Herbs can be very useful as companion plants for your vegetables to ward off pests and diseases.
There are many ways that herbs help the health of your vegetable garden including attracting beneficial insects like honey bees and predatory insects and masking your vegetable plants by emitting an odor that deters pests like aphids and thrips. Here are a few examples of how you can use herbs instead of relying on more traditional methods of pest control. And the bonus is you can also use the herbs in your cooking.
Chives
Chives are excellent at repelling aphids as well as cabbage worms and carrot fly. Plant them around your carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and even roses.
Not only are they an attractive addition to your vegetable garden with their purple flowers but they taste fantastic when added to cooking and go really well with any type of potato dish. They are also said to prevent apple scab so plant them around the base of your apple trees if you have them.
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Coriander Or Cilantro
Coriander is also an excellent herb for repelling aphids, as well as spider mites, whiteflies and potato beetle. Spinach loves to be planted with this herb as a companion, however, avoid planting dill near coriander as the two will easily cross-pollinate and ruin both plants.
Coriander is commonly used in Asian cooking especially Thai and has a wonderful taste and aroma.
Garlic
Garlic, like chives, is great at repelling a lot of insects like cabbage looper, ants, cabbage maggots, fruit borers and spider mites.
Oddly enough though, cabbages do not like to be planted with this herb. Plant garlic around tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, celery and roses.
Mint
If you are growing cabbages and want a herb that repels cabbage fly and cabbage looper, try peppermint or spearmint. Also very useful around any other brassicas such as broccoli and cauliflower.
When planting any type of mint, be aware it can be very invasive so its best kept in pots and placed around your vegetables. You can also use cuttings of mint as a mulch around your vegetable plants.
Additionally, mint is useful for attracting bees to your garden. This will help to pollinate fruit-producing vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.
Rosemary
Rosemary also deters cabbage flies. Plus, it repels many bean parasites so this is definitely the herb to grow amongst your bean plants.
Rosemary is also beneficial to cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. It’s a great herb to use in the kitchen as well. It compliments any lamb dish beautifully and adds some interesting flavour to potatoes.
Borage
Borage is a good all-around herb to grow as it will repel many garden pests that are just waiting to prey on your valuable vegetable crops.
Plant it amongst your strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage.
It also helps to attract predatory insects as well as honey bees. In the kitchen, you can use the leaves in salads and the flowers in soups and stews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! It’s a great idea to intersperse your vegetables with fragrant herbs to ward off pests. Just make sure that the plants are compatible because there are some varieties that you shouldn’t plant together.
Fennel is a herb that appears to be a poor companion for many varieties of other herbs and vegetables. The reason for this is that fennel releases certain compounds into the soil. These compounds will sometimes suppress the growth of other plants or even cause some varieties to bolt.
Parsley can be grown next to a whole range of other herbs and vegetables. If you let some of your parsley flowers, these will attract beneficial insects such as predatory wasps and hoverflies.
Final Thoughts
This is obviously only a small selection of herbs that you can use as companion plants. However, there are enough here to start on the path of using companion planting to keep your vegetable garden healthy and pest-free. Don’t forget that you can also use flowers such as marigolds as good companion plants in your vegetable garden.
Companion planting has been practised by gardeners for centuries. Herbs make fantastic companion plants for vegetables as do a range of different annual flowering plants such as marigolds. While a lot of the benefits have not been scientifically proven, the practice of interspersed planting has numerous benefits.
One of the main reasons that this practice is highly recommended is that it will generally confuse a variety of different pests. In sustainable gardening, this is a great way to create a bountiful veggie patch using what nature has provided.
