Parsley planted with asparagus gives added vigor to both. Asparagus also does well with basil, which itself is a good companion for tomatoes. Tomatoes will protect asparagus against asparagus beetles because they contain a substance called solanine. But if asparagus beetles are present in great numbers, they will attract and be controlled by their natural predators, making spraying unnecessary. A chemical derived from asparagus juice also has been found effective on tomato plants as a killer of nematodes, including root-knot, sting, stubby root, and meadow nematodes.
In my garden I grow asparagus in a long row at one side. After the spears are harvested in early spring I plant tomatoes on either side, and find that both plants prosper from the association. Cultivating the tomatoes also keeps down the weeds from the asparagus. The asparagus fronds should never be cut, if at all, until very late in the fall, as the roots need this top growth to enable them to make spears the following spring.
Many different kinds of beans have been developed, each with its own lore of “good” and “bad” companions. Generally speaking, however, all will thrive when interplanted with carrots and cauliflower, the carrots especially helping the beans to grow. Beans grow well with beets, too, and are of aid to cucumbers and cabbages.
A moderate quantity of beans planted with leek and celeriac will help all, but planted too thickly they have an inhibiting effect, causing all three to make poor growth. Marigolds in bean rows help repel the Mexican bean beetle.
Summer savory with green beans improves their growth and flavor as well as deterring bean beetles. It is also very good to cook with beans.
Beans are inhibited by any member of the Onion family — garlic, shallots, or chives — and they also dislike being planted near gladiolus.
Broad beans are excellent companions with corn, climbing diligently up the cornstalks to reach the light. They not only anchor the corn more firmly, acting as a protection against the wind, but a heavy vine growth may also act as a deterrent to raccoons. Beans also increase the soil’s nitrogen, which is needed by the corn.
Included with bush beans are those known as butter, green, snap, string, and wax beans. All will do well when planted with a moderate amount of celery, about one celery plant to every six or seven of beans.
Bush beans do well also when planted with cucumbers. They are mutually beneficial. Bush beans planted in strawberry rows are mutually helpful, both advancing more rapidly than if planted alone.
Bush beans will aid corn if planted in alternate rows. They grow well with summer savory but never should be planted near fennel. They also dislike onions, as do all beans.
Nearby locust trees have a good effect on the growth of lima beans. Other plants give them little or no assistance in repelling insects. Never cultivate lima beans when they are wet, because if anthracnose is present, this will cause it to spread. If the ground has sufficient lime and phosphorus, there will probably be little trouble from anthracnose and mildew.
Like others of the family, pole beans do well with corn and summer savory. They also have some pronounced dislikes, such as kohlrabi and sunflower. Beets do not grow well with them but radishes and pole beans seem to derive mutual benefit.
Beets grow well near bush beans, onions, and kohlrabi but are “turned off” by pole beans. Field mustard and charlock inhibit their growth. Lettuce and most members of the Cabbage family are “friendly” to them.
Beets and kohlrabi make good companions. Both take the same kind of culture, and they take soil nourishment at different levels.
Like all members of the Cabbage family, broccoli does well with such aromatic plants as dill, celery, camomile, sage, peppermint, and rosemary, and with other vegetables such as potatoes, beets, and onions. Do not plant it with tomatoes, pole beans, or strawberries. Use pyrethrum on broccoli against aphids, before the flower buds open. (See the Pest Control chapter.)
If rabbits dig your cabbage patch, plant any member of the onion family among them. Or you can dust with ashes, powdered aloes, or cayenne pepper. Rabbits also shun dried blood and blood meal.
The cabbage family includes not only cabbage but cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, broccoli, collards, and Brussels sprouts — even rutabaga and turnip. While each plant of this group has been developed in a special way, they are all pretty much subject to the same likes and dislikes, insects and diseases. Hyssop, thyme, wormwood, and southernwood are helpful in repelling the white cabbage butterfly.
All members of the family are greatly helped by aromatic plants or those that have many blossoms. Good companions are celery, dill, camomile, sage, peppermint, rosemary, onions, and potatoes. Cabbages dislike strawberries, tomatoes, and pole beans.
All members of the family are heavy feeders and should have plenty of compost or well-decomposed cow manure worked into the ground previous to planting. Mulching will help if soil has a tendency to dry out in hot weather, and water should be given if necessary.
