Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

August 1st, 2007

Companion planting is a technique that probably goes back to the earliest days of human cultivation. I haven’t found a lot of hard research on it, but there’s certainly plenty of folk wisdom. The idea is to use plants that benefit one another and plant them together.

I consider Sally Jean Cunningham the guru of companion planting, and her book
Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden is THE book to have. She really breaks it down (with beautiful pictures to illustrate) into an understandable way and has lists and charts to guide you along.

My two biggest foes last year were leafhoppers and the cucumber beetles. The leafhoppers did a lot of ornamental damage on the leaves of my tomatoes and dahlias mostly, but the plants survived, the tomatoes produced just fine, and the dahlias bloomed profusely. It’s taken three years of listening, but I’m finally able to take Paul James’ (Master Gardener and TV guy) advice to heart: plants can take a lot more damage than you think, much of it is ornamental, some chewing even makes the plants stronger and better able to fight back, and you really don’t need to battle bugs unless the damage is impacting fruits/blossoms or they spread disease that kill the plants.

Hello cucumber beetle, you destructive bad boy. They kill because they carry lots of deadly diseases. My experience has been bacterial wilt, and once you get that, it’s over and you’ve got to pull up the plants fast to avoid it spreading.

That means I can live (and so can my many eggplants) with the flea beetle damage to leaves. It looks like (hisssss…insert Dick Cheney hunting accident joke here). Even though I’ve read they can spread disease, I’ve had them since I first started growing eggplants (which was three years ago) and I haven’t lost a plant yet. Nor a fruit.

Back to my troublemakers, cuke beetles and leafhoppers. One of the techniques I’ve used this year to combat them is companion planting. (Here’s where my notes – and this diary – become important to me!)

To repel the beetles:

• Nasturtiums. I planted these among my curcurbits. (Bonus, they’re gorgeous spots of bright color with their happy faces!) I planted climbing nasturtium seeds, but I don’t think any germinated. The others were just regular nasturtiums, a variety of colors: deep orange, yellow and a pretty peach/salmon. Reason: To repel cuke beetle and squash bugs. Result: Excellent. I have only seen ONE cuke beetle (on beans) and zero squash bugs. That’s impressive as heck. Also are supposedly a trap crop for aphids, but the only aphids I’ve had were oleander aphids on my milkweed (in a different garden).
• Radishes. I planted these all over the place and didn’t thin them out much. Then I tried to eat one and it was awful. Probably because they weren’t thinned. But they have grown into monsters and put out the prettiest little white flowers that seemed to attract some beneficials. They also are supposed to attract flea beetles and can be used as a trap crop for them. The idea is that the flea beetles will flock to the radishes, then you pull infested radishes up and put them into the compost pile. (I do a hot pile.) Result: The flea beetles had no interest at all. They still went after the eggplants, but more on that in a bit. See above for cucumber beetles.
• Mint and catnip. These two are supposed to repel flea beetles. Since both are invasive, I did three plastic buckets full and I move them around to different areas of the garden. The bucket method was perfect. (Used some old plastic Easter buckets my neighbor was throwing out, and I’ve really gotten a lot of use from those!) I placed the buckets under various eggplants. Result: I definitely have fewer flea beetles than normal. Still have them, but I think the mint and catnip had an effect. When the eggplants were still young and struggling to become established, I did sprinkle a little diat. earth on the leaves, fearing the tender transplants wouldn’t survive. This was long before flowering, so no bees were present and it washed off with the next rain. By then, I felt the plants were strong enough and haven’t used it again. Will repeat the buckets of catnip and mint.
• Marigolds. This is a companion plant my grandmother used. She always told me it repelled bugs, but I never knew what kind. I just always planted some marigolds in the vegetable garden. I’ve only learned this year that you need the old fashioned smelly kind. The kind in the stores are hybrids – they’ve bred out the stink. So I ordered seeds from Heirloom seeds, got French and African. They’re healthy but haven’t bloomed a lot lately. I don’t know if things are too crowded or they aren’t getting enough sun or what the problem is. They supposedly get rid of nematodes that bother tomatoes, but if I’ve ever had bad nematodes, I didn’t know it. Also will ward off cuke beetles (yay) and vine borers. I did (I think) have a vine borer on the Blue Hubbard, but I didn’t plant marigolds near it. See above for cuke beetle results. I’ve never really liked marigolds that much, but I’ll keep planting them mainly because my grandmother told me to. I hope she’s somewhere smiling at that. Result: Unsure, but it didn’t hurt.
• Tansy. I couldn’t get any of this to grow from seed and finally called around and found a nursery with a live plant. I divided it into three chunks and planted it near cucumbers. It’s a beautiful plant, but it hasn’t yet bloomed. Where are my blooms? Reason: repels cucumber beetle (yes, I became obsessed with those guys), squash bugs and Japanese beetles. I’ve never had Japanese beetles, though I do see what I believe are their larvae in the soil when I break new sod for a new flower bed/garden. Until this year, and I’ve had three. The first one I found….ON THE TANSY. I had to google to even know what he was. So much for Tansy repelling Japanese beetles. He was happy as a lark sitting there just looking at me. I’ve read that they send out a “scout” who visits a garden, then sends out a smell to the others to let them know it’s a good buffet, and then they come. I removed him by hand and dropped him in a tiny cup that I’d had some diat. earth in to sprinkle on the eggplants.  Since that stuff slices and dices bugs, it was a horrible way to die, I’m sure. Then I read that you should put the dead body on the ground to let other Jap. beetles know it’s a killing field. I didn’t have the heart to look in the cup (so he might have escaped…I don’t know). Then I found one on a coneflower out front. I crushed him under my foot and put him in the garden. Number three was on a pepper plant and he’d eaten two leaves. I crushed him too, and I haven’t seen any more. Poor little buggers flip over on their backs when you approach. Their little legs are in the air, as if they’re little dogs wanting a belly rub. It’s sad to then crush them. But he ate two leaves and would have called in his friends! Result: I don’t know, but I want to grow Tansy again. I still hope it blooms.

There is a Long Island Herb Society and each spring they hold a huge sale. People bring their herbs to sell, and when I found it, the sale was over. I need to add this to my calendar for next year and go. Maybe they’ll have tansy since I had no luck growing it from seed.

I need to start a to-do list next, as well as part two on companion plants: planting to bring in beneficial bugs. That REALLY WORKED and worked well. I still can’t believe how fantastic that’s been. Thank you, Sally Jean Cunningham! This year I’ve had the most wonderful, diverse community of beneficial insects. And it’s been fun growing all kinds of herbs and plants I wouldn’t have grown otherwise. You’re the queen of the world.

• Crop rotation
• Organic gardening – the overview

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