I have a book on companion planting with some great reference tables (column 1: plant type; column 2: good companions for that plant type; column 3: bad companions for that plant type). Unfortunately, they don't integrate trees, herbs, flowers, and veggies. I have a very small space in which to garden, and this summer, I fully intend to plant veggies out front among the perennials.

Does anyone have a title that mentions things like: "Tomatoes don't like liatris, but will benefit from the nearby turtleheads", and: "Hyssop will benefit any fruit tree or vine; valerian is a general all-around good companion, except for apple trees and potatoes"? (I have no idea if my examples are fact or not, I just need that type of information.)

Google isn't turning up anything relevant, and the Canada Blooms show was disappointingly uninformative that way, too. Oh dear, I fear I shall have to research and write my own quick reference! :_(

One could make a start with reading up on plant families - you know the Latin better than I! But let's say in the brassica family, the flower alyssum is a cousin to the cabbage. Both can attract the same diseases.

I asked the apple farmer at the market yesterday, about your crabapple leaving disease spores in the ground that may infect your cherry, yesterday. He was, as I had hoped, very well-informed about his crop in particular, but also the genre of fruit trees. I didn't ask him about companions, but I will next Saturday.
He did back up Mr. Liam's decision that malus problems will not carry over into the prunus, except for bugs. He added that cherry trees require less 'spraying' (I didn't make an issue out of this), than apple trees, and generally have less problems. He said as long as your tree is fully hardy in your zone, you can go ahead and plant it in the same spot as your crab.

Yabbo DEE! Yay, Rust Be Gone! Now I just have to fight the birds for the cherries in a couple of years.

I think I may actually do that quick reference research project -- next winter. Just so I don't go crazy not having anything to do with my garden in the month of December...

Thanks for asking your farmer guy, Loamy.

You caught up on all your sleep yet?

Try asking over on Gardenweb.

Elfie, (and now I'm about to say something which will make me, if possible, even more unpopular)I don't believe there is such a thing like a true plant-companionship.
In the past I read quite a few books on the subject, and it just doesn't make much sense to me. Unless there is a symbiotic relationship between them, plants are, for the most part, in competition with one another. The best you can get is a combination of plants with a slightly different feeding requirement (like one takes a bit more nitrogen, the other helps with the fixing of nitrogen in the soil ) or propensity for certain pests... Other than this, unless you like to think of plants as symbolic entities associated with magic and astrology, there isn't much genuine companionship going on.... Nevertheless, some of them may look better together than others, so you can still be a matchmaker!

Last summer I bought "Great Garden Companions" by Sally Jean Cunningham; Rodale 1998, ISBN 0875968473.

I'd give it mixed reviews based on what I needed .We have a 2 acre market veggie plot and simply don't have time to interplant with as much detail as she does in her backyard garden. It might be more suitable for mixing in vegetables with plants in the beds around your house though. It's worth a look at least. Here's my unofficial review:

She doesn't talk much about shrubs and perennials specifically, but she does give family names that go well together. For example, she's an advocate of Brassicas together with plants from the Aster family. Most of her flower examples are annual flowers, but if you know the family of your perennials it might help a bit.

I'd suggest that you find a copy and browse through it before buying, just to make sure it has the info you need. The vegetable growing tips don't go much beyond the basics, but the companion stuff seems to be decent. She goes mostly on her own experience and not so much on any scientific research - who's to say which is better!

Hope that helps a bit.

Another way to look at it is to try to create communities of plants based on their function, rather than their specific interactions.

For instance, some plants fix nitrogen. It's always a good idea to have some of these in a planting. Some plants attract beneficial insects by providing nectar and/or shelter. Also good to have some. Some bring nutrients up from deeper levels and break up hard soils with deep, penetrating roots. Some create a lot of biomass making for a great mulch. Others will shade the soil and crowd out weeds. Some deter rodent pests, and others deter insect pests. And so on.

You can experiment with putting together a combination of all these "functions." Each function can usually be met with any combination of "layers"--groundcover, herbs, trees, shrubs, or vines. Nitrogen fixers, for instance--black locust is a tree, wisteria is a vine, clover is a ground cover, eleagnus is a shrub, and vetch is an herbaceous plant, and they all fix nitrogen. You choose plants out of each function that you want in your garden, and make sure you have a good mix of layers as well, and voila--plant community.