Butterflies themselves do no harm and can help pollinate plants. It is their caterpillars that do much damage to the orchard and field crops. The white cabbage butterfly is perhaps the most destructive. Herbs will repel them: hyssop, peppermint, rosemary, sage, thyme, and southernwood.
Cabbage and cauliflower are subject to clubroot, and if this occurs, try new soil in a different part of the garden. Dig to a depth of 12 inches and incorporate plenty of well-rotted manure into the soil. Rotate cabbage crops every two years.
If cabbage or broccoli plants do not head up well, it is a sign that lime, phosphorus, or potash is needed. Boron deficiency may cause the heart of cabbage to die out.
For sweet-tasting carrots your soil must have sufficient lime, humus, and potash. Too much nitrogen will cause poor flavor, as will a long period of hot weather.
Onions, leeks, and herbs such as rosemary, wormwood, and sage act as repellents to the carrot fly (Psila rosae), whose maggot or larva often attacks the rootlets of young plants. Black salsify (Scorzonera hispanica), sometimes called oyster plant, also is effective in repelling the carrot fly. Use as a mixed crop.
Carrots are good to grow with tomatoes — also with leaf lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, radishes, rosemary, and sage. They have a pronounced dislike for dill. Carrot roots themselves contain an exudate beneficial to the growth of peas.
Apples and carrots should be stored a distance from each other to prevent the carrots from taking on a bitter flavor.
The white cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) is repelled if celery plants are grown near the cauliflower, but cauliflower does not like tomatoes or strawberries. Extract from cauliflower seeds inactivates the bacteria causing black rot.
A sowing of winter vetch before planting celeriac is helpful, for the plant needs a rich, loose soil with plenty of potassium. The leek, also a potassium lover, is a good companion in alternating rows, as are scarlet runner beans.
Celeriac does not need as much attention as celery since blanching is not necessary, but as the root starts to enlarge, the crown may be helped to better development and higher quality by removing the fine roots and the soil attached to them. Many lateral roots close to the top of the crown tend to make the fleshy part irregular and coarse.
Celery grows well with leeks, tomatoes, cauliflower, and cabbage, while bush beans and celery seem to give mutual assistance. One gardener believes that celery is particularly benefited if grown in a circle so that the lacy, loosely interwoven roots may make a more desirable home for earthworms and soil microbes. Celery and leeks both grow well when trenched.
Both celery and celeriac are reported to have a hormone that has an effect similar to insulin, making them an excellent seasoning for diabetics or for anyone on a salt-reduced diet.
Celery dinant or French celery dinant is a unique type that sends out a multitude of narrow stalks. I have found it easy to grow here in southern Oklahoma. It has a much fuller flavor than common celery and less should be used in cooking.
This celery is completely insect-free and grows well with all garden vegetables. Plants will freeze in winter but the root does not, and will put out new leaves from the center with the advent of warm spring weather. In a cold climate the leaves may be dried for winter use.
This is a perennial tropical vine, an annual in colder climates, which bears a delicious, light green, pear-shaped fruit in the fall. Two vines must be grown or it will not bear well. Chayotes in a cream sauce are a dish “fit for the gods.” I grow them on my garden fence along with cucumbers, where both do exceptionally well. They apparently have no insect enemies and seem to be protective to the cucumbers.
The Aztec “chilli” or the Spanish “chile” is known to have existed as early as 700 B.C., but its birthplace remains a mystery, says Anne Lindsay Greer writing in Cuisine of the American Southwest. She also claims that all chiles contain an element of unpredictability but insists that all Mexican food or all chiles are not hot. More chiles are produced and consumed than any other seasoning in the world. The hotness of each depends on the climate in which it is grown.
Early South and Central American cultures used chiles for medicinal purposes, currency, and as a discipline for disobedient children. Chiles are thought to be an aid to digestion, to give protection from colds, and to cure everything from toothache to colic to an indifference toward romance. But after separating fact from folklore, some of the mystique from chiles, certain facts remain undisputed:
• Chiles are high in vitamins A and C. One ounce of dried chile has two times the daily requirement of vitamin A.
• Chiles serve as a natural meat preservative by retarding the oxidation of fats.
• Chiles added personality and flavor to the otherwise bland diet of early southwesterners.
• Chiles can be used to reduce the amount of salt in many dishes, or eliminate salt altogether for those on a low-sodium diet.
