Vegetable Gardening the Companion Planting Way

There are several methods of successful gardening and while companion planting is one that is though of as a "newer" method, developed in the last 100 years or so, it seems to be the most logical, resourceful, productive method to be found. Companion planting is a method in which gardeners use all the available space in their garden to create what some think of as a messy garden (Priensnitz, 2006). This "messy" garden utilizes spaces in between crops such as corn, tomatoes, lettuce, cauliflower, potatoes, okra, strawberries, and countless others, to plant smaller plants that either add to the growth and health of the larger crops or do not effect the large crops at all. What this method does, is allows a gardener to plant the same amount of vegetables and fruits without using the vast amount of land that other methods tend to use. This method in fact, saves the gardener time, energy, resources, and land while producing the same, if not larger, yield in an environment in which the fruits and vegetables thrive.

Companion planting utilizes all the space available in the selected area which saves both time and space in one's garden. When planting corn and beans, for example, in the same space corn alone would occupy in a traditional garden, one will notice the space needed for a productive garden decreases substantially. For instance, instead of planting a patch of onions, which is commonly done in traditional gardening, one may plant a few onion bulbs among beets. One may also plant a few bulbs among their, cabbage, celery, tomatoes, peppers, squash, and even strawberries (Author Unknown, 1997-2007). In planting one's onions among some or even all of the suggested vegetables and fruits, one saves more space in their garden. One could plant carrots among tomatoes, radishes among squash, spinach among cauliflower, oregano among cabbage and countless other combinations that save a vast amount of space while benefiting the plants and deterring pests (Author Unknown, 1997-2007).

When one's space is utilized to its fullest ability, one's garden size will dramatically shrink and therefore resources will be saved. With the garden greatly reduced in size one will notice the gardener's time is also redeemed. For example. If one watered their 1000 square foot garden, which is the approximate square footage of a one level 2 bedroom 1 bath home, one would either need a watering system that could reach all the footage at the same time, or they would need to water the garden in sections. In whatever method of watering one chooses, one will need approximately 20 gallons per 100 square feet of land, which equals out to be 200 gallons per day for the 1000 square foot garden (Jeavons, 2006, p. 76). Water comes out of the spicket at about 10 gallons per minute which equals out to be 20 minutes of water for a 1000 square feet plot of land (Fleming, 2006). If one were to plant using the companion planting method, and instead of a 1000 square foot garden, one were to have a more conservative garden space of 500 square feet, one would only be using 100 gallons per day, which equals out to be 10 minutes per day of watering. When one thinks of 10 minutes saved per day, it doesn't seem as if it is anything significant enough to worry about. If one were to take that 10 minutes over a normal growing season of 4 months or 123 days, however, one would find that by choosing a companion garden they would be saving 1230 minutes which is 20.5 hours. That is almost an entire day spent watering that could have been avoided.

Along with time saved from companion planting, one must also think of the resources that could be saved. In the same example as above with the growing season of 123 days and watering a 1000 square foot garden with 200 gallons a day, one is using an additional amount of 100 gallons per day. If one were to use the companion planting method and save 100 gallons per day it would equal out to be 12,300 gallons saved over the course of the season. That is a drastic savings and with our rising water crisis, companion planting should be at least a consideration among all gardeners.

In addition to the time and water saved by companion planting, it should also be pointed out with a smaller garden one will spend less time preparing and weeding the area. One should always turn the soil in the garden after the previous year of growing and add any nutrients the soil may be lacking. When turning the soil it is obvious that turning the soil in a 1000 square foot garden will take considerably more time and effort than a 500 square foot garden. It must be pointed out that there are machines that can do the tilling, or turning of the soil in much less time, and with much less effort, but those machines are extremely costly and most of them only turn the ground up to 8 inches deep. To get a supple, well drained soil it is beneficial if one digs to a 24 inch depth (Jeavons, 2006, p. 7). For a 100 square foot section this could take anywhere from 3-6 hours depending on how hard the ground is (Jeavons, 2006, p. 3,4). For a garden that is 1000 square feet it would take 30-60 hours, again, depending on how hard the ground is. If one chose the companion planting method and had 500 square feet of area, one would save themselves 15-30 hours of digging. When planting the seeds or previously grown plants into the garden, the time will be almost identical between the time spent on the larger 1000 square foot garden and the smaller 500 square foot garden. The only time saved here will be from the walking distance between the plants. The weeding, like the bed preparation throughout the growing season will have a drastic time difference as well. If one spends 10 minutes weeding 100 square feet, then 100 minutes or 1 hour and 40 minutes will be spent at least one time per month in the 1000 square foot garden. The same 10 minutes of weeding would only equal out to be 50 minutes, less than an hour, each month for the companion planter. Over the four month season that equals out to be 200 minutes or 3 hours and 20 minutes saved by using the companion planting method. Harvesting the crops should take approximately the same amount of time with either garden, minus the amount of time it would take to walk back and forth across the larger garden.

