- 3 days ago
Forgotten companion planting combinations can make a garden healthier, more productive, and far less dependent on sprays or costly products. Elias walks crop by crop through the old-fashioned pairings gardeners trusted long before modern chemicals, showing which vegetables, herbs, and flowers help shade roots, discourage pests, improve soil, and use space more wisely.
You’ll hear practical garden wisdom for peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, beans, squash, cabbage family crops, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes, including the three sisters planting, marigolds with tomatoes, basil beside peppers, dill in the cabbage patch, and flowers like cosmos to bring in helpful insects. He also notes a few pairings to try with care and explains why mingled gardens often do better than lonely rows.
Created for anyone searching for companion planting guide, old-fashioned gardening tips, vegetable garden planning, organic pest control, raised bed gardening, and natural ways to grow healthier crops. It’s useful for backyard gardeners, homestead growers, and anyone who wants practical garden companion plants and crop pairings that still work today.
You’ll hear practical garden wisdom for peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, beans, squash, cabbage family crops, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes, including the three sisters planting, marigolds with tomatoes, basil beside peppers, dill in the cabbage patch, and flowers like cosmos to bring in helpful insects. He also notes a few pairings to try with care and explains why mingled gardens often do better than lonely rows.
Created for anyone searching for companion planting guide, old-fashioned gardening tips, vegetable garden planning, organic pest control, raised bed gardening, and natural ways to grow healthier crops. It’s useful for backyard gardeners, homestead growers, and anyone who wants practical garden companion plants and crop pairings that still work today.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Every plant in your garden could use a good neighbor. That is the whole of an old truth the big
00:06straight-row farming forgot, that plants, like people, do better with the right company beside them, one sheltering another from
00:14the sun, one feeding the soil for another, one keeping the bugs off its neighbor, and set together right, they
00:21grow stronger and healthier than any of them would standing alone.
00:25The old folk called it companion planting, and today I am going to walk you right through your garden, crop
00:32by crop, the ten vegetables most everyone grows, and tell you for each one exactly what to plant beside it
00:40and why, so that when you lay out your garden this year, you can set every plant next to a
00:45friend that helps it.
00:46I am Elias, and I have gardened this Lancaster County ground my whole life, and I will tell you the
00:53old gardens were never bare lonely rows of one crop, they were a mingled living thing, this tucked among that,
01:01and there was real wisdom in the mingling.
01:03So let me hand you that wisdom, crop by crop, the plain true pairings that work.
01:09Quick word before I go further, the old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in
01:16any one video, I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com, the book is the long
01:23version, if you want it, it is there, I will not mention it again.
01:27Let us start with peppers. A pepper loves heat and sun, but here is a thing folk do not know,
01:34that there is such a thing as too much for it, and when the fierce high heat of deep summer
01:39comes on, past 90 degrees, a pepper suffers, and its fruiting drops right off.
01:45So its good companion is a taller, bushier neighbor, to give it a little shade in the worst of the
01:51afternoon heat, and the eggplant does this beautifully, for the eggplant is kin to the pepper, wants the same things,
01:59but takes the heat better, and grows a bit taller and bushier, so set at the right angle, it throws
02:05the pepper a little kindly afternoon shade, while giving you its own harvest besides.
02:10And the second friend for peppers is a humble one, basil. The basil wants just what the pepper wants, so
02:18they grow easy together, it gives a bit of low ground cover to shade the pepper's roots, and hold the
02:24soil moist, and the two of them are forever wanted together in the kitchen anyhow, so it is handy to
02:30grow them side by side.
02:31Now tomatoes, now tomatoes, the favorite of near every garden, and they have a fine set of companions. The old
02:38classic is basil again, planted right alongside, for the two are a marriage in the kitchen, and the basil is
02:45said to help keep some pests off the tomato besides.
02:48But for real pest protection, the great tomato companion is the marigold, the French marigold especially. For the marigold does
02:57a genuine and remarkable thing, its roots give off something into the soil that drives away the root-knot nematode,
03:04one of those hidden underground pests that attacks the roots and ruins your harvest from below, where you cannot even
03:11see it.
03:12So a marigold planted among your tomatoes guards their very roots.
03:17And a third companion, this one more for your own good than the tomatoes, is lettuce, tucked in the shade
03:23behind your tomato plants.
03:25The lettuce will not crowd or out-compete the tall tomato, and the shade the tomato casts keeps that lettuce
03:32cool and sweet and slow to bolt even in the summer heat, so you grow your tomato and its own
03:39fresh salad and its own basil seasoning all in the one spot.
03:43Now cucumbers, and here is a clever one. Cucumbers are plagued by the cucumber beetle, which can strip a plant,
03:50and by the wilt diseases the beetle carries.
03:53Now cucumbers want a climb, and if you have no trellis, here is a fine companion that gives them one
03:59for free. Corn.