Columbus is said to have discovered chiles in the West Indies (though he called them peppers). Thereafter they were enthusiastically adopted by the rest of the world. Indian food, Szechuan sauces, Cajun cooking, and southern African cuisines all favor chiles for their assertive flavors. Southwestern and Asian recipes are becoming increasingly popular and many call for chile peppers.
Chiles can be direct seeded after the last spring frost in long, warm-season areas or sown indoors 6 to 8 weeks before transplanting out. Chile peppers are easily transplanted, and most produce fruits with almost reckless abandon!
‘Habanero’. Hottest! Lantern-shaped, lime green to orange fruit. Aromatic and tasty in sauces or pickled. Wear gloves when preparing this chile.
‘Piquin’. Very hot, round, or slightly pointed, perennial in Mexico and south Texas.
‘Thai Pepper’. Tiny peppers (1 inch long), red when ripe, bred in Thailand, hot and the heat lingers. Use in Oriental dishes.
‘Anaheim “M” Chili’. An 8-inch long, tapering chile, which can be used green for rellenos and green chile sauce, or dry in red enchilada sauce. A medium-hot, long-bearing pepper.
‘Aji’. Hot, fruity Peruvian, a thin orange to red 3–5 inches long.
‘Centennial’. Tiny ornamental purple to white to red simultaneously. Hot pods are edible at all stages. (Named for our flag’s colors.)
‘De Arbol’. Treelike plant; 3–4 feet tall; thin 3–4-inch chiles; hot and smoky. Good for drying.
‘Serrano’. Hot, small, slender, rounded chile. Serve fresh, dry, or pickled. Good in salsas. May be frozen if blanched first.
‘Cayenne’. Hot, short, slender. Best dried and ground for red-hot sauces. Used in Asian as well as Mexican and southwestern food.
‘Sandia Hot’. Very hot, thin-walled, best dried and ground. A standard for hot chile lovers. May be used green or red, fresh or dried.
‘Chimayo’. Pick green for your favorite stew or salsa. Dried and ground for red chile powder, it makes an excellent enchilada sauce.
‘Española’ Improved. A special short-season chile that will turn red and get hot even in northern climates. Narrow, pointed, and thin-walled. Use green or red.
‘Jalapeño’. Everybody’s favorite. Easily grown, prolific producer. A 3-inch, dark green, almost black chile with thick, meaty walls.
Good for pickling or fresh. Finely chopped, adds a new dimension to corn bread.
‘Santa Fe Grande’. Short, thick, hot, yellow pepper, good in condiments or pickled. Very attractive as an ornamental.
‘Cascabel’. Medium hot, tough, round, and dark red, the 1-inch pod makes a dark, smoky chile pepper.
‘NuMex Eclipse’. Dark brown when ripe, medium hot. Adds color to vegetable dishes.
‘NuMex Sunrise’. Bright yellow when ripe, medium hot. May be used as a green chile.
‘Big Jim’. Five ‘Big Jims’ may weigh as much as one pound. This pepper is a perfect candidate for chile rellenos.
‘Vallero’. Dark red, medium hot. Use dried for red chile sauces and soups.
‘Mulatto’. Dark brown when dried, excellent for rellenos, very smoky flavor. 5 inches long, 2-inch pods are mild.
‘Guajillo’. Used dry in soups and salsas.
‘Andho’ (‘Poblano’). Large, heart-shaped, mild chile of excellent flavor. Use peeled ‘Poblano’ for rellenos, or cut into strips for soups and stews. Good dried.
‘Pasilla’. Almost black when dried, use for mole. Pods are mild.
‘Pimento’. Hungarians use for paprika. Heart-shaped, 4 inches long, red, mild, good stuffed or as a stuffing. Mild to hot.
This easy-to-grow vegetable, deserving to be better known in America, is one of the oldest vegetable crops in China. I grow both types: the tall, slender heads and the huge, deeply savoyed hybrid type, which makes a round head. I find that celery cabbage grows well, making enormous heads, if planted in my fall garden about two feet apart. I alternate the plants in the row with Brussels sprouts or cauliflower.
Chinese celery cabbage does well in the fall garden, interplanted with Brussels sprouts.
Celery cabbage has few insect enemies but should not be grown near corn, as the corn worms will infest it.
Cornell University’s College of Agriculture has shown that collards benefit from interplanting with tomatoes since the flea beetle, the prime pests of collards, is significantly decreased.
