Gardening is something I’ve been doing my entire life. From the time I could basically walk my Aunt Delores had me out there with my sister and cousins picking and plucking and pulling.  Tending to the garden was a daily chore and part of our summer routine. Our fall weekends were spent preserving and canning. As a child I dreaded the endless hours of plunging and straining tomato juice, snapping beans, and packing pickles, but now of course I cherish those memories.  Though just the ‘worker bee’ and my Aunt Delores the ‘queen’, and never part of the garden management so to speak, I did unknowingly enough absorb and learn from it all.

Many years later, my oldest child, Robin Anne, developed a keen interest in flower gardening. To feed that interest I started buying plants and seeds and asking for ‘starts’ from anybody. Soon enough Robin flew off to college at the University of Kentucky to study landscape architecture and what had been my way to show her support had turned into my hobby.

Somewhere along that same road, both Robin Anne and my son Bradley had continued in my family’s tradition in a love for cooking and had turned into exceptional cooks. As aspiring chefs will do they would constantly demand fresh ingredients, but most especially they would insist on fresh herbs. So again to support my children’s interest I started growing herbs.

It only took a few summers of container gardening to give me the itch to have a real garden. I summoned up my gumption and asked my pseudo father-in-law, Don Thomas, if I could have a healthy but moderate plot on his farm—his goat farm. After laying down the law about weeds and commitment, I got my garden—in the middle of one of the goat paddocks. Fenced in mind you, but still valuable livestock would be exposed to anything I used in my garden.

So it was easy enough to make the jump that I would be an organic gardener and the nanny goats should be safe. I bought a variety of gardening books and spent endless hours on the web teaching myself how to be an “organic” gardener. As I progressed through my books I kept noticing the comments about “good companion’ or “bad companion” in regards to this vegetable or that one. Things way back in the memory of childhood gardening years came to the surface—marigolds keep bugs away, potatoes away from tomatoes, and a few others. I flipped through pages and combed the web and soon realized that companion gardening was a much better option for what I wanted than just strictly organic gardening. It’s easy enough to blur the two together. Organic gardening simply means that animal or vegetable fertilizers are used instead of synthetics and the same being true in the use of pesticides. So really I was up against the same issue; I would have to constantly make sure what I used would be safe around the nanny goats. I think most people assume those products would be safe by definition, but I had responsibility to be sure. Often enough the two methodologies of organic gardening and companion gardening do overlap. True companion gardening involves no outside products, just what plants are chosen and where those plants are placed. Companion gardening seemed to be a better fit for my needs, not having to worry about what the goats might absorb or inhale in conjunction with was a long list of herbs and veggies I wanted to grow in a limited space and the deciding factor was the array of flowers I could put to use.

The big difference between the two methods, as I see it, is in the organization of the garden. Janet Thomas, Don’s wife and my pseudo-mother in law, looks at my garden in horror sometimes. She wants nice neat rows with just one plant in each one of those rows. Many gardeners do and an organic gardener could still have that type of organization where as a companion gardener just usually won’t. For example one season, in amongst my four varieties of tomatoes were huge bushes of two varieties of basil—Genovese and Thai. There was also a battlement of basil along the western fence row. Guarding the southern flank and northern flank were borage, French marigolds, nasturtiums and Mexican mint. Holding the eastern front was sage and garlic. I am proud to say not one tomato horn worm ventured into my tomato patch. The only insect varmints that got through were aphids. Even with that enemy scaling my defenses I learned that the balance of my garden was off and went about learning what to plant to fix it.

 In that lies is what companion gardening is truly—balance. It’s like planning to plant a forest, with the ‘good’ comes the ‘bad’ but you will have both. You plant something like borage. You can eat it, but only the young leaves. It attracts pollinators but it will also bring some leaf eating caterpillars. So engorged with borage, the ‘bad’ bugs rarely make it to the tomato plants. Did I say it has a beautiful bloom? One that actually changes hues as it the bloom gets older.  Seed eating birds will steal the young seeds and the bug eating birds will visit for a snack because this plant does attract a wide variety of both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bugs. In fall the dead plant is superior mulch, holding many nutrients in its leaves instead of its fruit. I used it as ‘trap’ plant, meaning I planted it to divert bugs away from others, but it can serve a multitude of functions.

I also see companion gardening as much more efficient method of gardening. My work load is in the planning and placement of the plants and monitoring. Done correctly the soil will stay balanced and healthy, one plant pushing the pH this way for its benefit and its companion pushing the pH back. Knowing what kind of soil you have versus what you want to grow is always one of the first things a beginner must know. Instead of adding treatments—organic or not—a plant can do the work of changing that pH. One plant’s roots can break up clay thereby allowing yet another plant to grow healthier. One plant will attract an insect that once attracted will feast on leaf eating beetles that are attacking another. A bluebird attracted by the number of flying insects will also snatch up a few cabbage eating caterpillars. The kestrel noticing the toad eating the ants that were attracted by the aphids will also eat any grasshoppers or locust. I don’t have to buy ladybugs or mantas; they seem to find their way.

My garden is not bug free or problem free by any stretch, and the only problems I have with the goats is when they get the gate open, their endless grazing through the fence and their dog like begging. There are a few things that I can’t grow on the fence row that could hurt them like Rue, but again planning and placement solves that problem.

As a result of my choice to companion garden, I get to grow nearly everything I and my family of aspiring chefs wanted. I give away so much and yet my house was still so crowded once with tied and drying herbs my youngest daughter, Emma, commented one day, “It’s like a scene from I, Coriander.” My freezer was filled. Robin Lee and I can tomatoes and pickles and peppers. I dry bushels of hot peppers and grind them into my own secret recipe of powdered fire.

There are countless websites that can assist any fledging gardener in what plants are companions to other plants. Personalizing all my plants I call the herbs and flowers that repel bugs “bodyguards”. Basil is my true muscle in a garden, but it also attracts pollinators and of course it’s essential in savory cooking. Marigolds, especially French marigolds, again are pure strength and of course are loved by any bee. I grow gourds, which I dubbed the “Monsters” because they just go crazy, next to my peppers. The shade the huge leaves of the gourds provide kept my pepper plants cooled in the heat of the day and the density of the leaves keeps the higher wind off the stalks of the pepper plants. The fruit of those gourds provide shelter for birds and toads.

So if you have the inkling to grow a garden this year do consider companion gardening. It’s not anything new by far, but it is coming back into practice because of its truly practical nature. I’ll just end with what I grew in an 18’ by 40’ plot. I grew thirteen different vegetables. Like the tomatoes with four varieties, there were 9 different varieties of peppers. I grew several different crops of radishes and beans and salad greens. In amongst everything grew fourteen different herbs. Adding splashes of colors to the greenery were of course marigolds, nasturtiums, petunias, indigo, flax, sunflowers and purslane. I gave away at least one third of what I grew and was still constantly overwhelmed. I also taught two people who were die-hard Sevin-dust enthusiast that stuff wasn’t necessary. Natural balance was secret to success.

About the author: Franne J. has lived in 5 major cities and 7 states, but has always loved this area and considered Bowling Green home. She’s been a part of and writing about the local art and music scene, off and on, since the mid-90’s. She recently met the love of her life, a ship’s captain, who has encouraged her to write again. Find her on Facebook.