04:01You let your corn get up a good ways, then plant your cucumbers at its feet, and they climb right
04:07up the corn stalks, wrapping their tendrils and hauling themselves up, using the living corn as a trellis, the same
04:14notion as the old Three Sisters garden I will come to.
04:17And beyond the trellis, to fight that cucumber beetle, there are two good companions, the radish and the buckwheat.
04:25A scattering of radishes around your cucumbers helps put the beetle off, and buckwheat does too, and grown together they
04:33make a fair strong guard against that beetle.
04:36So corn for a trellis, and radish and buckwheat for the beetle.
04:41Now corn itself, and corn brings us to the most famous companion planting there ever was, and I will give
04:49the honest credit for it, for it was not ours, it was the gift of the native people of this
04:55land, who called it the Three Sisters.
04:58Corn, beans and squash, grown all together, each serving the others.
05:05The corn stands tall and gives the climbing beans their pole.
05:09The beans, as all their pod-bearing kin do, take richness from the air and leave it in the soil
05:16as food, feeding the hungry corn.
05:18And the squash, sprawls its broad leaves low beneath them both, shading out the weeds, keeping the soil cool and
05:27moist, a living mulch, and giving you a second harvest besides.
05:32Three plants, each doing for the others what they cannot do alone.
05:37And if you would try it, plant your corn first, and let it get knee-high and sturdy before you
05:44sow the beans at its feet, so it is strong enough to bear them, and set the squash to sprawl
05:50between.
05:50And a small bonus the old gardeners liked, you can grow a bit of amaranth in there too, for it
05:57takes no space from the corn, and gives you its own fine grain and greens.
06:03Now beans, and beans have a downright funny companion, the potato.
06:09For each of these has its own beetle that plagues it.
06:13The bean has its bean beetle, and the potato has its potato beetle.
06:17And here is the funny thing, plant the two together, and each helps drive off the beetle that troubles the
06:24other.
06:25A fair trade, each guarding its neighbor from the pest it does not mind itself.
06:31And beans have a flower companion too, and it is the cosmos, that pretty tall daisy-like flower.
06:38For the cosmos draws the ladybugs in great numbers, and the ladybug is the very hunter that eats the bean
06:46beetle.
06:46So there you see the whole logic of the living garden in one pairing.
06:51Plant the flower that draws the bug that eats the pest that would eat your crop.
06:57Cosmos among your beans brings the ladybug army.
07:02Now squash, and every year folk write to me heartbroken over the squash pests, the squash beetle and the vine
07:10borer, that get into the stem and destroy the plant before it ever gives you that great pile of squash.
07:17Now squash is so big and vigorous, it will not be outcompeted.
07:22So you can plant all manner of protective flowers and herbs right around it.
07:27And the ones to reach for are the strong aromatic ones that put the pests off by their smell.
07:34The nasturtium, the bee balm, and catnip.
07:38Plant these all around your squash wherever it grows, and their strong aromas help keep that squash beetle from ever
07:46settling in and finding your plant in the first place.
07:50And they give you a bit of beauty besides.
07:53Ring your squash with aromatic flowers.
07:56Now the brassicas, the whole cabbage family, the cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower and brussels sprouts, all really the one
08:06plant.
08:07And they are the hardest to grow, for everything wants to eat them, the aphids and the cabbage worms and
08:14more.
08:15So they need their companions most of all.
08:18The onion is a fine one, for its sharp, pungent smell helps drive off the cabbage aphid
08:25that so torments these plants.
08:27And there is nothing handier than an onion growing right there for the kitchen besides.
08:34Then the aromatic herbs, the sage and the thyme and the oregano, help put off the little moths whose worms
08:42chew the leaves.
08:43And above all, dill.
08:46Dill is a wonder here, for beyond helping with the pests, its little umbrella flowers draw in the tiny parasitoid
08:54wasps.
08:55Those small, helpful wasps that hunt the caterpillars and worms.
09:00The same kind that you may have seen lay their eggs on a tomato hornworm till it is covered in
09:06little white cases.
09:08Those wasps are a great ally, and dill calls them in.
09:13So plant onions and sage and thyme and plenty of dill all through your cabbage patch, and you give it
09:20the guard it so badly needs.
09:21Now carrots and lettuce, and this is a match made in heaven.
09:26Two plants that fit together perfectly.
09:28Here is why it works so well.
09:30The carrot sends its root, the tap root, straight down deep, while the lettuce keeps its roots shallow at the
09:38surface.
09:38So the two never fight over the same ground or water, they share the space in peace, one below and
09:45one above.
09:46And the carrot's tall feathery tops throw a light shade over the lettuce that keeps it cool and sweet and
09:54slow to bolt in the heat.