Collards, widely grown in the southern states as a source of greens, are more nutritious than heading cabbage, and their taste is improved by freezing.
Sweet corn does well with potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, and squash. Peas and beans help corn by restoring to the soil the nitrogen used up by the corn. Is there anyone who hasn’t heard the story of Indians putting a fish in every corn hill?
Melons, squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers like the shade provided by corn. In turn they benefit the corn, protecting it from the depredations of raccoons, which do not like to travel through the thick vines. Similarly, pole beans may be planted with corn to climb on the stalks. But don’t plant tomatoes near corn because the tomato fruitworm and corn earworm are identical.
An experiment with odorless marigold showed that when it was planted next to corn, the Japanese beetle did not chew off the corn silks.
An experiment reported in the British New Scientist in 1970 states that, “Reduced incidence of fall armyworm on maize [corn] and a correspondingly increased yield were obtained by growing the crop with sunflower in alternating strips … there were also large reductions in the numbers of Carpophilus beetles in the sunflower strips, compared with unbroken areas of the crop. Some infestations were cut by more than half.”
Research has shown that to remove corn suckers is a waste of time as well as being detrimental to the development of the ears.
Cucumbers apparently are offensive to raccoons, so they are a good plant with corn. And corn seemingly protects the cucumber against the virus that causes wilt. Thin strips of cucumber will repel ants.
Cucumbers also like beans, peas, radishes, and sunflower, and, preferring some shade, they will grow well in young orchards.
Sow two or three radish seeds in cucumber hills to protect against cucumber beetles. Do not pull the radishes, but let them grow as long as they will, even blossoming and going to seed. Cucumber beetles also may be trapped by filling shallow containers about three-fourths full of water into which some cooking oil has been poured.
If cucumbers are attacked by nematodes, try a sugar spray. I boil a half cup of sugar in two cups of water, stirring until completely dissolved. Let cool and dilute with one gallon of water. Strange as it seems, sugar kills nematodes by drying them out. This will also attract honeybees, ensuring pollination and resulting in a bumper crop of cucumbers, so the spray is worth trying even if you don’t suspect the presence of nematodes.
Beneficial fungi are another enemy of nematodes. If you suspect their presence, build up the humus content of your soil.
A chive spray is helpful for downy mildew on cucumbers, as is a spray made of horsetail (Equisetum arvense). (See Horsetail in the chapter on Herbs.)
Cucumbers dislike potatoes, while potatoes grown near cucumbers are more likely to be affected by phytophthora blight, so keep the two apart. Cucumbers also have a dislike for aromatic herbs.
Many vegetable varieties have been specially bred to resist specific plant diseases, and more are constantly being developed.
It’s important to know what diseases are most troublesome in your area. Your county’s Cooperative Extension Service is a good source of information on this, and may have lists of varieties recommended for local conditions.
Seed catalogs normally indicate which of their offerings have inbred resistance to various problems, often using a code (for instance, “VFT” to show that a tomato cultivar is resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium wilt, and tobacco mosaic). You can greatly increase your chances of success by heeding this information and matching your choices to the troubles you’re most likely to run into.
Redroot pigweed makes eggplants more resistant to insect attack. During dry weather, mulching and irrigation will help to prevent wilt disease. Dry cayenne pepper sprinkled on plants while still wet with dew will repel caterpillars. Eggplants growing among green beans will be protected from the Colorado potato beetle. The beetles like eggplant even more than potatoes, but they find the beans repellent.
A new tomato, ‘Doublerich’, containing as much vitamin C as citrus fruit, was introduced in 1956. Prof. A. F. Yeager of the University of New Hampshire developed it using crosses of the tiny wild Peruvian tomato, which is four times richer in vitamin C than our ordinary garden types.
A few years later ‘Caro-Red’, containing about 10 times the amount of vitamin A found in standard varieties, was perfected at the Indiana Experiment Station. ‘Caro-Red’ owed its richness to its orange pigment, beta-carotene, and a single fruit could supply up to twice the minimum daily requirement of vitamin A for an adult. Perhaps best of all, this was a very delicious tomato to eat. Later came ‘Caro-Rich’, containing even more vitamin A.
