Companion Planting

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Comment by Cyndi Findlay on December 13, 2012 at 9:36am

Cheers for that Lynn :) i think i'll slip a few bean seeds in now then. iv already under planted corn with heritage pumpkins and nasturiums, so wont take much to pop a few in ..

Comment by Lynn on December 13, 2012 at 8:34am

Hi Cyndi - personally, I'm a  'space saver' gardener. I'll cram what I can into a small space and to heck with it! LOL  So my corn was planted in a block of about 4 rows by 8, and only about 8 inches apart, both ways. I think it helped, actually, because the bean runner would climb one stalk and latch onto others as well, making the whole block quite strong. I did only plant the beans on the outside corns though, not the ones in the middle of the block - and the outer ones seemed to help protect the inner ones from winds. But me...I just experiment, use some crazy intuition/ideas, and biff out what doesn't work for me. I'm not much of a 'logical' gardener LOL

Comment by Cyndi Findlay on December 13, 2012 at 7:53am

Hi guys, just wondering on using the 'Three sisters' method, how far apart do you plant the corn so as to regularly pick the beans?

Comment by Lynn on December 12, 2012 at 10:38pm

hi kiwi...I've used the Three Sisters method before (corn, beans, squash) and found it to be quite successful. Yes I planted them all at the same time, the beans and squash from seed with the corn as seedlings. Not sure if this is the true Indian method - I think they do them all from seed. The corn stalks were strong enough to hold the beans and the beans didn't seem to inhibit the cobs from forming. The squash/pumpkin leaves helped keep the soil protected from direct sun/drying out. It was an OK method, which I don't have the garden space for this year, sadly.

Comment by kiwi brown on December 12, 2012 at 9:22pm

When planting beans, corn, squash together do you plant all of the seeds at the same time?  I am having a hard time seeing how this could work well as all my beans have a good,"strangle-hold," the whatever they are climbing....do the bean vines inhibit the corn from forming on the stalks?  Also, my pumpkins and squash climb right up onto anything near them, not sure the corn would be save from them!

Sounds good though, and I have grown cukes with corn before but the corn was already quite high when I put the cuke in.

If anyone has grown this way will you be so kind as to tell me how your planting turned out?

Comment by Lynn on October 1, 2012 at 7:41pm

Hi Shar

I'm a square foot gardener. I have planted corn and beans together, along with squash/pumpkins - it's the American Indian 'Three Sisters' method. The idea is that the beans climb the corn stems, while the squash/pumpkins plants spread around and through the plants to give ground coverage - a sort of moisture protection society. In addition, the beans provide valuable nitrogen to the soil for the benefit of the corn and the squash.

As far as the distance between corn and tomatoes - I have, in the past, had about 20 feet between them - but only because I managed to have a spare plot that far away. Last season, I grew tomatoes in the same plot as the corn, and I don't know whether it was just a bad season, or what...but there were not many tomatoes and not many corn cobs either. The tomatoes I planted further away didn't overly produce either - so guessing it was more the season than anything.

Comment by Shar (SWMBO) Thomson on October 1, 2012 at 3:15pm

Hi, I'm totally new to companion planting, I've been using google to good effect but as I'm also trying a spot of squarefoot gardening at the same time (it seems to pack the most veges into the smallest space in the most logical way that I can follow) I'm wondering how far apart you need to put antagonistic plants - like corn and tomato don't like each other, but would planting them at either end of an 8ft garden stretch be far enough apart or should they be in separate plots altogether? Also, if I plant corn, how much room do I need to leave between the corn and the bean plants - can they be quite close as the beans will use the corn to climb up? Cheers!

Comment by Matt Moir on November 17, 2011 at 4:43pm

I just stumbled across this website it seems verry good http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

Comment by Lynn on November 12, 2011 at 4:41pm

Good companion planting for chillies (and other pepper family plants) - tomatoes, geraniums, petunias. Avoid companioning peppers with beans and brassicas

Pepper plants like humidity, and a good groundcover can help with this (like thyme or marjoram) but while they need direct sunlight, too hot and they can be harmed. Pepper plants grown together, or with tomatoes, can shelter the fruit from sunlight, and this also raises the humidity level

Comment by Lorraine Barnett on November 12, 2011 at 4:20pm

Trying to find out what to OR not plant next to Chillies.. I have the book Carrots love tomatoe but doesn't really say, unless I missed something. 

I get a little confused because we used to just plant things next to each other and were none the wiser if it grew or didn't??

 

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