Companion planting is a technique that involves growing certain plants together to improve the yield of the vegetable garden. Indeed, some plants have the particularity of attracting useful insects which protect certain varieties. While others are excellent repellents. This associated planting can only do good for your vegetable garden, your garden or your orchard. Find out why garlic should be grown next to roses.
Combining certain plants with each other improves the harvest and limits the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Indeed, some plants enrich the soil, while others protect their companions from parasites and pests.
What are the benefits of companion planting?
– Enrich the soil: legumes and certain crops such as beans and peas enrich the soil with nitrogen. Also, some plants with long roots can bring nutrients from deep in the soil to the surface. This makes it possible to enrich the so-called arable land, that is to say which can be plowed, and thus nourish the plants whose roots are shallow.
– Provide plants with natural support: certain tall plants such as corn and sunflower serve as support for low-growing crops such as peas and cucumbers.
– Regulate the amount of light: some plants do not tolerate exposure to direct sunlight. In this case, it is useful to plant tall plants next to them to provide them with the shade they need.
– Remove weeds: to prevent the development of weeds, it is useful to plant extensive crops such as potatoes, alongside green plants. This will fill in empty areas and limit the appearance of weeds that harbor pests that spoil your harvest.
Maintaining your vegetable garden – Source: spm
Why is garlic a good companion plant?
Garlic is a perennial vegetable, which is one of the best companion crops. This natural pest control helps repel insects. It is effective against, among others, fungal gnats, mites, aphids, ants, snails, and onion gnats. Garlic also helps protect neighboring plants from fungi, thanks to its sulfur content which is a natural fungicide.
Garlic can accompany several vegetable plants. These include, among others, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, and spinach, peppers, cabbage, carrots and eggplant, in addition to fruit trees. As for flowering plants, garlic can be planted alongside roses, marigolds and geraniums.
Why grow this vegetable plant alongside roses?
Roses – Source: spm
Garlic is small and does not take up much space. By planting it around your roses, you will protect your flowers from the pests that ravage them. Indeed, aphids disturb the growth of the rosebush and attack the foliage. The leaves then begin to curl and wrinkle. Mites can also attack roses. In case of infestation, the leaves turn yellow and dry out. One can also notice on the top of the leaves, small white or yellowish dots.
By planting garlic with your rose you will protect it from parasites, but also encourage it to accentuate its fragrance. Indeed, since garlic gives off a strong smell, the rosebush will try to compete with it by further increasing its fragrance. Especially since it is thanks to its scent that the rosebush attracts pollinating insects, essential to ensure its reproduction.
Garlic is a bad companion for which plants?
Garlic is only discouraged for a minority of plants. Avoid planting it with asparagus, sage, parsley, beans and peas. Garlic may slow down their growth.
Garlic – Source: spm
How to successfully cultivate this vegetable plant?
In order to have a good harvest, even if you don’t have a green thumb, it is important to provide your vegetable plant with the conditions it needs to grow.
Garlic appreciates a drained, light and humus-rich soil. It also needs to be planted in a sunny location. Regarding watering, garlic does not need a lot of water. Avoid watering, except in times of drought. Avoid keeping standing water around its plants.
It is also important to choose the right variety of garlic according to the current season. There are actually two varieties of garlic. Cold-resistant autumn varieties which include white and purple garlic, and spring varieties. These keep better than the fall varieties and can be planted out when the weather is mild. We distinguish in this category, pink and red garlic.
That said, planting garlic with the plants in your vegetable patch or garden will protect them from pests, to promote healthy growth.
