Vegetable and Flower Combinations to Try in Your Garden This Year

When planning out your garden this year, consider planting these vegetable and flower combinations as companion plants for one another. This post will show you which vegetables and plants benefit each other in helpful ways.

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Companion planting has always been something that I’ve been very interested in. It is natural and amazing that some plants are able to help one another, and thus, grow better together. So, as I sat creating the layout for this year’s garden, I started to wonder what plants would work best as companions this year in the garden. Because I have a desire to attract pollinators and create a healthy, happy vegetable garden, I started to wonder if there are any vegetables and flowers that grow really well together as companion plants. After researching a bit, I found that there are some vegetables and flowers that absolutely thrive together as companion plants!

These vegetables and flowers do very well when planted together:

• Zinnias + Cucumbers
• Sweet Alyssum + Peppers
• Borage + Tomatoes
• Nasturtiums + Potatoes
• Calendula + Lettuce
• Petunias + Beans

Table of Contents

• Zinnias + Cucumbers
• Sweet Alyssum + Peppers
• Borage + Tomatoes and Squash
• Nasturtiums + Potatoes
• Calendula + Lettuce
• Petunias + Beans
• What flowers should not be planted near vegetables?
• Are you ready?
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Zinnias + Cucumbers

Zinnias provide many benefits to your cucumber plants, and would make a great addition to a vegetable garden. Not only are they strikingly beautiful, they also can play an important role in which insects visit your garden.

Zinnias have been found to attract an insect called Hoverflies, which are predatory insects that feed on aphids, a typical cucumber enemy. Aphids also attack other vegetables such as squash, pumpkins, melons, beans, potatoes, lettuces, beets, chard, and bok choy (source), so planting zinnias near these plants can attract aphid predators, like Hoverflies, to help minimize damage to your crops.

In addition to Hoverflies, zinnias also attract many pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Pollinators are obviously wonderful insects to have in a vegetable garden, as this is the process that produces fruit and vegetable production.

And if you need another reason, listen to this last one. Deer generally don’t like zinnias either, so that is another great reason to keep them around a homestead garden.

You can pick up Zinnia seeds from High Mowing Organic Seeds here or from Amazon here.

Sweet Alyssum + Peppers

Sweet Alyssum is a low-growing, sweet-smelling, beautiful flowering plant that works great when planted underneath peppers. These mat-creating, living mulch flowers will bloom throughout the growing season, providing peppers with helpful benefits.

Though peppers are sun-loving plants, their roots prefer to stay cooler, which can be done with Sweet Alyssum growing underneath and shading the soil. Additionally, by growing underneath the pepper plants, the Sweet Alyssum works as a living mulch, thus keeping weed growth at bay.

The flower size and sweet smell of the Sweet Alyssum are wonderful pollinator attractors, especially for bees, butterflies, and flower flies. While peppers are self-pollinating and don’t necessarily need bees, butterflies, and flower flies to reproduce, the presence of the pollinators in a garden are always a welcome sight and will benefit your entire garden. In addition to those pollinators, Sweet Alyssum also proves to be an attraction for hoverflies, which are predatory flies that hunt and eat aphids (as mentioned earlier with zinnias). Another predatory insect that is attracted to the sweet smell and flowers of the Sweet Alyssum is the Trichogramma wasps. These helpful predators lay their eggs in moth eggs, which kills the future moth and the caterpillar that would have been munching on your plants’ leaves (source).

Find Sweet Alyssum seeds on Amazon here or at High Mowing Organic Seeds here.

Borage + Tomatoes and Squash

Borage creates beautiful, star-shaped blue flowers that compliment the red tomatoes beautifully. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, borage also provides great benefits to the tomato and squash plants, which make them a worthy vegetable and flower combination.

Of course, borage is great at attracting pollinators to your garden, like bumblebees, hoverflies, hummingbirds, and wasps, all of whom will help your garden grow. But the biggest reason many gardeners love to combine borage with tomatoes is because they deter tomato hornworms. Because of its fragrant, cucumber-like smell to the leaves, borage repels the horrible tomato hornworm, keeping your plants healthy. Planting borage between rows of tomatoes can be a great way to help make sure your plants are protected naturally from pesky insects.

Borage is not just a flower, either. It’s technically considered an herb and natural medicine. You can read more about this interesting plant here.

Grab a pack of Borage Seeds here at Amazon.

Nasturtiums + Potatoes

When looking to combine vegetables and flowers this year, consider planting nasturtiums with potatoes. If you have potatoes, you probably have a deep hatred for the horrible potato bugs that come along with them. Nasturtiums are a potato bug’s least favorite flower, and they do well at repelling them away from potato bugs in your garden.

In addition to being a helpful repellent of potato bugs, the cheery, beautiful nasturtium is also edible. The flowers and leaves are said to have a mild peppery, spicy taste and can be added into salads.

Grab your Nasturtium seeds here from Amazon or here from High Mowing Organic Seeds.

Calendula + Lettuce

Calendula is a bright, cheery orange and yellow flower that actually falls into the herb family as well. Sometimes called the “pot marigold”, this yellow flower offers an interesting benefit to lettuce: it attracts slugs. This might seem counterproductive to attract slugs, especially because slugs can often be serious problems when growing lettuce. Planting calendula in your vegetable garden away from your lettuce crop can help to attract the slugs to the calendula instead of your lettuce.

Calendula itself is also an edible plant. It has been used historically as a medicinal herb for things like headaches, fever, and toothaches. The most common use of the plant historically, though, is for eating. The calendula petals can be eaten in salads, and can also add color to soups and stews. This is actually where it got its name, because it was so often added into pots of soups and broth (source).

If you’d like to buy some calendula seeds, check out these or these.

Petunias + Beans

If you’re battling Mexican bean beetles in your garden, try planting petunias! Petunias can be helpful to both beans and peas, as the petunias can help deter damage from the Mexican bean beetle. They are also extremely bright and colorful, which will bring beauty and pollinators to your garden. Hummingbirds and butterflies, in particular, love petunias and will happily come to visit your vegetable garden if it there petunias there too.

Grab some petunias here from Amazon.

What flowers should not be planted near vegetables?

Some vegetables and flowers should not be planted together, as they do more harm to one another than good.

• Say No: Sunflowers + Potatoes or Beans
  Sunflowers produce a chemical that is released into the soil that inhibits the growth of other plants. Some vegetables, like beans and potatoes, are very likely to be affected by this chemical and thus should not be planted near sunflowers. While sunflowers do attract many pollinators, they also attract many pests such as aphids and whiteflies, which are not insects you want in your garden.
• Say No: Gladiolus + Peas or Beans
  Gladiolus planted near peas or beans has been shown to stunt or hinder the growth of the legumes. Avoid planting gladiolus near your peas or beans to lessen your chances of weakening your crop.

Are you ready?

I am so excited to see how beautiful the garden will be this year with the vegetables and flowers all planted together. And, I am also super excited to see the benefits of these flowers for our vegetables.

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