The idea is to create a dynamic plant "community" in which all the plants benefit each other while still getting what they need. Yes, plants compete with each other, but they also depend on one another. That is why mono-cropping and large agri practices are so unsustainable. Humans are the same way. We live in competition with each other, but we also need each other. We live in competition with other creatures, as well, competing for the earth's resources, but we're increasingly finding that we need the earth and her creatures to survive in any meaningful way. Basically what you can try to do is to recreate an "eco-system" using plants that you wish to have in your garden.

An excellent resource for this is Toby Hemenway's "Gaia's Garden." He lists plants in each function, and talks about creating communities from them, and experimenting with them in your own yard.

Then, when you've created several successful communities in your yard and figured out what works best, and what doesn't work, you can write your own book. I'll read it for sure.

Good luck, and have fun.

Heather

i use the book "carrots love tomatoes" by louise riotte. been fun to experiment with.

Elfie,
Heres a few interesting companion combos for your book...

Plant: Companion(s) and Effects

Garlic: Roses and Raspberries (deters
Japanese beetle); with herbs
to enhance their production of
essential oils; plant liberally
throughout garden to deter pests.

Horseradish: Potatoes (deters potato beetle);
around plum trees to discourage
curculios.

Hyssop: Cabbage (deters cabbage beetle),
Grapes; keep away from radishes.

Nasturtium: Tomatoes, radishes, cabbage, cuc-
umbers; plant under fruit trees;
deters aphids and pests of
cucurbits.

Tansy: Plant under fruit trees; deters
pests of Roses and Raspberries;
deters flying insects, also Jap.
beetles, striped cucumber beetles,
squash bugs; deters ants.

Wormwood: As a border, keeps animals from
the garden.

Yarrow: Plant along borders,near paths,
near aromatic herbs; enhances
essential oil production of herbs.


Thats all for now...from me...but I'll keep looking.

purplebean

Thanks, everyone, for your responses to my question. I'm thinking "Gaia's Garden" may be best suited, although that less-than-raved-about book could work for me (whose title escapes me), too.

The way I group plants together is definitely by function, as well as complementary soil requirements.

Gardpro -- I wish I could quote the titles and dates of studies I've read that show a direct connection between crop yield and interplanting (e.g. cabbages interplanted with beans show increased yields by weight of cabbage, presumably because beans fix nitrogen, and cabbage is a heavy nitrogen feeder), as well as the connection between increased yields and organic practices. Most of them were done in Switzerland. As with humans, plants are in competitions with each other. They have also evolved relationships that are mutually beneficial, like humans. Carrots repel onion maggot, and onions repel carrot fly. Plants that do well in proximity to each other are therefore more likely to be found in proximity to each other, and it is this observation that has been mimicked to farmer's advantage through the ages, and documented as "companion planting".

Elfie, I read a bunch of research on the topic too, because it really interested me, and, UNLESS you are talking about the biodinamic agriculture pioneered by Rudolf Steiner--which includes lunar phases and astrology in the growing techniques, there is no poof that companion planting works.

Some people suggested that we, as gardeners, are trying to recreate a "natural" environment in which our plants will mutually benefit from each other's presence or proximity, however, by removing weeds and other undesired greens, and conveniently replacing them with our choice of plants, we are conceptually really, really far from anything as nature intended (although some may object that we are operating some sort of "natural selection"). The plants that we choose to grow in the garden did not evolve in a synergy to begin with, they did not have to simultaneously adapt to a particular environment so that one would not predominate and they could all survive. It takes hundreds of years for even a small biological change to occur, and our agricultural, man-created practices are really not that ancient.

I personally have no objections towards companion planting, if one is happy to experiment and find a formula or a combination that works for him/her... After all gardening is , for the most part, all about having fun.

We've done a lot of research on this topic, because we know how much it interests organic gardeners. And while there is solid science to support some companion planting combinations, much of it is folklore. Here is an article from this Website's archives about the combinations that have the most substantiation.

http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-108,00.html

But the most important thing to bear in mind, I think, is that diversity is the key. In a small garden, you have so many factors to consider when choosing what to plant and creating perfect combinations may not be as vital as others, e.g. rotating plant families to limit the spread of soil-borne diseases and even concerns about tall plants shading lower-growing ones. A diverse garden - vegetables, flowers and herbs - will attract a variety of beneficial insects and keep pests from honing in on any one crop.

If you do experiment with some combinations, please share them with us.

Scott

It's not a book, but I did a search. I looked this up a few years ago & was amazed at how much info was on the net. I don't buy books anymore, just go to the net.
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/%2522companion%2Bplanting%2522
http://tinyurl.com/6pw8k

You should read up on Medieval Gardening. I'm thinking I may never weed my garden again!

Sure. What do you pay your contributing writers? B-)