Companion Planting: Flowers to Grow With Your Vegetables

Putting flowers through a vegetable bed does a lot more than make it look nice, because the right ones pull in the insects that pollinate your crop and pull the pests off it at the same time. It costs you a packet of seed and a bit of edge space. These are the pairings I keep coming back to, and where each one wants to go.

Marigolds with tomatoes

Marigolds are the classic for a reason, and they earn their keep against nematodes in the soil and whitefly above it. Plant them around the edge of the tomato bed rather than in among the plants, and keep them spaced so the tomatoes still get their light and their airflow. Deadhead them as they go over and they will keep flowering for months.

Nasturtiums with brassicas

Nasturtiums work as a trap crop, which means the aphids and the cabbage moths go to them instead of to your broccoli and kale. Plant them in clumps along the border of the brassica bed. The leaves and the flowers are both edible and they taste peppery, so the ones that survive go in a salad.

Calendula with squash and pumpkin

Calendula brings in beneficial insects and keeps a few of the wrong ones away, and it pairs well with squash and pumpkin where fruit set is the whole battle. Sow it around the base of the vines early so the flowers are open by the time the squash starts flowering. The petals are worth harvesting too.

Borage with strawberries

Borage draws pollinators to a strawberry patch and the yield goes up accordingly, and the star shaped blue flowers are edible into the bargain. Leave both of them room to spread. Borage self seeds happily, so plant it once and you will have it for years whether you meant to or not.

Sunflowers with corn

Sunflowers act as a windbreak for corn and bring the pollinators in with them, and the stems double as a trellis for climbing beans, which is three jobs from one plant. Put them along the southern edge so they are not shading the crop, given where the sun sits here.

Sweet alyssum with leafy greens

Alyssum grows low and dense, so it works as a living mulch between rows of lettuce and carrots, holding the soil temperature steady. It also brings in hoverflies, and hoverfly larvae eat aphids in serious numbers. Sow it straight between the rows.

Lavender with eggplants

Lavender repels moths while inviting bees, which is a useful combination next to a crop that wants pollinating and does not want to be chewed. Plant it along the edge of the eggplant bed where both of them get full sun. Cut it for drying while you are at it.

Cosmos with cucumbers

Cucumbers need insects to set fruit properly and cosmos brings the bees and butterflies in without crowding the vines, because the growth is airy rather than dense. Scatter the seed around the cucumbers. Cosmos actually prefers poor soil, so it asks nothing of you.

Zinnias with capsicums

Zinnias are easy to grow and they flower hard, which brings pollinators to the capsicums right when they need them. Plant them in front of the capsicum row. Pick the spent blooms off and they keep going.

Dill with cucumbers

Dill brings in the beneficial insects and puts cucumber beetles off, and it works alongside onions just as well. Plant it near the cucumber trellis and let some of it run to flower, because the flowers are the part the good insects want.

Where to start if you only do one

Marigolds around the tomatoes. It is the cheapest packet of seed in the shop, the effect is real, and it is the one that will convince you the rest of this is worth doing.

Shop related products

• D.T. Brown Nasturtium Jewel Mixed Seed. The trap crop for the brassica bed.
• D.T. Brown Calendula Seed. For the pumpkin and squash patch.
• D.T. Brown Zinnia Seed. Easy, bright, and the bees work it hard.
• D.T. Brown Alyssum Seed. Living mulch between rows of greens.
• D.T. Brown Dill Seed. For the cucumbers, and for the kitchen.
• D.T. Brown Tomato Grosse Lisse Seed. The other half of the marigold pairing.

Did you know we also stock marigold, cosmos and sunflower seed in the shop. They are not listed on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The rest of the seed range and the soil gear are in the garden centre. If you tell me what is going in your beds this year I will tell you what to plant around it.

More from the garden

• Native Wildflowers That Bring Pollinators to Your Garden
• Growing Tomatoes in Summer Heat: Five Mistakes to Avoid
• Heat Tolerant Vegetables: Ten to Grow in a Hot Summer

Cheers, Candeece. Half my flower seed goes in because it is pretty and I justify it afterwards with the bees.