Companion Planting | What NOT To Plant Together

Often times when we talk about Companion Planting we discuss the plants that play nice together and should always be planted side-by-side in our gardens. If you are just Getting Started With Square Foot Gardening, you may want to just plant everything that you want at once.

But there is a catch…..

Not too often do we talk about those plants that just don’t get along. It’s like we are gossiping about the neighbors or something. I mean, even though we love having sunflowers in the neighborhood they sure don’t play well with others. They emit a toxin from their roots that inhibits other plants from growing too close to them as they want all the nutrients in the surrounding soil. Who knew?

Well, I’m here to give you the dish on what plants to NOT plant together when you are companion planting, even if they would look just perfect in your vegetable or herb garden next to each other.

Anything in the bean family, whether it is growing string green beans or bush beans all the way to lima beans don’t get along with quite a few other vegetables. Their biggest nemeses in the garden are chives, garlic, leeks, and onions. They are not fans of bulb-type vegetables (luckily, you can grow many bulb vegetables from kitchen scraps)! Beans also don’t do well with peppers, either the sweet green peppers or their fiery cousins the jalapeños. One plant that I was shocked that beans don’t get along with are marigolds, which are typically crowd pleasers as they deter pests. In fact, all the plants that the bean family shuns are those that deter pests. Go figure!

Peas are cousins to beans and they also loathe the bulb veggies including chives, garlic, leeks, and onions.

Both broccoli and cauliflower have a few enemies in the vegetable world. They are not fans of peppers, all types of squash including yellow squash and even pumpkins (and yes – this means that if you are growing zucchini, you need to plant them far away). How they don’t care for strawberries or tomatoes I will never know, but they don’t. It seems the cool season crops of broccoli and cauliflower have something against those fruits and veggies that like it a little hotter to grow.

Besides cauliflower and broccoli, steer clear of planting cilantro and cucumbers near tomatoes. Dill and carrots would rather be at other ends of the planter bed too.

So now you know too who would rather stay on their own sides of the garden!

To sum it all up – when companion planting:

• Beans: Don’t plant near chives, garlic, leeks, onions, peppers, marigolds
• Peas:  Don’t plant near chives, garlic, leeks, onions, peppers
• Broccoli and Cauliflower: Don’t plant near peppers, squash, strawberries, tomatoes
• Tomatoes:  Don’t plant near broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, cucumbers
• Dill: Don’t plant near carrots
• Sunflowers need to be planted at least 12 inches away from any other plant.