Did You Know You Could Use Plants to Protect Your Other Plants?

That's right. This type of companion planting is one of the best forms of organic pest control. There are many plants you can grow in your kitchen garden to help keep pests off your fruits and vegetables and to increase the overall productivity of your garden. No synthetic sprays or pesticides required.

This is your guide to the best herbs you can plant in your kitchen garden to protect your other plants from pests ranging from ones you can barely see (aphids) to ones as large as you (deer)... and everything in between.

Chives Repel Deer & Aphids

The number one herb I recommend in every single garden is chives, from the Amaryllidaceae family (if you're feeling fancy), or the onion family (if you're not).

Chives are one of the easiest plants to grow in the garden. They're just not fussy at all. And the best part is they're good at repelling pests as small as aphids and as large as deer. Plants in the onion family put off a strong scent that pests find unappealing. For this reason, I typically plant chives nearby any leafy greens I'm growing—lettuces from the aster family, spinach and Swiss chard from the amaranth family, and brassicas like kale, arugula, mustards, cabbage, broccoli, radishes, etc. That's one way to keep bugs off my future salad greens.

Chives can also repel carrot flies, so it's a good idea to plant some chives near your carrot patch.

Chives are perennials (they die back in the winter and then pop right back up in the spring), and they typically flower in their second year in your garden. Here's the really cool thing: chives blossoms actually attract tons of beneficial insects, including pollinators like bees and butterflies. So it's always a great idea to plant chives near your fruiting plants like cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. Bonus: the oniony scent of chives will, again, repel aphids and even those dreaded hornworms that pray on your fruiting plants. I also love putting chives near my strawberries.

Now, I've read that you shouldn't plant chives near your peas or beans. I've grown them together plenty of times without any noticeable issues, but if you're a rule follower, then keep these plants separate.

Overall, chives are a wonderful protectant from pests. I like to grow them on the borders of my raised beds so they can drape over the side and act like little garden bodyguards. (Learn how to grow your own chives.)

Green Onions Protect Your Garden from Cabbage Worms & Slugs

Like chives, green onions are another great thing to plant to protect your garden from pests, including carrot rust flies, cabbage worms, aphids, and slugs. Green onions are actually in the same family as chives, so they have that same scent that pests find so repugnant.

Green onions do grow a little differently from chives in that they likely won't come back every year. I like to plant green onions in the middle of my raised beds instead of along the edges. I typically interplant green onions with rows of broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radishes, arugula, and lettuce—any greens that I know are susceptible to pests like cabbage worms and aphids.

So if you want super healthy greens and not a lot of pests, plant some green onions down your beds like little sentinels.

You can also use green onions to protect carrots and other root crops from carrot rust flies.

Basically, whenever you're making a new planting plan, remember to add something from the onion family. Chives and green onions are both easy-to-grow options.

Marigolds Are the Go-To Flower to Keep Bugs Away

Marigolds are one of the best plants to repel squash bugs, but they also work around the clock to repel pests like nematodes, the moths that lay hornworm eggs, and whiteflies from your garden. They do this by releasing a compound called pyrethrum (which has been used to repel mosquitos for centuries).

You might think this compound would make marigolds bad for our beneficial insects, as well, but that's actually not the case. Marigolds are one of the best flowering herbs to grow to attract pollinators like ladybugs and hoverflies to your space.

Plant marigolds near tomatoes to protect them from hornworms and maximize your fruit production. They're also a great companion for plants in the squash family.

Marigolds are annual flowers that are super easy to grow from seed. I love to plant them along the border of my raised beds so they can do their important work in the garden and look beautiful while they're at it.

Learn more about growing marigolds in your garden.

Oregano Wards off Mosquitos, Aphids, & Cabbage Worms

Oregano is a beautiful draping herb in the Lamiaceae, or mint, plant family. I love to grow it in the corners of raised beds so it can trail over the sides. Oregano is a hardy perennial herb, so it'll come back year after year. It's well worth it to buy a well-grown oregano plant if you don't want to start your own from seed. Make sure to place it somewhere you want it to stay long-term. 

When oregano flowers, it attracts all kinds of beneficial insects, including bees and butterflies. Meanwhile, it has a strong fragrance that repels mosquitoes, aphids, and cabbage worms. To take advantage of oregano's many benefits, plant it near kale, radishes, arugula, lettuce, beans, peas, and carrots. I love having it near my greens and fruiting plants. 

Oregano is such a beautiful, low-maintenance, and prolific herb. If anything, the main task you have to do when you're growing oregano is prune it so that it doesn't creep into the rest of your bed real estate. If it spreads out of hand, you can use a spade to divide it. Now you have oregano to plant elsewhere for even more garden protection! 

