Companion Planting Flowers and Herbs

Companion planting herbs and flowers creates a more beautiful and productive garden.

By using strong-scented herbs like oregano, parsley, and chives, you can help deter pests from your crops. This helps to increase your yields because of reduced pest damage. Those aromatic herbs also make home-cooked dishes shine with a greater depth of flavor.

Companion planting flowers like French marigolds and others help to attract predatory insects to eat the bad bugs in your garden too.

They also add a lot of beauty to your garden and help the bees

The flowers attract pollinators which are so important to support. Many of these flowers are also edible, and you can make useful edible flower recipes.

Best Companion Planting Herbs & Flowers

Calendula

This is one of my favorite flowers to have in the garden. They have amazing uses (the Nerdy Farm Wife has a free ebook with what you can do with them) and I make calendula salve every year. They flower from early summer and are one of the last flowers in the garden, we’ve had them flowering past a light frost and well into fall. Repels a number of unwanted soil nematodes and asparagus beetles, but may attract slugs. Calendula attracts a wide range of pollinators because it provides nectar over the whole growing season.

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are easy to grow and the whole plant is edible; the stems, leaves, flowers, and seed pods. They are beautiful and make a fantastic companion planting border. They help to attract hoverflies and deter aphids from eating your plants.

Pretty Borage flowers

Borage deters tomato hornworm and cabbage moth caterpillars and is a particularly good companion plant for strawberries and tomatoes. The borage flowers are very attractive to pollinators, so plant it around squash, melons, and cucumbers for improved pollination. It’s also excellent for the soil and compost. This plant is also deer-proof.

Chamomile

This is a cheerful flowering herb that makes a wonderful tea. Attracts hoverflies and parasitic wasps.

Companion Planting Herbs for Scent-Deterrence

Garlic & Alliums (chives, onions, leeks) and strong-smelling herbs (oregano, basil, chives, sage…etc.) are wonderful to deter and confuse pests from reaching your vegetables.

The great thing about using herbs for companion planting is that they’re expensive to purchase from the grocery store.

This adds dollar value to your garden as well as great function. Some favorites are basil, chives, oregano and sage. I also like to let some of the alliums flower (as in the photo below). I almost always grow the Brassicas with Alliums for scent deterrence as I find aphid damage greatly reduced.