Thy Plants’ Neighbors: A Quick Guide To Companion Planting In Your Herb Garden

If you're really enthusiastic about it, your herb garden plants are likely to end up being very important to you. Their uses in your kitchen and home will prove them invaluable to your household. Apart from seeds, right watering and drainage, and good soil, an herb gardener also has to pay attention to the order their herb garden plants are in.

Known as companion planting, your plants' neighbors are just as important as the soil they're in. Some plants do really well together, while others come close to killing each other when side by side. Though it may affect your herb garden design, having thriving herb garden plants and being able to use these plants around your house will be really beneficial. Not only do some plants help each other thrive, they can also help keep bugs away from the garden, and enhance the overall flavor of the herbs themselves.

Some herb garden plants are often planted next to vegetables which helps enhance the flavor of the vegetable, and keep insects or pests from attacking your vegetables. Having a row of vegetables to separate your herb rows may help, but assuming the herb garden is strictly for herbs, here are some quick rules as to which herbs grow well with each other and help your garden along:

  • Plant some Caraway as this helps aerate your soil. You can plant your caraway in a snaking design so that a lot of the other herb garden plants will benefit from it. Just keep your dill far away from your caraway, as this can be disastrous.
  • Lovage is a good all around herb. More importantly for companion planting, though is that it is a good handmaiden to every plant. It can enhance the flavor of any herb it is next to, plus it helps the herb's overall health. The same can be said for sweet marjoram and tarragon. Plant any of these three herbs and your other herbs will flourish too!
  • Never plant different types of mint together because they end up combining forces and having the same smell and flavor. So plant your chocolate mint, spearmint, and peppermint far from each other to avoid pretty much having the same kind of mint.
  • To keep bugs away, plant some horseradish. This strong plant will help your other plants grow insect and predator free.
  • Basil, being a very popular among the herb garden plants can be found in almost every herb garden. Be mindful not to plant rue to close to it, though. It will turn your sweet basil bitter, and the plants will be of no use to you for flavoring your cooking.
  • Plant your sage and rosemary next to each other. They really help each other along, and you'll find that many dishes use them together, and so it's great to have them both.
  • Finally, fennel, though a wonderful herb is best grown by itself. It can affect almost every herb it's planted next to. It's best to let your fennel have its own row, and a considerable distance away. If you're worried, though and your herb garden is getting compact, plant your fennel in a pot.