Summary
DID you know that a border of lavender will protect plants from slug and snail invasions, or that chives help prevent blackspot and increase performance in roses? Bob Flowerdew, a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, has observed useful interactions between different plants, how some will flourish together while others will fail. His book, Companion Planting, is a guide to the best - and worst - plant partners.
"Over the years I've accumulated interesting snippets of what gardeners have observed, one plant getting on well with another. For example, I was growing crops in a polytunnel and noticed that where radishes were being grown, the peppers did really badly. One reason is competition for scarce resources," he said. There are ways to put this type of knowledge to your advantage, he says. "A good example is the leguminous pea and bean family, whose members usually create a fertility surplus. By interplanting legumes with other more demanding plants we satisfy the latter's needs without continuing effort or expense."So sweet peas, lupins, brooms, laburnums and many others help feed other flowers around them, and peas and French beans feed your cabbages and sweetcorn. Simultaneously, this mingling misleads and confuses pests and obstructs the spread of diseases." However, not all plants get on. Some of the allium family are unhappy growing near some legumes - for example, onions don't do well near beans.See the full content of this document
Extract
Good Companions
Very few plants are choked out by their own seedlings coming up ben...
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