Showing posts with label мой огород_2015. Show all posts
Showing posts with label мой огород_2015. Show all posts

Monday 4 May 2015

A bank holiday on my allotment. Companion planting.

Companion Planting!
Asparagus-Kale.
Asparagus - Do not harvest for the first two years after planting.
This is our second year. We are patient and we will have it on next year!
Allow the foliage of your asparagus plants to yellow in autumn before cutting it down to soil level for the winter.

Companion planting - Asparagus: Tomatoes are a friend of asparagus. They help to protect asparagus from asparagus beetles by releasing solanine and attracting natural predators of the asparagus beetle. A chemical derived from asparagus juice has been found effective on tomato plants as a nematode killer,, including the root-knot sting, stubby root and meadow varieties.
Friends: Aster family flowers, dill ,coriander, carrots, tomatoes, parsley, basil, comfrey and marigolds.
Avoid: Onions, garlic and potatoes.

The Brassica plant family - Kale companions are beets, cabbage, celery, cucumbers, dill, marigolds, onions, nasturtiums and spinach.
Keep kale away from grapes, beans, strawberries, tomatoes and rue.


Chard_Rhubarb.
Companions Chard: Bean, cabbage family, tomato, onion and roses.
Don't overlook chard's value as an ornamental plant in flower beds or wherever you have room for it.
Don't grow chard near cucurbits, melons, corn or herbs.

Rhubarb - A good companion to all brassicas.
Try planting cabbage and broccoli plants your rhubarb patch watch them thrive.
Rhubarb protects beans against black fly.
Some other interesting companions for rhubarb are the beautiful columbine flowers, garlic, onion and roses!
It helps deter red spider mites from the columbines.
A spray made from boiled rhubarb leaves, which contain the poison oxalic acid may be used to prevent blackspot on roses and as an aphicide.


Comfrey-Thyme.
Thyme: Deters cabbage worms.
Wooly thyme makes a wonderful groundcover.
You may want to use the upright form of thyme in the garden rather than the groundcover types.
Thyme is easy to grow from seeds or cuttings. Older woody plants should be divided in spring.

Comfrey is one amazing plant.
Accumulates calcium, phosphorous and potassium.
Likes wet spots to grow in.
Comfrey is beneficial to avocado and most other fruit trees.
Traditional medicinal plant.
Good trap crop for slugs.
Excellent compost activator, foliage spray, nutrient miner.
Comfrey is truly essential to all gardens.
More on comfrey.


Honeyberry.


Lovage-Onions.
Lovage - Improves flavor and health of most plants.
Good habitat for ground beetles.
A large plant, use one planted as a backdrop.
Similar to celery in flavor.

Onions - Planting chamomile and summer savory with onions improves their flavor.
Other companions are carrot, leek, beets, kohlrabi, strawberries, brassicas, dill, lettuce and tomatoes.
Intercropping onions and leeks with your carrots confuses the carrot and onion flies!
Onions planted with strawberries help the berries fight disease.
Keep onions away from peas and asparagus.


Mint-French Tarragon.
French Tarragon is my favourite ever herb to eat with fish and chicken, and as a flavour in vinegar for the best ever salad dressing.


Onions-Pea.
Companion Planting with Peas-Just don't plant those precious little peas next to:
- Onion
- Garlic
- Leeks
- Shallots


Blueberries.


Strawberry-Raspberries.
When companion planting with the strawberry be sure to avoid cabbage and plants that are in the cabbage family.

Raspberries - Companions are rue, marigold and garlic which help repel insects from the berries.
The garlic accumulates sulfur which is a natural fungicide so when planted with raspberries, garlic will help prevent fungal diseases.
Turnips can be beneficial companions as they repel the Harlequin Beetle.
Foes: Blackberries, black raspberry, purple raspberry, tomato and potato.
Blackberries, black and purple raspberries should be planted at least 600 feet away from the red varieties because of virus disease susceptibility.
Raspberries grown with potatoes make the potato more susceptible to blight.


Blackcurrant-Redcurrant-Whitecurrant.
Plant a couple of tomatoes near the bushes. You will not believe: 2-3 years this neighborhood and moth in your garden will disappear! And aphids will be significantly less.


Radishes:
One of the workhorses for the garden.
Companions for radishes are: radish, beet, bush beans, pole beans, carrots, chervil, cucumber, lettuce, melons, nasturtium, parsnip, peas, spinach and members of the squash family.
Why plant radishes with your squash plants?
Radishes may protect them from squash borers.
Anything that will help keep them away is worth a try.
Radishes are a deterrent against cucumber beetles and rust flies.
Chervil and nasturtium improve radish growth and flavor.
Planting them around corn and letting them go to seed will also help fight corn borers.
Chinese Daikon and Snow Belle radishes are favorites of flea beetles.
Plant these at 6 to 12 inch intervals amongst broccoli.
In one trial, this measurably reduced damage to broccoli.
Radishes will lure leafminers away from spinach.
The damage the leafminers do to radish leaves does not stop the radish roots from growing, a win-win situation.
Keep radishes away from hyssop plants, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and turnips.
Radishes are a good indicator of calcium levels in the soil.
If you radish grows and only produces a stringy root you need calcium.
Organic calcium sources like dolomite lime and ground oyster shell are relatively cheap and readily available, but your kitchen generates free organic calcium you probably didn’t know about—eggshells.
Organic calcium sources include dolomite lime, calcite, ground oyster shell (oyster shell flour), and crushed eggshells.
Bone meal: A popular source of phosphorous (11 percent) and calcium (22 percent), bone meal is derived from animal or fish bones and commonly used in a powdered form on root crops and bulbs. It also contains 2 percent nitrogen and many micronutrients. It may attract rodents.