Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Vegetable Friends and Foes

My mom was an avid gardener.  She did an incredible amount of planning each year, when deciding what crops to put where.  I used to watch her design layouts and put them in her binder.  I thought she was nuts.  But as it turned out, she knew what she was doing.  She not only had to rotate crops, but she had to know which plants worked together, and which plants did not.  I learned a thing or two from watching her.  Today, I'll share a few tips about vegetables that go good together and combinations to avoid.

1.  Beans like celery and cucumber, but don't plant them near onions or beets.

2.  Beets like lettuce and onions.

3.  Cabbage, celery, dill, onions, and potatoes work well together.

4.  Carrots, lettuce, radish, onions, and tomatoes also work well together.

5.  Cucumbers like corn, peas, radishes, beans, and sunflowers, but don't plant them near herbs or potatoes.

6.  Lettuce is a friendly plant.  It grows well with onions, strawberries, carrots, radishes, and cucumbers.

7.  As stated above, onions can be planted near lettuce, but keep onions away from peas and beans.

8.  Squash can be planted with cucumbers and corn.

9.  Tomatoes, carrots, onions, and parsley are buddies, but they don't get along with cabbage and cauliflower, so keep them separated.

If you keep these tips in mind when you plant your garden next year, you will have a  happy garden that will grow well (provided it has plenty of sun, water, and no pests!).    

13 comments:

  1. Who knew some vegetables don't play nice with each other?

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  2. Thanks for this post Sherry. This is awesome and very timely. We're now starting to plant seeds in the gulf in preparation for the cold climate. Being clueless at gardening, I recently heard about it, that some don't go well together. Great reference thanks.

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    1. How funny - you're getting ready to plant, and I'm harvesting. I'm glad you found the information useful.

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  3. My father was an expert gardener and always knew what to plant where.

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    1. It's good to learn from the expert gardeners. I've learned a lot from my mom!

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  4. wow - that's a lot of work. I guess I won't complain at the store prices when I buy my veggies

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  5. Having a farm is much work. You amaze me with this post. Please share more. I think you have just re-invented your blog! Woohoo!

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    1. I'm glad you found it interesting. As you probably figured, I'm not blogging as much on this blog. I need the time to work on my manuscripts and other projects, but I'll post a couple of times a week, and hopefully provide interesting information. If you have anything you'd like to learn about, please let me know!

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  6. I think I'm about to get serious about doing some raised bed veggie growing on the side of my house. This post pushed me closer to taking the plunge.

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    1. Raised bed gardening is good. Maybe I'll do a post on that one of these days. Good luck with it!

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