Your Guide to Strawberry Companion Planting
It's super easy and fun to grow your own organic strawberries. Gardening becomes even easier (and funner!) when you add in some good companion plants. Companion planting is a time-tested gardening technique that not only helps your strawberry plants thrive but also improves your overall garden.
Let’s dig into what companion planting is, its benefits, and which plants to pair (and not to pair) with strawberries to help you optimize your harvest.
What Is Companion Planting?
Companion planting is an organic gardening practice that involves planting specific crops near one another to provide certain benefits, such as stimulating growth or deterring pests. Good strawberry companions will also attract the right kind of bugs: pollinators and predatory insects. This keeps your strawberry plants pest-free and productive.
Do Strawberries Need Companion Plants?
Since strawberries have runners, many gardeners prefer to grow them on their own in a little strawberry patch. In that case, strawberries don't really need companion plants, though it's still a good idea to surround the growing space with herbs and flowers. You might also consider growing ground cover around your strawberries, since they have shallow roots and can be outcompeted by weeds.
If you're growing strawberries in a raised bed or container, there are many different plants you can add in to benefit your strawberries. Good companions will repel pests, attract beneficial insects, improve soil health, and increase your strawberry yield. You can get all of these benefits without having to use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers!
I love to grow strawberries on the very edge of a raised bed and interplant them with many of the fragrant herbs and flowers listed below.
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16 Good Companion Plants for Strawberries
If you're growing strawberries in raised beds or containers, there are tons of options for good neighbors. Here are the best companion plants to grow nearby your strawberries.
The Best Strawberry Companion Herbs
Fragrant herbs make wonderful companions in the garden. They help prevent pest pressure by deterring certain pests with their strong smell while also attracting beneficial insects that feed on pests. Here are some of the herbs that make wonderful companion plants for strawberries.
Thyme
Thyme is always good to have in the garden, but when it flowers (which could be right around when your strawberries are producing), it attracts all kinds of beneficial insects. Pollinators love thyme flowers, as do predatory bugs like hoverflies, whose larvae feed on aphids.
Sage
Sage gets its strong smell from compounds like cineole and camphor, which disrupt the sensory receptors in certain insect pests. That means planting sage nearby can protect your strawberry plants from flea beetles, snails, and slugs. The strong scent also masks your strawberry plants from other pests that use smell to locate food. Even better, when sage flowers, the beautiful light pink or purple blooms are magnets for pollinators.
Cilantro, Parsley, & Dill
Herbs from the carrot family, which include cilantro, parsley, and dill, make wonderful companion plants in warmer weather, when they begin to bolt, or go to seed. Their dainty little flowers attract all kinds of pollinators to ensure your strawberries are as productive as possible. They also attract beneficial insects like ladybugs and hoverflies, whose larvae feed on aphids and thrips.
The Best Leafy Greens to Grow with Strawberries
I love to use small leafy greens as a sort of living mulch around other plants. These greens cover exposed soil, helping to suppress weeds and retain moisture. If you're growing strawberries in a garden tower or container, these shallow-rooted plants are ideal for adding some plant diversity to your setup.
Spinach
Spinach is a small plant that thrives in the cool weather of spring and fall. There's some promising research to suggest that the saponins spinach produces as a way of protecting itself from garden pests can extend benefits to neighboring strawberry plants, as well.
Lettuce
Like spinach, lettuce is a compact plant that grows well next to strawberries in nice, cool weather.
The Best Veggies to Grow with Strawberries
Alliums
Alliums—garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, and chives—are my favorite companions for strawberries. Many of the pests that are drawn to strawberries, including slugs and aphids, are repelled by the pungent scent released from these plants. There's even evidence that the anti-fungal compounds in alliums suppress fusarium wilt, which can affect strawberries.
What I like to do is plant onions between every strawberry plant. This strategy has been super successful in my clients' gardens. If you don't want to grow full bulbs, try chives or green onions, which are easy to tuck into smaller garden beds. You'll get a nice little bonus when your chives flower and attract tons of pollinators.
Beans & Peas
Legumes like beans and peas fix nitrogen in the soil, which benefits heavy feeders like strawberries. Plant bush beans between rows of strawberries to maximize growing space, or train climbing beans or peas up a nearby trellis.
The Best Flowers to Grow with Strawberries
Flowering plants and herbs bring in bees, butterflies, and ladybugs to pollinate your strawberry plants and maximize your yield. Many flowers also do double-duty for pest control.
Borage
In addition to pollinators, nectar-rich borage flowers attract parasitic wasps, damsel bugs, and hoverflies—all pest predators.
Chamomile
Chamomile flowers invite bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to your garden.
Marigolds
Marigolds are one of the most popular flowers to grow for natural pest control. Their strong scent has two benefits: one, it repels deer, rabbits, and insect pests; and two, it masks the smell of strawberries. Try low-growing French marigolds, which protect your strawberry plants from root-knot nematodes and act as ground cover.
Yarrow
Yarrow's daisy-like flowers are a magnet for beneficial insects, including ladybugs, hoverflies, and lacewings. These garden "good guys" pollinate your strawberry plants and prey on pests like aphids and spider mites. Meanwhile, some "bad bugs" are repelled by the strong scent of yarrow leaves.
The Worst Companions for Strawberry Plants
Keep some distance between strawberries and the following:
Tomatoes, Peppers, Potatoes, & Eggplant
These plants from the nightshade family can spread fungal disease to your strawberries.
Cucumbers, Melons, & Squash
Cucurbits can use up all the nutrients in the soil and spread disease like verticillium wilt, a soil-borne fungus. If you're growing vining melons without a trellis, such as in an in-ground garden, the sprawling vines can quickly take over your strawberry patch.
Brassicas
Cruciferous vegetables in the brassica family (kale, collards, broccoli, etc.) can stunt the growth of nearby strawberry plants.
Strawberry Companion Planting FAQs
Can You Plant Basil and Strawberries Together?
Basil and strawberries pair so well in the kitchen, but do they go together in the garden, as well? They do! Basil is a fragrant herb related to thyme and sage, so it helps to deter pests on your strawberry plants.
Can You Plant Strawberries and Tomatoes Together?
These red fruits don't make good neighbors. They're susceptible to many of the same pests and fungal diseases, so they can potentially share issues instead of benefit one another. They also both need a lot of nutrients to complete their growth cycle, so your soil might quickly become depleted.
Learn More About Companion Planting
Surround Your Strawberries with Herbs, Allium, and Flowers
By planting fragrant herbs, small leafy greens, and lots of flowers alongside your strawberries, you can improve both the overall health and productivity of your vegetable garden. Control pests and improve your soil health, all without any chemical sprays!
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