Companion Plants
Organic Gardening: Companion Plants
When you decide to try your hand at organic gardening, one of the most frustrating parts of the entire process is trying to control pests, disesases, and other miscellaneous problems that come up with any form of gardening. Thankfully though, there are natural techniques which can be used to solve many of these common gardening problems, and one of those techniques is known as companion planting.
Companion planting is the process of planting specific flowers, herbs, and vegetables together in a way that either enhances the taste of the vegetables, and/or serves to help naturally control common pest and bug related problems in the garden.
Companion planting is important and useful for natural garden pest control, but it's also very important in vegetable gardening too. When you decide to plant two or more vegetable plants close together in your garden, you could end up with either a very bad tasting vegetable, or an extremely good one. And how your vegetables taste is dependant upon which companion plants you chose to plant together.
If for instance, you plant basil close to your tomatoes, or put them together into the same container garden, you can enhance the flavor of the tomatoes - particularly when using them to make home made sauces such as spaghetti sauce.
Chives is another excellent companion plant for tomatoes as well as carrots. Not only will the flavor improve, the growth of these plants will too. Chives also helps to keep aphids away from tomatoes, and they're thought to help keep carrot rust flys away too.
Chives can even help prevent black spot on roses. They need to be planted near the roses for two or three years before they begin to help prevent this common disease though.
Planting cabbage with celery, dill, onions or potatoes will benefit all these plants, but trying to plant cabbage too close to tomatoes or strawberries may cause problems with both growth and production.
Marigolds, also known as Calendula, are a very common flower to use for repelling pests around your home and garden. These little flowers have been used for this very purpose for centuries. You can scatter them throughout your yard and garden to help repel a variety of common bugs and pests. You need to plant marigolds which have a scent though, or else they won't work to repel the bugs. Some people don't like the scent of marigold flowers either though, so if you've never smelled them yourself, you may want to before planting too many.
More Articles
Products And Downloads
eBay Auctions
More Articles And Free Videos
... garden starts with plant research and selection. You'll need to think about why you want the vegetable garden to begin with: Will you want fresh produce for your family in season, or do you want to be able to also have enough to can or freeze for the winter? How many people will your vegetable garden ...
... Once you have your container and shelves ready, now you simply need to put a bit of pebbles or peat moss into the top of each plant container that you'll be putting into the garden, then submerge the container into the water and sit it on the shelf you created for it. Once you have all your new plants ...
... an excellent way to start getting fruits from your berries more quickly. Grapes grow really well in poor, dry, sandy, rocky soil. This makes them an excellent choice for slopes and hills, or in rocky areas of the yard. The soil needs to be well drained though, and you'll need to plant the vines about ...
... Some weeds are even beautiful in their own rights too, and many gardeners are hard pressed to pull something out that looks pretty. When you're growing vegetables in a garden though, particularly if you're growing the vegetables organically, letting weeds grow can create a large variety of problems. The ...
... usually at least five to six hours of direct sunlight each day. Many shade loving plants are perennials as well, such as the various forms hosta plants that can be purchased at almost any local garden center. Verbena is another beautiful, long blooming plant which sometimes comes in perennial form too, ...