Plant Herbs, Leafy Greens, & Fruiting Plants with Your Radishes

When I first started gardening, I planted entire beds with just one type of plant, and when that crop failed, I was left with nothing in my harvest basket at the end of the season. This is one of the many problems of monocropping, or planting just one thing. When bad weather hits or pests attack, the last thing you want is a raised bed filled with nothing but the same type of plant.

Instead, you want to create a little ecosystem inside your garden. The idea of companion planting is to plant things that grow in the same season and work together in terms of their size and duration. My goal is to fill each of my raised beds with small, medium, and large plants that all prefer the same growing conditions. These plants, diverse though they are, work together in harmony. Each plant does something to create a healthier environment inside of the garden space.

Radishes are really good companions for lots of different plants. Their little roots are great at breaking up compacted soil so that plants with more sensitive roots can thrive. Their scent repels pests that might be attracted to other plants. And their short time to harvest means they're out of the garden when other plants need more room to grow.

So, what are we not going to have?

An entire bed filled with nothing but radishes.

What are we going to plant alongside those radishes?

Let's get into it!

How Radishes Grow Best

Keep these things in mind when you're planning out your garden beds.

Radish Temperature Preference

Radishes love cool weather, so they're typically grown in the early spring and fall when temperatures range between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit (or over winter in warmer climates). I start planting radishes by seed 45 to 60 days before my last frost date in the spring and then again about 45 to 60 days before my first frost date in the fall. Radishes can handle some frost.

Radishes will bolt, or go to seed, when the weather gets too warm, which is why you typically don't see radishes in pictures of summer garden harvests.

Radish Sunlight Needs

Radishes like shorter days. In fact, the lengthening days of late spring and summer tell radish plants it's time to produce seeds for the future (and seed production means an end to those tasty roots). This makes radishes a great crop to grow alongside leafy greens like lettuce and spinach that also like shorter days.

That being said, radishes do need 6 hours of direct sunlight each day to form their roots. This is super important to keep in mind when you're planning out your raised beds. You don't want low-growing radishes to be in the shade of taller plants like peppers or kale. You might still get some leafy growth from your shaded radish plants, but you won't get much by way of the actual root. (And those leaves are edible, but I'm guessing it's the root part you're most excited about.)

Radish Nutrient Needs

Avoid adding nitrogen-heavy fertilizers to the spots in your garden where you're growing radishes. Too much nitrogen will encourage lots of leaf growth above the soil and not enough root growth below. On more than one occasion, I’ve watched lush, beautiful radish greens grow, only to pull my radishes and be thoroughly disappointed by the tiny roots underneath. 

Radish Watering Preferences

Root crops need lots of water in the early stages, and radishes are no exception. They also need pretty consistent moisture thereafter, which makes them great neighbors for leafy greens.

My Favorite Types of Plants to Grow with Radishes

The cool season is my favorite growing season in the garden. Not only do I love radishes, I love all the leafy greens and herbs that grow well alongside them.

Radishes and Herbs

I typically plant herbs and low-growing plants like radishes along the borders of my raised beds. Radishes thrive in the same temps as cilantro, dill, and parsley. They also do really beside perennial herbs like rosemary, sage, oregano, and thyme.

Radishes and Leafy Greens

You know how radish slices taste so good in your salad bowl? Well, radishes grow really well in your salad garden, too. I love growing radishes with lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, cabbage, mustard greens, and Swiss chard. Not only do they have similar growing preferences, the radishes can also help protect your greens from pests.

Radishes are perfect for growing with frost-tolerant greens in the periods when it's too cool for most other veggies. You could have a radish and spinach bed growing well before your last frost in the spring.

Small leafy greens will stay about the same height as your radish plants, so you don't have to worry about them competing for sunlight. Make sure to plant radishes somewhere they won't be in total shade from your taller leafy greens.

Radishes and Fruiting Plants

The best fruiting plant to grow in the same beds as radishes is peas. Peas, like radishes, can be planted as soon as your soil is workable in the spring. You can plant and harvest several rounds of radishes during the 6 to 8 weeks that you're waiting for your first pea harvest.

Other fruiting plants like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers grow well with radishes, but they'll typically only share gardening space while you're transitioning from a cool season garden to the warm season and vice versa.

Radishes and Alliums

Alliums are the go-to companion plant group for organic pest control. Plant chives, garlic, onions, leeks, or shallots next to all your radishes and leafy greens.

Radishes and Flowers

We can't forget our flowering plants! Some of my favorite flowers that can handle cool temps are calendula, chamomile, and pansies. Calendula will actually act as a trap crop and keep aphids off your radish leaves.

Once you've passed your last frost date in the spring, you can also add beautiful nasturtiums to your radish bed.

What Would a Raised Bed Filled with Radishes and Good Companion Plants Look Like?

I like to grow radishes as a border crop along the edge of my raised beds.

The planting plan below for a 4' x 4' raised bed has pansies and chives planted in each of the corners. Radishes and green onions grow along two sides of the bed, and then buttercrunch lettuce and kale fill the middle.

If you have some obelisk trellises, you could easily swap the kale plants in the middle for two obelisks supporting sugar snap peas. This kind of interplanting is great to put a little distance between your radishes and the nitrogen-fixing peas.

Do Radishes and Broccoli Grow Well Together?

There are three reasons why I typically don't plant my radishes and my broccoli in the same raised bed.

One, broccoli is what's called an allelopathic plant, which means it releases chemicals that can stunt the growth of other plants. In broccoli's case, it tries to prevent competition from other brassicas growing nearby. And guess what? Radishes are brassicas. That means radishes might have a hard time germinating and growing if they're too close to broccoli.

Two, radishes can also have a not-so-great effect on broccoli. The leaves of your radish plants can attract flea beetles to the bed, and those flea beetles can then do a lot of damage to the leaves of your broccoli plants.

The last reason is more for practicality when it comes to my raised bed real estate. Broccoli takes up a lot of space, so I typically grow it outside my raised beds. This year, I've been growing broccoli in the same wooden barrels that held my potatoes over the summer. Meanwhile, my radishes are in my shortest raised beds with some small leafy greens and garlic. This arrangement is going great so far.

Do Radishes and Carrots Grow Well Together?

When I first began gardening, I read that radishes and carrots grow well together. The idea is that the radishes will sprout much faster than the carrots. Their leaves will shade the soil and prevent it from crusting over at the critical time when the delicate carrot seedlings are trying to break through. By the time the carrot taproots need space to grow, the radishes will be ready to harvest.

This is a nice idea in theory. It did not work out well in my own space. The leaves of the radishes were so large and thick that they shaded the carrots way too early in their growth. While I did end up getting a great radish harvest, the carrots never recovered from their days living in the shadow of their radish companions.

Now I know to plant each of them separately in their own bed or space them apart in the garden so they don’t miss a day of sunshine they need for speedy growth. 

Do Radishes and Beets Grow Well Together?

The same general thinking of growing roots that have similar needs together applies to radishes and beets as it does to carrots. These root crops are planted by seed, they like lots of phosphorus and potassium in the planting area, they need consistent water at the outset of their growth, and they'll grow lots of greens instead of nice, juicy roots if they get too much nitrogen.

Gardeners have long sworn by planting radishes in the same rows as their beets. The thinking is the radishes will sprout quickly, marking the space for the slower-to-sprout beets. The fast-growing radish roots will then loosen the soil before the beetroots begin to develop. By the time the beets are really swelling into that loosened soil, the radishes will be pulled. The radish greens can also serve as a trap crop to protect your beet seedlings from aphid damage.

I haven't really tried growing radishes and beets in the same rows. I'm worried that the same thing that happened with my carrots would happen here: the radish leaves would block too much sunlight from the beets for them to develop well. I'm curious to know what your experience has been if you've tried this!

Do Radishes and Cucumbers Grow Well Together?

Radishes act as a great companion plant for cucumbers, but just keep timing in mind with these two. Radishes are a cool season plant, and cucumbers like nice, warm weather. Wait until all threat of frost has passed before you plant cucumber seeds or seedlings in a raised bed that's potentially already hosted a couple rounds of radishes.

You can then keep successively sowing radish seeds nearby the trellis that's supporting your cucumber vines, until your temps are getting too warm for radishes. The radishes will protect cucurbits like cucumbers and squash from squash bugs and cucumber beetles, neither of which seem to like that radishy scent.

Keep the different sunlight requirements for these two plants in mind as well as their temperature preferences. You won't have much luck if you're trying to get cucumbers to fruit in a bed that only receives 6 hours of sunlight each day, even though that level of light will be just fine for your radishes.

Do Radishes and Peppers Grow Well Together?

The same considerations that we have with cucumbers apply here. Peppers prefer warm and hot weather, and they'll need considerably more sunlight each day.

In the spring, you can transplant peppers to your garden just behind your radish rows (once your last frost date has passed, of course). The radishes will be ready for harvest just when those pepper plants are ready to send out more roots and settle in for their long growing season. The radish greens are low enough that they shouldn't block light from the peppers.

If you're adding radishes to your garden in the fall, that's when you just want to make sure that your established pepper plants don't block too much sunlight from the radishes during that critical time right after germination.

Fill Your Garden with Leaves, Roots, and Fruit!

I hope this helps you fill your garden beds with lots of things that grow well with radishes. Growing root crops like radishes with your favorite herbs, leafy greens, and fruiting plants keeps your garden productive and interesting because there's always something to harvest and tend.

Thanks for being here and helping to make gardening ordinary!