Grow Your Own Magazine

I'm trying to plan my veg for next spring/summer. Does anyone have advice on combination planting? for example planting marigolds with carrots will keep away carrot fly....(i think).

Had big problems with pests this year and would love to find as many organic ways to stop the little........well, you know what I'm getting at.

A really good one is poached egg plant (Limnanthes), I think it's supposed to be beneficial for just about everything . Have a look here for some more specific combinations (handy search tool at the bottom of the page).

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

Tegetes with carrots, keeps the old carrot fly at bay. I'll be interested to see what ideas come up too...

I put tagetes with most of my plants, including greenhouse tomatoes and peppers.

PS look it up under 'companion planting'

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Nothing keeps carrot fly away, except barriers (fleece/voile).

Limnanthes and Calendula are good at attracting hoverflies, whose young eat lots of aphids.
French and Mexican Marigolds keep whitefly away (from brassicas)

all the above gleaned from experience, not from wishful thinking

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Hi,

We grow calendula and tagetes amongst the toms and peppers but need to plant more! The strawberry blossom has attracted hoverflies. All flowering plants have been visited by bees but this year I have finally understood why it's important to plant plants just for flowers amongst the veg to attract the pollinators. A slight aside but one we're going to do again next year is the three sisters planting of sweetcorn, squash and beans. They really grow well together but next year we are going to plant, strictly in blocks of nine for ease of harvest, sweetcorn, french climbing bean and courgette. At the moment we've got sweetcorn, dwarf french beans (not a smart move!) and a mixture of courgette, marrow and pumpkin planted in an L shape. Very awkward to harvest but we're managing.

Our efforts to stick to organic controls have definately changed the nature of the garden for the better even if they have taken a little more thought. Couldn't have done it without the grapes.

TGR

I've also seen a lot of hoverflies this year.
Have planted dwarf french beans between my sweetcorn, so I'll see how that gets on.
Last year I put butternut squash between the sweetcorn, and it tried to climb up it!!!

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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

I've done this, this year! I was short of space so tried some frenchies in among sweetcorn and some grown by themselves.

Has to be said, the ones in among the corn seem to be growing better than the others. Probably the little bit of shade they are getting is helping?

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Lots of tagetes in the greenhouse and apart from a mild infestation on my chillis at the start of the year, no aphids or whitefly since the marigolds started flowering in earnest. Lots of hoverflies in there, something I will definately do every year now.
The poached egg plants I was disappointed with, they came, flowered and all died......

I went out and bought two trays of Marigold [about a week ago] because of the swarms of whitefly in the greenhouse, but in fact they swarms had died down a day or two before, no idea why. So I don't know whether the very limited number I see now is a result of something else

Anyways, I'm definitely growing to grown-my-own Marigolds next year. Can;t stand the things, but happy for them to do-their-thing

Have to be single flowered marigolds apparently as the doubles don't cut the mustard!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

That's handy, thanks. African or French?

And is it that they stink (as far as Whitefly are concerned) or that they are Yellow and that attracts the flies?

That's interesting about the doubles Snadger. My french marigolds are covered in swarms of hoverflies but not the doubles - on the plus side for the doubles though, a couple of weeks ago practically every flower was playing host to a ladybird 'dragon'.
I've done much more mixing up of veg and flowers this year, and on the whole it seems to have helped with the pests.

French Marigolds deter whitefly.
English Marigolds attract hoverflies.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Limanthes: my spring flowering lot went on for ages. My summer flowering (2nd sowing) flowered & died really quickly in this heat/drought we're having in East Angular.

The trick is to succession sow them. Make repeat sowings, just as you would for lettuce.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi