Maximising your garden's potential through companion planting is a natural and effective way to boost growth and protect plants. You can reduce pests, improve pollination, and enhance soil health by pairing certain herbs, vegetables, and flowers. For instance, plant basil with tomatoes to boost flavour, deter aphids, or use marigolds to attract hoverflies that control pests. From garlic's ability to repel aphids to lavender's mosquito-fighting properties, the possibilities are endless. Explore these companion plant combinations today, and watch your garden thrive naturally—no chemicals required.
Veggies & Their Best Companions
- Celery: Plant with brassicas (e.g., cabbage) and beans to repel white cabbage butterflies.
- Carrots & Leeks: Their strong scent helps keep pests away from both.
- Tomatoes: Grow with asparagus, basil, celery, carrots, and parsley to support growth.
- Peas & Beans: These fix nitrogen in the soil, boosting soil fertility.
- Brassicas & Sweetcorn: Grow them where beans were planted for best results.
- Cucumber: Pair with nasturtiums for pest control. Avoid planting near potatoes.
Flowers That Help Your Veggies
- Roses: Plant garlic nearby to deter aphids.
- Nasturtiums Attract pests like aphids and caterpillars, making it easy to remove them early. They also protect nearby vegetables like lettuce and beans.
- Marigolds: Repel aphids and attract hoverflies, which eat aphids. They also help control nematodes.
- Lavender, Marigold, & Rosemary: These repel mosquitoes, flies, fleas, and ticks.
- Pollinator Plants: Sunflowers, calendula, clover, poppies, and borage attract bees and butterflies.
Herbs That Make Great Companions
- Sage: Repels aphids when planted near celery.
- Hyssop: Keeps white cabbage butterflies away from brassicas.
- Basil: Enhances the flavour of tomatoes and deters aphids, fruit flies, and whitefly.
- Fly Deterrents: Mint and basil help repel flies, mosquitoes, and fleas.
- Borage: Attracts pollinators and provides minerals like potassium.
- Marjoram: Repels a wide variety of insects.
- Comfrey: Improves soil and provides potassium, perfect for soil enhancement.
- Coriander & Tansy: Attract hoverflies, natural aphid predators. Tansy also repels fruit flies.
- Dill: Attracts bees and deters white butterflies.
- Fennel: Its yellow flowers attract hoverflies to combat aphids.
- Garlic: Keeps aphids away and protects peach trees from leaf curl.
- Garlic Chives: Their scent deters carrot root fly.
- Lavender: Attracts bees and deters aphids, great for carrots and leeks.
- Mint: Confuses pests of carrots, tomatoes, onions, and brassicas. (Plant in containers to prevent invasiveness.)
- Parsley: Deters aphids, especially when planted with roses, tomatoes, and asparagus.
- Rosemary: Repels mosquitoes, cabbage moths, bean beetles, and carrot flies.
- Rue: Repels slugs and a variety of other pests.
- Sage: Great for attracting bees and deterring pests like carrot flies and cabbage moths.
- Thyme: Repels blackfly and can be used as a spray to deter whitefly on cabbage.
- Wormwood: Deterrent for aphids and beetles, attracting beneficial insects like ladybirds.
Start companion planting today and watch your garden thrive naturally.
