Companion Planting Made Easy

If you've ever seen any of my gardens, you know that I really pack in the plants and that I put all kinds of plants together in just one bed. I don't follow a companion planting chart or really any strict guidelines when I'm figuring out what plants go together in the garden.

Instead, I make planting groups based on the size they're going to grow to in the garden, their growth habit (are these vining plants? root crops that will take up more space underground than above?), and their preferred growing season. Those three things help me decide what plants will grow well together.

I also try to balance the type of plants I'm growing—leafy greens, roots, fruiting plants—so that my garden is productive and dynamic. And I always throw in some flowers and typically some herbs, as well.

I've put together 10 different plant combinations that you could use in your own kitchen garden based on the season. The drawings for each combo are not done to scale. They're just meant to help you visualize how I would pack in the plants to make the best use of your garden space each season.

Let's look at some of my favorite plant combinations, starting with cool season ideas.

Let's Start with the Cool Season

The cool season is when the average daily high temps range from 35°F to 65°F degrees. You have a chance of frost each night when those temps drop, so cool season plants are frost tolerant or frost resistant.

Napa Cabbage, Cilantro, Onions, & Chamomile

The base of this plant combo is Napa cabbage. I love Napa cabbage in the cool season garden. It's so productive when you consider the fact that you can harvest the outer leaves while you're waiting on the head to form.

The key to companion planting with cabbage is to select plants that also love cool weather and that can provide some pest control for your cabbage leaves. Cilantro, onions, and chamomile fit the bill perfectly.

Plant onions surrounding your Napa cabbage plants. This will actually protect your cabbages from pests. Plus, you'll have a fantastic root crop growing underground while your cabbages grow big above ground.

Then add some herbs like cilantro, which attracts lady bugs to the garden. Those ladybugs can help you fight any aphids that might want to munch on your cabbage leaves. Come harvest time, those cilantro leaves are going to taste so delicious in an Asian-inspired cabbage salad.

Lastly, plant some chamomile around the edge of your bed. You could always do a different flower like calendula or pansies, but I love having chamomile in the garden. It's frost resistant, it loves to grow in the cool season, it helps to distract pests that might be hunting for your cabbage plants, and you can harvest the flowers to make your own cozy chamomile tea.

Red Cabbage, Sugar Snap Peas, Lettuce, & Mizuna

The large plant that anchors this combo is red cabbage, which will spend quite some time in the garden and take up the majority of the space before it's ready for harvest.

If you add an obelisk trellis to your raised garden bed, you can grow sugar snap peas right next to your cabbage. Companion planting with peas is so easy because you can really pack them in; they'll climb the trellis instead of taking up horizontal space like the cabbage. The peas will need almost the entire time the cabbage is growing to produce their delicious pods for you.

Alongside your cabbage, you can have two small greens growing: Tom Thumb lettuce and mustard mizuna. These plants will give you quick harvests while you're waiting on the peas and the cabbage to finish. Of course, you can eat some pea shoots and some outer cabbage leaves, but overall, you'll be waiting for a much longer time to harvest significantly from those larger plants.

Kale, Fava Beans, Carrots, Lettuce, & Calendula

This plant combo involves a similar setup as the last one, but instead of cabbage, our large plant will be Toscano kale. These plants can grow into mini trees in the garden. On the trellis, we'll swap the sugar snaps for fava beans. Fava beans need some type of structure to climb like an obelisk or panel trellis, and they'll also take quite a long time to be ready for harvest.

Underneath the kale and the beans, we'll plant some carrots. Carrots can grow right alongside these large plants because they take up a totally different kind of space by growing down rather than out and up.

On the border of the garden, we'll do Merlot lettuce. This is a beautiful type of red lettuce, and it'll produce quickly while you're waiting on the longer crops.

In the corners of the bed, let's add some calendula. This flowering herb can be planted by seed and will act as a trap crop to keep the pests away from your kale and lettuce. It's also a beautiful little flower that you can harvest and turn into soothing teas and salves.

This is a fantastic plant combo. You should definitely give this one a try!

Swiss Chard, Beets, Arugula, Purple Mizuna, & Calendula

For this one, our large plant is going to be my favorite, Swiss chard. Swiss chard takes a long time to grow, but when mature, it's pretty big—we're talking leaves the size of my head. If your garden is up against a structure like a fence or your house, make sure to put large leafy greens like kale or Swiss chard at the back of your raised beds.

Let's plant some rows of beets right in front of our Swiss chard. Because beets are a root crop, they take up more space underground than they do above ground, so totally different growth habit than Swiss chard. That's why they work so well together.

For fast-growing greens, let's do arugula and this gorgeous purple mizuna. We can plant those right in front of the beets. 