These are just a few examples of the ongoing effort to improve the nutritional content of garden vegetables. Announcements of new vitamin-rich introductions appear in seed catalogs and gardening literature, and those who want the greatest possible food value from their growing space should take note of them.
Horseradish and potatoes have a symbiotic effect on each other, causing the potatoes to be healthier and more resistant to disease. Plants should be set at the corners of the potato plot only and should be dug after each season to prevent spreading. Horseradish does not seem to protect against the potato beetle, but it is effective against the blister beetle. A tea made from horseradish is beneficial against monilia on apple trees.
In Italy these are called girasole, meaning “turn with the sun.” They really are a type of sunflower and should not be confused with the globe artichoke, which is an entirely different plant.
Jerusalem artichokes, a native Amerian plant, were known to and used by the Indians. They are a good companion to corn. The tuber is the edible portion, for this sunflower has its surprise at the bottom, the flowers being attractive but not large.
The principal food content of the Jerusalem artichoke is inulin, a tasteless, white polysaccharide dissolved in the sap of the roots, which can be converted into levulose sugar. This is of special interest to diabetics, for levulose is highly nutritious and the sweetest of all known natural sugars. Levulose also occurs in most fruits, in the company of dextrose, which diabetics must avoid, but in the Jerusalem artichoke it is present alone. The artichokes are high in food value and rich in vitamins. They may be cooked or eaten raw in salads.
This cool-weather crop is fine to grow in the fall garden, and it will stand most average winters if given a little protection.
Kale does well in the same rows as late cabbage or potatoes. If planted about the first of August following late beans or peas, it will continue to grow until a hard freeze. A light freeze does not hurt it and even improves its flavor.
Wild mustard and kale sometimes are a problem in oat fields. Rolling is the best method of control. It should be practiced early in the morning while the plants are still wet with dew. The springy oats will pop back up again, but the mustard or kale will be broken.
Kohlrabi is mutually beneficial with onions or beets, with aromatic plants, and surprisingly with cucumbers, in part because they occupy different soil strata. It dislikes strawberries, tomatoes, and pole beans but helps protect the garden members of the mustard family.
It is a demanding plant, needing plenty of water but good drainage, as well as good supplies of compost. It grows best in filtered sunlight.
Leek is one of the “heavy feeders” and should be planted in soil well fertilized with rotted manure. Leeks are usually sold in the grocery store (at least where I live) with the root still attached. I once bought several bunches and planted them; they grew well and propagated, and I’ve had leeks ever since.
Leeks are good plants to grow with celery and onions, and also are benefited by carrots. Returning the favor, leeks repel carrot flies.
In spring I keep a supply of small lettuce plants growing in cold frames. When I pull every other green onion for table use, I pop in lettuce plants. They will aid the onions, and the compost in the onion row will still be in good supply for the lettuce to feed on, while the onion will repel any rabbits.
Lettuce grows well with strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots and it has long been considered good to team with carrots and radishes. Radishes grown with lettuce in summer are particularly succulent.
Lettuce needs cool weather and ample moisture to make its best growth, and I find that the seed will not germinate in very hot weather. Already-started lettuce should have some summer shade.
Crop rotation can be one of your best weapons against garden pests, but do not rotate melon, squash, and cucumber with each other, since all are cucurbits.
Timing is another weapon. Most cucurbits are not very susceptible to borers once they are past the seedling stage, so try either earlier or later plantings. I find that fall-planted cucumbers and squash are almost entirely insect-free.
Do not plant melons near potatoes, though they will grow well with corn and sunflowers. Morning glory is thought to stimulate the germination of melon seeds.
Heavy waxed paper placed under melons helps keep worms from entering, while sabadilla dust is effective, too. (See Insecticides, Botanical, in the Pest Control chapter.) Melon leaves, rich in calcium, are good to place on the compost pile.
This native of the Old World tropics is grown for its immature pods, which are called okra or gumbo. It’s a warm-weather plant that will grow wherever melons or cucumbers thrive. I plant two rows, dig a trench between, and cover it with mulch. On the north side of my okra I plant a row of sweet bell peppers and on the south side a row of eggplant. All are well mulched as the season advances. When the weather becomes dry, in midsummer, I lay the hose in the trench and flood it so that all three companions grow well.
Onions and all members of the Cabbage family get along well with each other. They also like beets, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, summer savory, and camomile (sparsely), but do not like peas and beans. Ornamental relations of the onion are useful as protective companions for roses.