Companion planting not only saves time and energy, resources and land, it also benefits the plants in several different ways. For example, when planting rows of corn, one must plant them 15 inches apart. Instead of leaving that 15 inches between each corn stalk vacant, plant green beans in that space. Now since beans enrich the soil with nitrogen present in the air and corn is a heavy nitrogen user, they are a perfect match (Author Unknown, 2007). The corn benefits from the beans ability to build nitrogen in the soil and the beans benefit from the tall corn stalks. The beans will climb up the stalks and the shade that the corn provides is an ideal growing climate for the beans. Beans love shade and mature quickly in a shaded environment, which in turn, produces a tender, succulent crop. This method allows more crops to be grown in the same amount of space. Another example of corn providing shade to a plant that will benefit from it, is cucumbers. Cucumbers thrive in the shade and cool, moist heat which the corn stalks provide (Author Unknown, 2007). Cucumbers also vine wherever they can, so the corn offers something for the cucumbers to latch onto, producing stronger, healthier plants. Many plant combinations are used to deter insect and pest infestation as well. For example, planting garlic or onions at the foot of one's rosebushes and raspberries "...repels aphids, spider mites, fruit tree borers and even Japanese beetles" (Priensnitz, 2006). Planting mint with tomatoes deters ants; tansy planted with fruit trees, roses and raspberries deters flies, fleas cabbageworm, and beetles; planting marigold, onion or garlic with almost anything deters rabbits from munching on one's garden goodies and many, many more combinations that offer many benefits to the companion planter (Priensnitz, 2006). Another advantage companion plants enjoy is the soil staying both moist and supple. The reason for this is that there is no "dead space" between plants which in traditional gardens, is where water collects, causing the ground to pack down and many times allowing the water to evaporate before it can saturate the ground (Jeavons, 2006, p. 61). When the ground packs down gardeners know they must till the ground to break up the hardened layers to allow water as well as oxygen to penetrate the soil; not doing this could be detrimental to the growing crops. Companion planting allows plants to grow in all the spaces in the garden and their leaves create a mulch as well as shelter over the ground, protecting the soil and creating a "mini-climate" in which the plants thrive in (Jeavons, 2006, p. 61).

There are many advantages to companion planting of which this essay just briefly outlines. Companion planting is slowly becoming a popular way of gardening by both seasoned gardeners as well as novices. Most of the research done to find out all the compatibilities between plants as well as what deters or offends pests was done by seasoned, well read, highly experienced gardeners. This took many years of errors and failures to come up with the information that is now readily available to anyone searching for it. These gardeners have been successful in giving the public well documented, thoroughly tested combinations in which one can plant their garden with ease. Although the testing is still going on, to find better, more beneficial plant combinations, there are plenty of materials for gardeners to develop their own companion planted garden. By using the companion planting method one will find that they have more time, more energy, more resources, and land, to garden without sacrificing any crops. In fact one might find that they end up with more crops than traditional gardening could have ever produced.

References

Author Unknown. Companion Planting. (2007, April 01). Retrieved April 21, 2007, from Golden Harvest Organics: http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

Author Unknown. Good & bad companions for vegetables. (1997-2007). (Hillclimb Media) Retrieved April 21, 2007, from Garden Guides: http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/vegetables/vcomp.asp#morebelow

Fleming, B. (2006, December 01). OUTDOORS: Take a quiz to see if you have watered-down

habits. Retrieved April 21, 2007, from The St. Johns Sun: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120106/nes_6437586.shtml

Jeavons, J. (2006). How To Grow more Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other

crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine (7 ed., Vol. 1). Willits, California, USA: Ten Speed Press.

Priensnitz, W. (2006, Jul/Aug). Working Together. Natural Life, 20, 21