Some of my combos, how about more?

Here are a few of my favorite combinations, I would love to hear more ideas!
1. I plant garlic around my roses, I never spray or fertilize, and they do fine.
2. I plant pole beans with the corn - the beans can just grow right up the cornstalks.
3. I always plant radishes and carrots in the same row - when the radishes are harvested the carrots are naturally thinned out.
Cindy

I plant radishes with the cucumbers and squash. They come up fast so I know where the slower cucubrits are and they help keep the nasty bugs away.

Cindy and Kathleen,
I wish I knew enough to add to this wonderful list of smart gardening.
Cindy, I will start with garlic next year, maybe experiment now - I have about 150 rose shrubs, don't know any scientific naem - I just love to smell, see, water, prune and tie to poles. But with some garlic they may d obetter.

I would like to ask, some morning glory vines are going up the rose shrubs and then to the fence - does it do any harm? I couldn't see any damage last year and I would appreciate comments.
Dimitri

I have tried basil with the hot peppers and marigolds with the tomatoes. Both have performed nicely :)

I grow marigolds amongst all my tomatoes, and so far I have had absolutely no pests in those areas. This tip was handed to me by Trish's 80 year old uncle.

I was surprised to read RiseAnn does it, too!

Dave

I do the beans and corn mentioned, the marigolds for brassicas, basil with tomatoes and the three sister combo, squash, beans, and corn. A beautiful accidental pairing is catmint, lavender and santolina, the colors are great and they all swirled together.

i plant marigolds around the whole perimeter of my garden. several old time gardeners told me to do this.
also, while looking at herbs, i read that hyssop kept away cabbage moths, so i planted some near them too. so far so good.

I know one! I know one! Plant Carrots amoung Tomatoes. Ok you all have heard of the famous Gardening book Carrots love tomatoes. But the reason is,for those of of you that dont know this already is: the carrots throw off a gas that actually make the tomatoes grow better.Here I plant the seeds and never pull them and the carrots come back each year.

I plant basil and marigolds with the tomatoes, this year even put in some onions. NEVER plant onions and green beans of any kind together. In fact keep all alliums and green beans way apart. Made that mistake once. Neither of them did anything well. I keep marigolds around the roses as well as mints, Gill Over the Ground, Henbit, and some garlics in amongst the roses and other flowers. Gill Over the Ground is considered a terrible pest by many people, but insects hate it so I love it. I'm in the process of getting some going in the grape/blackberry area and in between the raised beds. We grow lots of Castor Bean plants all over the yard in nearly every bed of flowers or veggies to help ward off underground tunneling critters.

I have chives in clumps around my roses, it does the same job as the garlic warding off aphids and does not detract from the look of the bed.

Hey there Fairymoss - Glad you took my advice and joined us. So nice to see you here - welcome!!

good advice Louisa, many thanks, have you seen playhouses made from sunflowers? Oops this is companion planting, mmm with pole beans. If you have the space the grandkids might enjoy it.My kids grew one last year and they miss it this year.

It's OK Fairymoss - we often go off thread here and no-one seems to mind too much. No I have not seen the playhouses. Perhaps you might like to tell us all about it on Garden Talk. See you over there :-)

Thanks for all of the good ideas! I'm trying corn and beans this year for the first time, but I have a question about the marigolds. Do they keep the bugs away because the bugs eat them up instead of the other things? I have the hardest time growing them here, they disappear almost over-night. Last night I sprinkled out some diatomaceous earth around the plants. I hope it helps, I love marigolds.
By the way, what is Gill over the ground?
Birdie

To DpMichael... My Morning Glories grow everywhere in my yard among all kinds of plants .They don't seem to choke out anything .I have had these many years.One exception,tho, I don't have too many Rose bushes.That is one area I am not too good at,so the one that has a M/glorie by it seems to be doing good.And I yank out any m/glories that are an eyesore [too many].....Jane

One question , what herb could be grown alongside hostas? Some bug really seems to tear them up.The only thing I spray them with is house & garden bug spray,but washes off as soon as I water.It is endless doing the spraying.

luvublooms,
Are you sure it is a bug tearing up your hostas? Most likely it is slugs (ugh!). I don't know of any companion plants for deterring slugs, but try this link for other ideas... http://www.ghorganics.com/page13.html

Plant carrots with onions. The carrots mask the opnion smell (onion fly) and vice versa.

Tagetes secrete a chemical which deters some weeds, the smell also masks the scent of other vegetables and is a very useful companion plant.

Try some of the Gill Over The Ground with the hostas. I've never seen any slug damage in that stuff.
birdie, GOTG is also called ground ivy. It's similar to henbit but it doesn't die back in the heat of the summer. It forms a really dense mat over the ground. You do have to practice some control if you have perennials like mums, asters, etc. or reseeding annuals like marigolds, bachlors buttons, cosmos, etc. You can mow it without damaging it even slightly. It can be killed quite easily with most herbicides. We like it because it keeps bugs away from the grapes and blackberries(it doesn't seem to phase stink bugs).

Thanks for the information leaflady, one more thing though, would it survive in zone 4? I'd like to find and try some.
Thanks, Birdie