09:56While the lettuce, spreading over the soil, keeps the ground cool and moist for the carrot.
10:01So each makes a kinder spot for the other.
10:05Plant your rows of carrots and lettuce side by side, and both do better than either would alone.
10:12And if the carrot fly troubles your carrots, that pest that ruins them, plant them near the strong aromatic herbs,
10:20the sage and the rosemary, whose smell helps drive that fly off.
10:24Now potatoes, my own favorite, and the great potato pest is the potato beetle, so most of the potato's companions
10:33are aimed at driving it off.
10:36We spoke of the beans that guard the potato from its beetle, while the potato guards them from theirs.
10:42Beyond that, a border of marigolds helps with the potato beetle, as marigolds seem to help near everything in the
10:50garden.
10:50And there are a couple more that I will pass on honestly.
10:54Some say horseradish, planted at the corner of the potato bed, helps drive off the potato beetle.
11:00And garlic among them too, though I will be straight that these are more tried by some than fully proven.
11:07So try them and see.
11:09If you do plant garlic in with your potatoes, give each garlic a good half foot of room to itself.
11:16For garlic is greedy for food, and does not like to share its roots too close.
11:22So beans and marigolds for certain.
11:25And horseradish and garlic to try.
11:28And here is one more thing folk do with potatoes that I will name honestly for what it is.
11:34For it is not truly companion planting, but it is a fine trick all the same.
11:39When you plant your potatoes deep, they take a good while to sprout and grow up, and that soil above
11:45them sits empty and idle those weeks.
11:48So you can sow a quick, fast crop right on top, a little lettuce or radish, that comes up and
11:55is harvested and gone before ever the potatoes push through.
12:00Now this gives the potato no help, so it is not companionship, it is really succession planting, using the one
12:07ground twice across the season, first for the quick greens and then for the potatoes coming up behind.
12:15But it is a shrewd way to get two crops off the one bed, so I pass it on.
12:20Now let me say a small, plain word, not a who-profits sermon, for none of this is anyone's scheme.
12:27But notice how the whole of it costs you nothing but the knowing and a few extra seeds.
12:34No sprays to buy, no poisons, no feeds, just the wise setting of the right plants as neighbors, so they
12:42shade and feed and guard one another.
12:45And the mingling in of flowers and herbs to call in the good bugs and put off the bad.
12:51There is a great trade in selling the gardener bottles to feed his plants and poisons to guard them,
12:58and here the old folk did both for free by the arranging of the garden itself.
13:04So folk come to think a good garden is what you buy to pour on it,
13:08when the old people knew it was mostly a matter of what you plant beside what.
13:13And here is the truest thing of all under it, that even past the exact pairings,
13:19simply mingling many different plants together, crops and herbs and flowers all mixed,
13:25makes a healthier garden with fewer pests than a great bare block of one crop,
13:31for the bugs cannot find their feast so easy, and the good bugs have a home.
13:36So do not fret every pairing to the letter, just mingle your garden well and full of life.
13:43So there is your whole garden set with friends.
13:47Peppers with eggplant for shade and basil at their feet.
13:51Tomatoes with basil and marigold and lettuce in their shade.
13:55Cucumbers climbing the corn, guarded by radish and buckwheat.
13:59Corn, beans and squash in the old Three Sisters.
14:03Beans with potatoes trading beetle protection and cosmos to call the ladybugs.
14:09Squash ringed with nasturtium and bee balm and catnip.
14:13The cabbage family guarded by onions and dill and aromatic herbs.
14:17Carrots and lettuce sharing ground in perfect peace.
14:21And potatoes with beans and marigolds against their beetle.
14:25Set your garden so, every plant beside a friend,
14:30and it will grow as a household of plants, all helping one another,
14:34healthier and less troubled than any lonely roe.
14:38Now I want to hear from you.
14:40Tell me down below what you plant together and what has worked in your garden,
14:45the marigolds with the tomatoes or the carrots with the lettuce,
14:49and whether you have grown the three sisters, for it is a fine thing to try.
14:54And tell me your county and what pest troubles you most,
14:58for there is a companion for near every one of them.
15:01I read every one.
15:03Next time I want to show you the bringing in of the good bugs in full,
15:08the making of your garden into a place the ladybugs and lacewings
15:12and the little helpful wasps wish to live by the very flowers and herbs we spoke of today.
15:19So your garden fills with its own guardians and fights its pests for you all season long.
15:25The old people did not garden in bare lonely rows guarded by bottles and sprays,
15:32but in mingled living gardens where every plant helped its neighbors,
15:37and so grew abundance in health and balance with almost nothing bought.
15:42There is a quiet wisdom in that, in seeing a garden not as a row of separate plants,
15:48but as a household that thrives together.
15:52The people who built this country with their hands knew that,
15:55and we are only just starting to remember it.
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