ones; there are perhaps 2 or 3 “bad” combinations (e.g., black walnut trees, which secrete growth inhibitors through their roots). Bottom-line: there is simply more evidence for “good” companions than “bad” ones, so we now focus more on why vegetables need friends!
2. There are misconceptions about companion planting on the internet, which we found concerning. Many examples of companion planting were based folklore or hearsay. While observations in our own garden can be valuable, we decided that our reference guide should only highlight companion plant pairings backed up by scientific evidence and tried-and-true practices.
3. While traditionally, companion planting referred to vegetable plant pairs, we’ve added more flowers to our chart; many are excellent natural insect repellents. Nasturtium is heads and shoulders above them all, taking the brunt of pest attacks. (See more below.) Of course, any nectar-rich flowers such as zinnia, comfrey and ageratum will attract pollinators such as bees to the garden, helping to boost the pollination of flowering crop plants like tomatoes, beans, and squash.

Best Companion Planting Combinations

Here are examples of some of the best companion planting combinations for your garden. (See more in the chart below.)

• Basil and tomatoes are not only companions in the kitchen but also best friends in the garden. Basil repels certain insect pests such as thrips and have also been shown to disorient the moths which lay tomato hornworms. Researchers also found that interplanting tomatoes with basil resulted in less egg-laying by armyworms. Basil also attracts bees, which improves pollination, tomato health, and flavor.

• Dill attracts ladybugs, which eat small garden pests such as aphids and spider mites.

• Borage pairs well with tomatoes, attracting pollinating bees. Borage also pairs well with strawberries, enhancing their flavor and vigor.

• Garlic and garlic spray has a strong scent deters many insects. Aphids (which affect more than 400 plants) can’t stand garlic! Garlic also repels onion flies, ermine moths, and Japanese beetles. Plant between rows of potatoes, alongside lettuces and cabbages and near fruit trees.

• Mint deters aphids, ants, and flea beetles. Just be careful to plant mint nearby in its own pot or bed, as it is a very aggressive grower!

• Nasturtiums attract hungry caterpillars away from brassicas like cabbage and broccoli and kale, so grow these pretty flowers close to those crops; nasturtium also lure blackfly away from fava beans.

• Parsley attracts beneficial insects to protect and pollinate tomatoes. Plant these herbs between tomatoes.

• Poached egg plants (a wildflower) draws in hoverflies, which control aphids on nearby lettuce. 
• Sage is a useful herb that repels carrot fly. Also plant it around a cabbage patch to reduce injury from cabbage moths.
• Sunflowers pair well with cucumbers and pole beans: Sunflowers help provide support for climbing plants, as well as shade for crops which, in hotter climates, can become sun-stressed.
• Tansy is a real draw to pest-eating bugs such as ladybugs or ladybirds, and predatory wasps. At the same time, tansy repels many of the common baddies such as cutworm which attacks asparagus, bean, cabbage, carrot, celery, corn, lettuce, pea, pepper, potato, and tomato plants. Tansy is a perennial, which means you only have to plant it once. What more could you want in a garden flower!

Add more flowers! Growing calendula or cosmos nearby will attract tiny parasitizing wasps to aphid-hungry hoverflies. And we also love marigolds for drawing in those pest-hungry beneficial bugs.

Companion Planting Chart: 20 Common Vegetables

In this chart, you’ll find some of the most common garden crops and their suitable companion plants. For more plants, we’d point you to the online Almanac Garden Planner, which has a large database of companion plants and a new companion planting feature that makes it easier than ever for you to find perfect matches for your plants. (Simply select a crop, then click on the heart-shaped Companion Planting button. The selection bar will then show only those plants that your chosen crop will love. Select one and drop it into your garden plan.)

Companion Planting Chart

More Companion Gardening Tips

Much of companion planting considers the height of different vegetables.

• Lettuce, radishes, and other quick-growing plants sown between hills of melons or winter squash will mature and be harvested long before these vines need more leg room.
• Leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard will grow in the shadow of corn.
• Bush beans tolerate the dapple shade that corn casts and, since their roots occupy different levels in the soil, don’t compete for water and nutrients.

How to Plan a Garden With Companion Plants

Come along with Ben into the garden as he uses proven techniques to plan out his companion planting combinations for the coming season!

A Companion Planting Tool

All of this companion planning information is well and good but, honestly, who has the time to research scientifically rigorous companion planting combinations? This is the reason we have our Garden Planner. Our team has spent many months—years even—trawling through much of the peer-reviewed research in this area, exhaustively working out what is proven, and what’s not. The result is the Garden Planner’s Evidence-Based Companion Planting feature. 

We demonstrate the Companion Planting feature in the video above. Simply select a garden vegetable on the screen and then click the ‘Show Companions’ button, and … the selection of plants is filtered to show only those plants that grow especially well with your chosen vegetable! For example, if you select sweet corn, and click on the Companion Plantings button, it shows that beans are a great companion! Learn more about the Garden Planner.

Just Start Small!

Don’t get too fixated with pairing up crops. Correct spacing, sun, water, and good soil management are the most important influences on your growing. In terms of companion planting, just start small with a few marigolds and zinnia seeds—and watch the beneficial bugs come! Other options to start with? How about calendula, nasturtium, basil, and borage? Not only will these flowers reduce your pest population but you will enjoy watching the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds visit your garden!

Learn More

1. For ideas and inspiration, see readers’ companion garden plot plans with plant lists.
2. Just getting started with gardening or need a refresher course? Check out our Vegetable Gardening for Beginners how-to page.
3. Need plant-specific growing advice? Read through our many Growing Guides for vegetables, fruit, flowers, and herbs.

Have you tried companion planting? What’s your go-to pairing? Tell us in the comments below!