Companion Planting - Magic Or Mystery
by John Yazo
Companion planting is a method of gardening that has gardeners fascinated for years. There is no one set of rules for this technique that is commonly practiced in intensive organic gardening. It is a method of planting two or more crops together so they can benefit each other.
There are plants that help other plants by adding nutrients to the soil for them to thrive, repel insects, improve soil structure and even ones that can be used to suppress weeds. These are all natural methods that keep organic gardening an interesting method of gardening. The full combination of plants that can be planted together is unknown. Learning the likes and dislikes of plants and combine them together like a puzzle is basically what companion planting is about, experimenting with different plant combination's.
Corn is a great crop to companion plant with. It is a plant that is a heavy feeder of nitrogen, it grows tall and is a good crop to provide shade for cool climate crops. Peas are a crop that doesn't like the heat and is a high producer of nitrogen. Putting these two crops together makes for a good friendship.
Squash is another crop that makes a good companion when planted with corn. It makes a good ground cover to suppress weeds and climbs the corn stalk, making it unpleasant for raccoons do to it's prickly stems.
When including companion planting in your gardening practices, start out small. Put a list of the crops you grow in your garden, list there likes and dislikes, then match the crops that benefit each other. Experiment and see what benefits your crops in your garden receive from this method of gardening.
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