Since onion maggots travel from plant to plant when set in a row, scatter your onion plants throughout the garden.
Parsley mixed with carrot seed helps to repel carrot flies by its masking aroma. It protects roses against rose beetles. Planted with tomatoes or with asparagus, it will give added vigor to both.
Poultry are sometimes turned loose at intervals in parsley patches where there are many parsley worms, which are the larvae of the black swallowtail butterfly.
A number of different strains of parsley, including the Hamburg (Petroselinum crispum latifolium), are grown solely for the fleshy roots, which are cooked and eaten in the same way as parsnips.
The Onion family is the gardener’s best friend.
The parsnip is of ancient culture, but remains a vegetable for the special palate. The parsnips have few insect enemies and suffer from few diseases, but both the foliage and roots make a safe insect spray. They are not injured by freezing and are often left in the ground over winter. The seeds germinate slowly and unevenly and should not be used if over a year old.
For large crops, treat pea and bean seed with inoculant, a natural bacterial agent available under various brand names from garden centers and seed catalogs. (See Inoculants in the Soil Improvement chapter.)
Peas grow well with carrots, turnips, radishes, cucumbers, corn, beans, and potatoes, as well as many aromatic herbs. They do not grow well with onions, garlic, and gladiolus.
Always plow pea vines under or return them to the compost pile. Wood ashes used around the base of pea vines help to control aphids.
As members of the Legume family, peanuts are good soil builders. In many areas of the South and Southwest, they may be grown as a second crop after an earlier one, such as carrots or beets, has been harvested. They make a good ground cover in an orchard of young nut trees. (See Legumes in the Soil Improvement chapter.)
The general requirements of sweet peppers are surprisingly like those of basil, so plant them together. Sweet peppers also grow well with okra, and since they are very brittle plants, the okra, growing taller, serves as a windbreak.
Pumpkins grow well when jimsonweed (Datura), sometimes called thorn apple, is in the vicinity. (See the Wild Plants chapter.)
Pumpkins grow well with corn, a practice followed by Native Americans, but pumpkins and potatoes have an inhibiting effect on each other.
Middle Eastern peoples consider the seeds an inexhaustible source of vigor offered by a bountiful nature. While we know today that there are no mysterious potions for tired lovers, we also know that some of the old formulas did perform seeming miracles — not through magic but through good nutrition — and pumpkin seeds are really vitamin-rich.
Pumpkin varieties have been developed with seeds that lack the shell of normal pumpkin and squash. The hull-less seeds may be removed and simply washed and dried; they are a delicious snack when roasted and lightly salted.
Radish is aided by redroot pigweed, which loosens soil, by nasturtiums, and by mustard’s protective oils. Do not rotate radish with cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli, or turnip, since all are members of the Cabbage family.
Early radishes are good to sow with beets, spinach, carrots, and parsnips to mark the row. Sow radishes with cucumbers, squash, and melons to repel the striped cucumber beetle, and with tomatoes to rout the two-spotted spider mite. Radishes grow well with kohlrabi, bush beans, and pole beans. The presence of leaf lettuce in summer will make radishes more tender. Tobacco dust protects them from flea beetles, and garlic juice from many diseases.
Radish and hyssop should never be sown near each other.
This very ornamental as well as useful plant is a good companion to columbines (Aquilegia), helping to protect them against red spider.
Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid. They may be boiled in water and made into a spray that, watered into drillings before sowing plants of the Cabbage family, wallflowers, and other seeds, is helpful in preventing clubroot. It is also useful on roses against greenfly and black spot.
Rhubarb stems make delicious pies, but the leaves are very toxic and sometimes also cause skin irritation. They are safe on the compost pile, however.
Rhubarb, often called the pie plant, is technically a vegetable but is mostly used for dessert. It also has been long recognized as a laxative. This is one of our oldest garden plants, which Marco Polo found growing in China centuries ago.
Sometimes this is called oyster plant. To achieve a delicate and different flavor, the milky, oyster-flavored roots need a moist, cool soil for at least four months before reaching maturity.
Salsify grows well with mustard greens, and try growing it with watermelons. Plant the warm-weather watermelon several weeks later than the cool-weather salsify. Let the melons fill the middles of the rows before hot, dry weather arrives. Acting as a living mulch and tending to rest on the ground, the melon vines still will leave the salsify foliage exposed to light and air.
