Companion Planting, Your Guide To A Perfect Garden

Gardening

oi-Gowri Nandini

By Nandhini Devi

Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 13:56

Most of us desire to have a garden in our house. Maintaining it and grooming the garden well is the key to a beautiful and bountiful vegetable garden. For this purpose some of us seek the help of professional gardeners and follow a few gardening tips in order to keep our garden in a good condition.

One way to naturally help your garden is to practice companion planting. The basic idea of a companion planting guide is to grow different plants that emit chemicals. These chemicals keep away pests and bugs that eat away the plant. Here is a companion planting guide that help you get the dream garden you always wanted.

Tips that help in vegetable companion planting -

1.Grow tomatoes and asparagus together. Solanine, an alkaloid found in tomatoes helps in warding off asparagus beetles. Once you have harvested your first batch of asparagus, grow tomatoes near the empty patch. This will keep away the asparagus pests, and yield healthy plants.

2.Certain plants of the lily family such as onion, garlic, and shallots are helpful in the garden because of their stink. Their pungent smell overpowers the smell of other plants, thus making it difficult for pest to sniff out their favourite veggies. However, note to keep away onion from peas, beans and asparagus.

3.Another vital natural pesticide is juice prepared from healthy tomatoes. Spraying this juice on roses helps prevents the appearance of black spots on them.

4.Grow horseradish near your potato plant to keep away pests that eat away potatoes.

5.Do not grow turnips near potato plants, instead plant peas to help the growth of both plants.

6.Vines from pumpkin, squash, cucumber and melon plants keep away racoons that steal your sweet corn.

Follow the companion planting guide to grow tasty vegetables in your garden, that too without much hassles.