Companion Gardening

[JacksFlock]

I plan on doing some of the suggestions in Carrotts love Tomatoes this year as well. Not sure if anyone here uses MEN's garden planner, but maybe we can show off our prospective gardens. We in our first full summer at this garden so we're still in the experimental stage, but our goal is to supple enough produce for a year. We have tons of fruit available to us on another property, so this one is mainly focused on veggies:

http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=195740

 

[Beekissed]

Have you all ever heard about certain sound waves that increase the development of stomata and people using these sound waves to increase total crop yields?

I read about this years ago and have since tried to attract or create more habitat/homes for birds near my garden:

Sound and plant nutrients combine to create vigorous plant growth, increase yields and shorten maturity time. Sonic Bloom is a radical plant growth system that uses an organic foliar nutrient spray in combination with an oscillating sound frequency. The plants evidently love this treatment because they grow far beyond their normal limitations. Research shows that plants open their surface pores (stomata) when stimulated by certain sounds. The Sonic Bloom method uses a serenade of pulsed bird chirps and whistles (for the plants), mixed with various classical musical selections (for the humans) in combination with a specially formulated nutrient consisting of 55 trace minerals, amino acids, and seaweed which is sprayed onto the plants surface during and after the music therapy. The results? World-record crops, including a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for researcher and inventory Dan Carlsons Purple Passion plant (which grew to an amazing tenth of a mile long before it had an unfortunate run-in with a ceiling fan). Some of the farmers claims might border on the bizarre, but it will make you wonder if Dans idea of utilizing sound vibrations for growing plant could be the blueprint to end world hunger! Think what Sonic Bloom could do for reforestation! And, if this method was invented years ago, why havent more farmers and gardeners started using it? The answers to these questions unfold in this report by Stephen Jones, an organic fruit grower and importer to Australia and New Zealand. Article reprinted from Nexus December

 

[moolie]

To get started if you don't have the book or easy access to a library, this site has some great info and a Companion Planting Chart: http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion-planting/

 

[dragonlaurel]

One of the best combos I've used was the tomatoes and the basils mixed together. Almost no bug damage on the tomatoes.

 

[2dream]

I love you folks. This just happens to be my "learn more about it" topic for the upcomming season. My plans this year include companion planting and I have started reading up on it again. A few years ago I had great success with marigolds planted around the entire small kitchen garden. My tomatos apparently loved them being there and my bug problem was much less than normal.

 

[so lucky]

I love the idea of marigolds surrounding the garden! I think I'll try that this year. It would be so orderly, cheerful and beneficial. What more could you ask for?

 

[Denim Deb]

My mom had read someplace that marigolds were supposed to keep rabbits out of the garden. And she always was finding one in her garden, so she planted them all around the garden. Didn't stop the rabbit at all. In fact, it like to lie under them in the shade!

 

[2dream]

On the marigolds. I has to be the African Marigolds to work. They did help keep the rabbits out of my garden. That was another reason I planted them. Rabbits are a major problem for me but the marigolds really helped. They also helped keep the mosquitos at bay. I am a really big marigold fan. But some plants do not like them so make sure you check before planting them.

 

[citylife]

I am happy to report you can get the book Carrots loves tomatoes on Kindle. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been book marking it like crazy.
Lots of very useful info in there.
Will share as I can.

 

[moolie]

Nasturtiums are another good garden-edging plant--they attract slugs away from lettuce and other slug-treats

We always used to plant a bit of "sacrificial" lettuce for the slugs and surround the rest with sand, but since we've been planting it near nasturtiums, the slugs seem to go to the nasturtiums and stay away from the lettuce. I think the sand around the lettuce helps too though.