Planting companions
I’m still trying to find the perfect partner for my cabbages so I’ll give sage a go this year
Companion planting is a great idea, but it’s hard to know if it’s really working. Without having an identical second garden to hand to use as a comparison, I feel that my companion planting experiments are always a bit inconclusive. That said, some failures are all too obvious. For example, a year or two ago I had a go at growing cabbages with nasturtiums.
The idea was that white butterflies would lay their eggs on the nasturtiums, rather than on my cabbages. The nasturtiums would be the trap crop – sacrificing them seemed a small price to pay. Instead, though, the nasturtiums attracted every large white in the county – which headed straight for the cabbages!
However, growing fennel and dill in the corner of my vegetable patch has proved much more successful. Hoverflies simply love their flowers. I can’t say for sure, but presumably the hoverflies then do what comes naturally and lay their eggs here and there around my veg plants. Hoverfly larvae are voracious aphid hunters, so the pay-off is round-the-clock pest control. This is the bit of companion planting that makes the most sense to me.
But enthusiasts believe that there are plenty of other benefits too. Scented plants can deter or confuse pests, and leguminous companions can capture nitrogen from the air. Again, you can’t be sure that they work, but it’s worth a go. This year I’m planning an experiment with carrots and onions. The odour of rows of onions (or garlic, spring onions, or chives) is said to confuse passing carrot flies, and keep them off the carrots.
I’m also going to have another go at finding the perfect partner for cabbages. This time I’m going to try sage; its scent is said to keep white butterflies away. Perhaps it’ll work!