(Explore more tips to grow oregano in your garden.)

Parsley Attracts Pollinators & Beneficial Insects

Parsley is a biennial herb in the carrot family. Biennial means it wants to stay in your garden for two years before it goes to seed. When it goes to seed, it sends up these beautiful white flowers that attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and ladybugs, plus a number of other beneficial insects. It can repel some bad bugs, but we're really growing parsley to host ladybugs and good insects that we want to have in our gardens. 

Compared to most of the other garden herbs, parsley has a different growing habit. It's not going to drape over the side like oregano or be spiky like chives. Instead, it grows more like a bush until it flowers, and then it gets tall. I prefer to grow parsley along the middle of my raised beds near my larger plants.

You can grow parsley from seed, but it's also worthwhile to buy a little parsley plant from the store because it will last a while in your garden.

Parsley is wonderful to have near anything that flowers and fruits. In the cool season, that'll be your peas and fava beans. In the warm season, that'll be your tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash, zucchini, watermelons, and strawberries. And if you have a hot season in your neck of the woods, that'll be your okra, peppers, and eggplants.

Parsley is worth every little bit of garden space it takes up. I add several plants to each and every bed I plant up. (Read more about growing parsley.)

Rosemary Protects Your Garden from Carrot Rust Flies & Cabbage Worms

The therapeutic smell of rosemary alone is reason enough to plant it around your garden space. Humans might love this woody, slightly medicinal scent, but pests do not. Rosemary deters carrot flies, cabbage worms, moths, slugs, flies, and mosquitos. It's also strong enough to mask the scent of your plants that pests love to munch on, which is why we have the old piece of wisdom to plant rosemary at your garden gate.

I love to think of having rosemary at the entry point to each garden bed, not just the garden gate. That's why I plant rosemary in the corners of my raised beds.

Rosemary is a perennial (it's from the same family as oregano), and you can find plants in two different forms: upright rosemary (aka arp rosemary) and prostrate rosemary. Prostrate rosemary looks beautiful draped over the side of a raised bed. I prefer growing this trailing rosemary because you can plant it right on the edge, so it doesn't take up as much space in your bed; it also doesn't grow tall enough to block sun from the plants around it.

Plant your preferred rosemary type near your carrots and other root crops, your leafy greens, and your peas and beans to keep the pests away. Trust me, do not skip the rosemary in your garden, okay? (Find tips to keep your rosemary plants happy.)

Sage Deters Cabbage Moths & Flea Beetles

Sage gets its lovely earthy smell from compounds like cineole and camphor, which disrupt the sensory receptors in insects. This works to deter pests like mosquitos, flea beetles, cabbage moths, snails, and slugs.

Sage is another perennial herb from our trusty mint plant family. Sage is more of a bushy plant, though it can also drape over the side of a bed like rosemary and oregano. I like to plant it on the long side of a raised bed.

Sage is a great herb to have near root crops like carrots, beets, and radishes; leafy greens like arugula and kale; and evening fruiting plants like squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and watermelons. Sage is especially great at protecting your cucurbits like melons, squash, and cucumbers from pests, including the dreaded squash vine borer.

Sage is really easy to grow in the garden, and when it flowers, the beautiful light pink or purple petals pull in tons of pollinators. (Learn more about growing sage in the garden.)

Thyme Keeps Deer Away from Your Vegetables

Thyme repels everything from aphids to deer, while also attracting pollinators. I love to plant thyme near plants that tend to pull aphids toward them, like leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumber, squash, and zucchini. When thyme flowers, this herb will be swarming with very happy bees.

Thyme grows quickly, but it's overall a smaller perennial herb in the mint family. It has a draping growth habit, so it's a great one to put along the edges of your garden bed. It'll come back year after year, just like rosemary and oregano, unless you're in a really cold climate. Make sure you plant it somewhere it can stay long term.

You can find two main varieties of thyme at the nursery: creeping and upright. Creeping thyme makes great ground cover, but upright thyme is best for planting in raised beds.

(Learn more about growing your own thyme.)

Time to Plant More Herbs to Help You With Pests in the Garden! 

This is just a sample of the many herbs that can be used to protect your garden from pests. I barely even started on all the flowering herbs that can help your garden, too.

I hope this encourages you to work with nature in your garden. We don't really need more synthetic pesticides. All we need is nature. Plants evolved with beneficial insects and pollinators to form a mutually beneficial system. All we have to do is plant more and then trust that nature will do its thing. Honestly, nature provides us the solution for a lot of our problems if we're just willing to grow a diversity of plants—herbs included—in our garden spaces.

So put these herbs in your garden this growing season, and just see if your pest problems don't improve.

Here’s to making the best use of all our plants in the garden!