| COMPANION PLANTING
By Billie A Williams © 2006 |
|
Every year I try to experiment with a new plant or a new variety of an old favorite in my vegetable or flower gardens. Sometimes it pays off with a bonanza harvest. Sometimes I get nothing. To capitalize on my always too small space to garden, I always companion plant. I try to find plants that love each other. That means they don’t compete for the same space or the same soil nutrients. Last year I planted my whole garden in sweet potatoes, with just a couple tomato plants – turns out the tomatoes adored the sweet potatoes. I have a marvelous and delicious harvest of both vegetables and nearly all bug free. I have no clinical data to support my theory that these two plants helped each other be bug free, or helped draw the proper nutrients to each. It could be that what was planted in the same soil last year had as much to do with their development as anything else. I doubt the latter though because the garden is tilled and tilled and tilled again transferring the soil around the garden pretty well. Every fall we compost leaves and yard clippings directly into the garden. So I have to believe it was the companion planting that worked. In other times I have found that pole beans and all beans love nasturtiums. The beautiful addition to the bean rows of my garden keep unwanted bugs at bay while putting needed nutrients into the soil and getting rid of soil nematodes. While cucumbers hate any strong smelling plant next to them, even dill, they are very receptive to carrots. The carrots develop below ground the cucumbers above essentially using the same space but not crowding each other. Radishes planted in a beet or carrot row given the quick germinating and short growth period adds a two crop harvest in one row. I plant onions at the same time and surrounding my pea rows. It deters rabbits and other pests and the peas don’t mind their smelly neighbor at all. Pumpkins are a great companion for corn. I use leaf lettuce or spinach as a base for many crops that need a longer growing season. An added value of companion planting and planting so that mature crops virtually cover every inch of bare soil, either with leaves or their trailing vines is that they mulch the soil and keep it from drying out. As long as you provide enough nutrients to the plants they produce bumper crops and you garner twice the yield from the postage stamp sized plot. I have found that Miracle Grow ® provides plenty of nutrients when you companion plant, but if you prepare your ground well, mix in some composted manure and keep the weeds plucked as they show up—which isn’t as big a problem with the intensive planting I do as it is if you have a lot of space between plants and rows—usually once a month applications of Miracle Grow or a similar liquid fertilizer is more than adequate for a good garden. If you love humor and want to see the result of one of my companion planting ventures read my article The Stephen King Garden. It will give you a glimpse at a few of the surprises I sometimes get with my experiments. Happy Gardening! ================================================ About the Author Billie A Williams is an award-winning author and freelance writer. In addition to an array of other projects she is the owner of the Word_Mage group and their monthly ezine for writers. She is also author of a series of How to Write – for mystery and fiction writers of other genres. Her most recent mystery suspense novel “Bed and Breakfast Murders,” released January 2006 from Wings ePress, Inc. Visit Billie’s website at www.billiewilliams.com. |