Never use salsify seed over a year old.
Shallots, more delicate in flavor than onions, are propagated by planting the sections or cloves that make up the large bulb. They are good to grow with most garden vegetables but, like onions and garlic, should not be located near peas or beans.
Because of its saponin content, spinach is a useful pre-crop and does well planted with strawberries. (See Saponin in the Soil Improvement chapter.) Bacillus thuringiensis (see Pest Control) may be used as an insect control.
Two or three icicle radishes planted in each hill will help prevent insects on squash as on cucumbers. Let the radishes grow and go to seed. Nasturtiums will repel squash bugs and so will cigarette ash and other tobacco residue if placed with the seed when it is planted. Squash planted either earlier or later than usual often will escape insect damage. Here in Oklahoma I find fall-planted squash almost entirely insect-free.
Early in the day, before the sun is strong, squash stinkbugs are sluggish, and in the small garden may be picked off. There also are insect-resistant strains of squash.
Sweet potatoes generally have high energy value, only peas and beans yielding more. They have a common enemy, the fungus disease or wilt called stem rot, which can be controlled with diseasefree seed and by rotating the crop. White hellebore controls a number of leaf-eating insects. Nematodes can be a problem, and some varieties have been bred with built-in resistance.
If rabbits bother your sweet potato patch, spray with a diluted fish emulsion.
Tomatoes and all members of the Brassica (Cabbage) family repel each other and should be kept apart. Tomatoes also dislike potatoes and fennel.
Tomatoes will protect asparagus against the asparagus beetle. Since they are tender plants, put tomatoes in during late spring after the early crop of asparagus spears has been harvested. Tomatoes protect gooseberries against insects.
Tomatoes are compatible with chives, onion, parsley, marigold, nasturtium, and carrot, and for several years I have planted garlic bulbs between my tomato plants to protect them from red spider mites. Stinging nettle growing nearby improves their keeping qualities, and redroot pigweed, in small quantities, is also beneficial.
Though not containing fungicidal elements, tomatoes will protect roses against black spot. The active principle of tomato leaves is solanine, a volatile alkaloid that at one time was used as an agricultural insecticide. To make a spray for roses: Make a solution of tomato leaves in your vegetable juicer, adding four or five pints of water and one tablespoon of cornstarch. Strain and spray on roses where it is not convenient to plant tomatoes as companions. Keep any unused spray refrigerated.
Root excretions of tomatoes have an inhibiting effect on young apricot trees, and don’t plant tomatoes near corn, since the tomato fruitworm is identical with the corn earworm. Don’t plant near potatoes, either, since tomatoes render them more susceptible to potato blight.
Unlike most other vegetables, tomatoes prefer to grow in the same place year after year. This is all right unless you have a disease problem, in which case plant your tomatoes in a new area. Since they are heavy feeders, give them ample quantities of compost or decomposed manure. Mulch and water in dry weather to maintain soil moisture and stave off wilt disease and blossom end rot. But never water tomatoes from the top. Water from below and water deeply.
If you smoke, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before you work in your garden, for tomatoes are susceptible to diseases transmitted through tobacco.
An accident revealed that hairy vetch and turnips are excellent companions. Turnip seeds became mixed with the vetch that a gardener planted, and they came up as volunteer plants. He found that the turnip greens were completely free of the aphids that usually infest them, apparently because the vetch provided shelter for ladybugs, which feast on aphids. Elsewhere it has been found that wood ashes around the base of turnip plants will control scab.
I find that peas planted near turnips are mutually benefited. Turnip and radish seed mixed with clover will bolster the nitrogen content of the soil. In your crop rotation it is good to follow the heavy feeders with light feeders such as turnips and rutabagas.
Turnips dislike hedge mustard and knotweed, and do not rotate them with other members of the Cabbage family such as broccoli and kohlrabi. A naturally occurring chemical compound in turnips when synthesized is deadly to aphids, spider mites, houseflies, German cockroaches, and bean beetles.
Rutabagas take much the same culture as turnips but require a longer growing season.
Watermelons are good to interplant with potatoes, particularly if the potatoes are mulched with straw. The hybrid seedless watermelons, which set no pollen, will produce better if planted with a good pollinator such as ‘Sugar Baby’. Watermelons need plenty of sunshine, so do not plant them with or near tall-growing vegetables.
