Skip to main content

7 Plants You Should Never Grow Together

Shouldn't Grow Together



Companion planting is one of the best ways to naturally control pests and increase the growth of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. However, as useful as this gardening exercise can be, not all plants make good partners in the garden, and there are some plants you should never grow together. Poor companion plants can suppress the growth of their neighbors, compete with each other for light and nutrients, and even attract pests. In this guide, you'll find the 7 worst companion planting mistakes to avoid.


1. Fennel and most herbs and vegetables



When it comes to companion planting, fennel is one of the trickier plants because it doesn't grow well with most plants. As it grows, fennel releases compound into the soil that suppresses the growth of nearby herbs and vegetables. Additionally, fennel can cross-pollinate with other related plants, such as dill, which reduces the flavor and quality of the seeds.


While this can make growing fennel near other plants challenging, fennel grows beautifully in pots placed throughout your garden. When kept in containers, fennel will not affect the growth of other plants and its flowers will attract pollinators and other beneficial insects to your garden.


2. Brassicas with strawberries


Brassicas, including broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, are often targeted by cabbage loopers, which entangle their leaves with holes. Unfortunately, these pesky insects are not picky eaters and can devour other fruit and vegetable plants as well. In particular, strawberries grown near brassica plants are more likely to develop cabbage looper infections. So, when you're looking for a place to put your strawberries, avoid your brassy vegetables.


3 Sage with cucumber



Many aromatic herbs, such as dill and oregano, can provide plenty of pest protection for cucumber vines, but not all herbs make good cucumber companions. For example, sage restricts the growth of nearby cucumber vines and reduces harvest. Additionally, sage and cucumbers have different watering needs, and growing them in the same area can result in overwatered or submerged cucumbers.


4 Allium with asparagus


Onions, garlic, and other allium plants have a strong odor that naturally repels many garden pests. While this makes alliums a great companion to most vegetables and herbs, asparagus and alliums just don't mix. Alliums stunt the growth of asparagus and their large bulbs can interfere with asparagus crowns. Even worse, when you start harvesting alliums, it will disturb your perennial asparagus plants and make them less likely to grow.


5 Legumes and Allium



Aside from asparagus, alliums also do well with legumes, including beans and peas. When planted together, allium can stunt the growth of leguminous plants and reduce harvest yields. Also, onions and other alliums have natural antibacterial properties that can inhibit nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the roots of leguminous plants.


6 Tomatoes and corn


Both corn and tomatoes make good salsas, but these two plants are not good partners in the garden. Both tomatoes and corn are susceptible to corn earworms (also known as tomato fruit worms), and growing these plants together will make it easier for the pests to spread throughout your crops. Additionally, corn and tomatoes are both heavy-feeding plants and can compete with each other for nutrients in the soil.


7 dill and carrot



Both dill and carrot belong to the umbellifer family and have similar growing requirements. However, these plants are so closely related that they can cross-pollinate with each other and produce substandard hybrid seeds. On top of that, dill will attract carrot flies to your carrots and these pesky insects will chew holes in root vegetables.

Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Big Impact Dwarf Flowering Shrubs

Scale with dwarf flowering shrubs Big gardens have a season in life, and we have unlimited energy to maintain perennial gardens and a quarter acre vegetable plot that produces enough food for the entire neighborhood. But if you're starting out with a three-story balcony garden or have a small garden, you can still use dwarf shrubs to create a beautiful outdoor living space. Dwarf shrubs are perfect for small space gardens When thoughtfully designed, a small space garden can be as visually appealing and emotionally pleasing as a sprawling yard. No need to sacrifice your favorite shrubs like roses and lilacs. You need to choose the right size varieties to match the size of the space. A short hedge or even a casket of flowering shrubs may be all you need to make your patio feel like "home." Dwarf flowering shrubs for your garden It's best to be selective when curating plant palettes for a small space. If the large shrubs you've seen at local nurseries ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gardening Plants you can walk on

These tough little floor coverings can withstand occasional trampling Mulching the 3 acres of display and test gardens in my perennial nursery turned out to be expensive and time-consuming, so I decided to investigate ground covers that eliminated the need for mulch. As I experimented with several ground covers to complement my perennials and shrubs, I was struck by the plants that were strong enough to withstand the foot traffic of people strolling through my gardens and trampling pets. It was clear which ones were hardy enough to withstand the heat and humidity we experience each summer, stay evergreen, and display beautiful flowers for months. Here are my favorites. 1. Green carpet rupturewort: The toughest of the tough I often refer to Green Carpet Rapturewort as my "tractor-trailer" plant because even though stray vehicles sometimes make deep impacts in my garden, the rapture never turns yellow. Creeping stems of small, bright green leaves form a dense green...
Post a Comment
Read more

10 Red Flowers for Big, Bold Color in Your Garden

Red flowers are a great way to draw attention Add a variety of eye-catching red flowers to your garden, and you’ll be delighted with the gorgeous color they add to your landscape. Red flowers are a great way to draw attention to a garden. Planting all red flowers can practically stop traffic! Red flowers, especially red roses, symbolize love, but scarlet flowers can symbolize strength, family bonds, good luck, protection, and prosperity, so adding this bold hue can bring many good things to your garden beyond beauty. A bouquet of freshly cut red flowers will brighten up a kitchen table or master bedroom nightstand in a way that no other color of flower can. Red flowers pair beautifully with orange, yellow, and white flowers. Read on to learn about some of our favorites to add to your garden. We’ve got everything you need to know to grow them and add color to your landscape. 1. Zinnia One of the best annual cut flowers, zinnias bloom in a wide range of colors. They don’t min...
Post a Comment
Read more