Eating Garden

Companion Planting Guide

How to pair crops by shared needs and space while keeping traditional claims separate from measured evidence.

Companion planting is a planning tool, not a guarantee. Two plants can share a bed well because their light, water, timing, and mature size fit together. That does not prove that one plant repels pests or makes the other grow faster.

Check the shared growing needs first

  1. Do both crops suit the same sunlight?
  2. Can they use a similar watering pattern?
  3. Will their mature leaves and roots have enough room?
  4. Will the taller crop shade the shorter crop at the wrong time?
  5. Can you still reach both crops to water and harvest?

Use space and timing on purpose

A taller crop and a lower crop may use different layers of the same bed. A quick crop may be harvested before a slower crop fills the space. These are useful layout choices, but both plants still need their saved spacing.

Read the evidence label

Eating Garden separates measured findings, Extension recommendations, and garden tradition. If a pairing has no defensible source, it does not appear merely because gardeners repeat it.

Do not rely on a companion plant to control a serious pest or disease. Identify the exact problem and use advice written for that crop and pest.

Current sourced companion advice

Some of this is measured in trials and some is long-standing garden practice. Each note below says which it is.

Keep apart

Extension programs advise keeping these apart:

  • MintMint spreads quickly. Keep it in a pot or separate bed so it does not crowd the strawberries.Recommended by extension programs

Try a pairing as a small test

Keep a simple note of the crop varieties, spacing, dates, and result. A pairing that seems helpful in one garden may behave differently with another climate, pest, soil, or planting time.

Sources

Crops in this guide

  • Takes some care

    Tomato

    A warm season fruit that almost everyone treats as a vegetable, and the crop most people try first. It needs heat, steady water and something to lean on.

    • Full sun
    • 50 to 85 days
    • 5 gal pot or bigger
    • 24 to 36 in apart
  • Easy

    Basil

    A tender summer herb that grows fast, hates cold nights, and gives more the more often you cut it.

    • Full sun
    • 50 to 75 days
    • 2 gal pot or bigger
    • 6 to 12 in apart
  • Takes some care

    Carrot

    A root crop that asks for little except loose, stone free ground and patience while it germinates.

    • Full sun
    • 70 to 80 days
    • 2 to 4 in apart
  • Easy

    Lettuce

    A fast, cool weather leaf crop that you can pick from for weeks. It is at its best in spring and autumn, and turns bitter in a hot, dry spell.

    • Part sun
    • 50 to 70 days
    • 1 gal pot or bigger
    • 5 to 12 in apart
  • Takes some care

    Strawberry

    A low perennial that fruits for years once established. The first summer is about getting the plants settled; the real crop comes after that.

    • Full sun
    • 300 to 400 days
    • 2 gal pot or bigger
    • 12 to 18 in apart