Veggie Garden Companion Planting Examples

Veggie garden companion Planting is beneficial to deter pests, attract beneficial insects and increase yield

I’ve written before about using companion planting herbs and flowers for your veggie garden and showed you the 3 sisters companion planting guild.

Here are some visual companion planting examples of garden beds and what plants are grown together.

What is Companion Planting?

Companion planting involves growing plants that are mutually beneficial to each other and avoiding ones that don’t.

Never grow these plants side by side:

Alliums (onions, shallots, leeks, garlic) with the legume (peas, beans, peanuts) family

Some plants are lumped together because of crop rotation, which I’ve written in-depth in this crop rotation post (where you can also learn the plant families that work well together). Be sure to check out this companion planting post too because it has some informative infographics.

Companion planting example #1

This garden bed has the following companion plants

Zucchini
Edamame
Borage herb/flower
Nasturtiums

Why these companions work together:

Borage is very attractive to pollinators, so planting it around squash improves pollination. Nasturtiums also attract pollinators and apparently* help to deter squash bugs. Beans and squash grow well together.

* says the companion planting book ‘Tomatoes Love Carrots‘

Companion Planting Example #2

What plants are grown together

Carrots
Garlic
Kohl Rabi
Kale
Swiss Chard

Carrots help to attract ladybugs & lacewigs to eat aphids that love kale and kohl rabi. The garlic helps with scent deterrence.

Companion Planting Example #3

Plants in this garden bed

Parsnips
Brussel Sprouts
Kale
Swiss Chard
Kohl Rabi

This garden bed is a mix of crops that will be harvested later in the season (fall and winter gardening)

Companion Planting Example #4

What plants are in this garden bed

Nasturtiums
Cabbages
Broccoli
Onions
Cauliflower
Vining zucchini
Pole beans

The nasturtiums attract aphids away from the cabbage, kale and broccoli and the onions help with scent deterrence. The vining zucchini and pole beans help to reduce some of the direct sunlight on these cool season crops to reduce the plants from bolting.