Why do Carrots love Tomatoes?

These questions and many more are answered in the gardening book about companion planting. And here’s my companion planting guide that I used to plan and plant my summer garden.

I discovered this book a few years back. It’s called Carrots love Tomatoes & Roses love Garlic, by Louise Riotte.

Companion Planting Guide

This year I am using her suggestions when planning my garden. My small beds are rotated each year, so that hopefully nothing grows where it grew the previous year. I sketch out the garden in a notebook before I plant, and save each year’s sketch so that the following year I can remember where plants were planted previously. Here’s my 2018 companion planting guide garden map.

This year I started planning with the tomatoes, eggplant and peppers since I bought seedlings and had them ready to plant. I like to situate the tallest-growing veggies in the back and right side of the garden, so their shadows won’t block lower-growing plants.

After the Tomatoes

With the tomatoes sketched in, Louise’s book says that basil helps overcome both insects and disease, also improving growth and flavor. So once the tomato plants were in the ground, I will use space across from them to add basil plants. And parsley when planted with tomatoes will give added vigor to the tomato plants. So the parsley will go between the tomato plants and the basil across from them in with the peppers and eggplant. And the book says that sweet peppers and basil have the same general requirements, so plant them together.

Adding the Corn

A few years back I tried planting beans with the corn, but the bean plants grew too fast for the corn, and pulled some of the stalks over when they wrapped around them. We’ve all heard the native american “three sisters” plants of beans, corn and squash. Somehow I wasn’t able to get that to work. However, I will plant sugar pumpkins on the edge of the corn and let it grow out and down the side of the bed.

Don’t Forget the Cucumbers!

I grow a couple different varieties of cucumber, so I give them some space in the garden. I was hoping to plant the cucumbers next to the tomatoes since the book says that corn seemingly protects the cucumber against the virus that causes wilt. (I’ve lost a whole crop of cucumbers to wilt in the past, caused from the cucumber beetle. This insect looks like a lady bug, only with yellow instead of red. Those “cute” insects will destroy a cucumber patch, so squash them when you see them!) Planting a few radishes among the cucumbers will help protect against the cucumber beetle, so I’m trying that this year. These radishes should be left in the ground, not harvested. So I will need to plant additional radishes elsewhere for eating.

Next to the cucumbers I will plant a single row of sunflowers since cucumbers like sunflowers. And since cucumbers also like beans, my french pole beans will then be placed on the other side of the cucumbers. A small radish patch will go next to the french pole beans since the books tells me that pole beans seem to derive mutual benefit with radishes. And since carrots are good to grow with radishes, I will put a small patch of those near the radishes.

In Conclusion

So this is the process I go through to plan and plant my vegetable garden each summer. Spending a little time thinking about where veggies should be planted will help create a healthy, thriving garden space.

To follow Cindy’s gardening process, I suggest you read Planting Vegetable Seeds Indoors.