Lastly, let's add some calendula again on the edges of the raised bed. Calendula will act as a trap crop to keep the pests away from all those super enticing leafy greens. You can also, of course, harvest the flowers to make calendula tea.

Spinach, Carrots, Lettuce, & Pansies

All right, this last one is a simple one. No large leafy greens, no fruiting plants.

Let's just do a whole bunch of spinach at the back of the bed. You're about to have enough spinach leaves for green smoothies, daily salads, and a little sautéed side dish for dinner.

In front of the spinach, let's do Amarillo carrots for our root crop; they're fast-producing and beautiful yellow carrots.

Fill in the front of the bed with Brentwood lettuce, which grows these gorgeous burgundy heads, and pansies.

Imagine all these colors together—the green, the yellow, the red, and all the cheerful shades of the pansies. So picture perfect!

Moving Into the Warm Season

The warm season is when the average daily high ranges from about 65°F to 85°F. There's no more chance of frost, which is a good thing because the plants you're about to see are not frost tolerant.

Tomatoes, Eggplants, Peppers, Basil, & Marigolds

Let's do some Barry's Crazy cherries growing up a panel or obelisk trellis. This is such a fun tomato variety to grow.

In front of your tomatoes, you can have Little Finger eggplants, my favorite kind of eggplant to grow. These plants are prolific and their fruits are delicious.

Next, let's do some shishito peppers. I love shishito peppers, cannot get enough. You can pack these in pretty closely right around these tomatoes and eggplant.

For our herb, let's do a ton of Genovese basil.

Let's round it out with these fantastic spun orange marigolds. Marigolds are a wonderful trap crop and they actually repel certain pests. Plus, they add so much color and beauty to the garden.

Can you imagine your harvest basket with these colorful plants? Yellow tomatoes, purple eggplants, green and red peppers, the most gorgeous green basil, and then this orange marigold. Oh my gosh, the most beautiful (and delicious) garden ever.

Cucumbers, Bush Beans, Jalapeño Peppers, & Marigolds

For this combo, let's focus on cucumbers as our fruiting plant. I love growing Suyo Long cucumbers. They'll need some sort of trellis to climb so that they don't take up the entire raised bed.

Alongside the bottom of the trellis, we can plant purple dove bush beans and a smaller pepper like jalapeños.

In the front of the bed, let's do gem marigolds. Their smell alone is worth giving them a grow.

How beautiful is this raised bed with the purple beans, green cucumbers, red peppers, and golden marigolds? I cannot wait until I get to put these in the garden.

Squash, Pole Beans, Bell Peppers, & Marigolds

For this next combo, we are going to have squash as our large plant. It will spread wide and hang over the side of the raised bed.

On the trellis, let's do Blue Lake pole beans. I love these vining beans. You'll get a steady stream of bean pods instead of your entire crop all at once, like with bush beans.

In the corners of the raised bed, we can have Red and Green Wonder bell pepper.

For the flowering plant, we're going to have this Kilimanjaro white marigold. It's a large and prolific plant and so gorgeous.

This will be one tasty raised bed!

Pole Beans, Tomatoes, Eggplants, & Marigolds

Are you taking notes? This one's so good: We've got Seychelles pole beans on the trellis. These grow so fast, they produce a ton of beans for you, and they're really beautiful. Also on the trellis, let's do some San Marzano tomatoes. These are plum tomatoes. I grew them last year, and I had tomatoes coming out of my ears. Believe it or not, both beans and tomatoes can grow on the same trellis.

In front of our climbing plants, let's do some Ping Tung eggplants at the base.

For flowers, let's do marigolds again—why not? I love red French marigolds. The red of the marigolds with the tomatoes once those plants are fruiting will be so beautiful!

Cherry Tomatoes, Banana Peppers, Bush Beans, & Mini Sunflowers

Are you ready for our last plant combo?

This one features one of my favorite types of cherry tomato: the chocolate cherry. They're beautiful little fruits that melt in your mouth.

In front of the tomatoes, we're going to have banana peppers. These are a really fun variety to grow, especially if hot peppers aren't for you.

In front of the peppers, let's do a whole row of Valentino green bush beans.

In the corners, we can do a type of mini sunflower called teddy bear sunflowers. These obviously won't grow very large, so we don't have to worry about them blocking sunlight from our fruiting plants. They're the perfect accent to your space.

Which Plant Combo Are You Most Excited to Try?

Even as I'm writing this, I can't wait to get out to the garden and put one of these plant combos in the soil.

I hope this shows you that you don't need a companion planting chart to put together beautiful and productive combinations in the garden. All you need to know is what season the plants grow in, plus their size and growing habit. From there, the sky's the limit. You can be like a chef putting together all kinds of fantastic recipes of plants that grow well together, that look beautiful together, that benefit one another in the garden, and that also result in the most incredible harvest basket.

I love planting my garden like this, and I know you're going to love it too.