#Companion Gardening
#Companion Gardening
In an effort to reduce and / or eliminate chemicals and yet keep pests under control I have invested many hours into researching Companion Gardening. Companion Gardening serves more than just that one purpose. Some plants when located next to each other actually help each other grow. The colors create a lovely contrast and you have a garden that is not just healthy, but beautiful.
One book I have found particularly helpful is ‘Great Garden Companions’ by Sally Jean Cunningham.
Sally has included some very helpful tidbits along with different planting design ideas. For example: ‘Ring Around The Peppers’ shows you a DIY to help protect plants against the cold nights. Sally offers ideas for bringing in the good insects as well as ideas for dealing with the unwanted insects. There are great illustrations for clarification.
Sally groups plants by ‘neighborhoods’. Taking this idea and applying it to raised gardens should prove helpful in much the same way. Even the type of ground cover each neighborhood works best with is covered.
To give you an idea of what you will find in this book I have taken a photo of the Table of Contents.
Overall I think that anyone looking to begin companion gardening, for whatever reason, would find the book a helpful resource.
Have you read this book? If you have, did you find it helpful? Is there another book on companion gardening that you would recommend?
Filed in: Books • Healthy Gardening
That is so cool, Cheryl! I had not previously encountered the concept of "companion gardening." I encountered this concept with respect to the growing of cacao. They always plant it with trees that grow tall like mango and neem trees that provide the cacao with the shade it needs.
Yes. Growing cacao that way makes total sense. 🙂
Most of my gardening has been by trial and error, but I know my friend who keeps a huge garden out at her ranch knows all kinds of cool garden type stuff. Know is she would only start a blog and share that knowledge with all of us on a regular basis…
Sounds like she needs some encouragement from you to share her wealth of knowledge. 🙂
I like natural methods like this for protecting and nurturing your garden. We aren't always the best at it but we use good methods like this when we plant the garden every year.
Something we do is plant marigolds with our tomatoes. They help to keep some of the bugs away and give added ground cover.
Yes. Marigolds with tomatoes for bug control. Natural is best when it is at all possible.
Hi Cheryl – I have used companion planting methods for years but this book looks really interesting. I'm going to see if the library has a copy – if not I may have to go to amazon.
The more I learn about the companion gardening concept the more it makes so much sense.
I am a avid gardener so I KNOW I would love this book. The area I would gravitate to the tips and suggestions for sure. :-), Susan
Eliminating pests without using chemicals is definitely ideal. It's easier said than done though, from what I understand. But every little helps:-)