I love companions. Thats why I love my dog Itty. She’s right there with me in my garden. Plants like companions, too. Some pairings are famous. Like Itty and me, or like tomatoes and French marigolds. The marigolds repel whiteflies and nematodes. Borage is another good tomato companion. It improves the tomato plant health and even makes them taste better. Borage also repels the dreaded tomato hornworm. Or Basil, which wards off spider mites, aphids, and whiteflies, and attracts bees…and…added bonus, loves the shade of the indeterminate tomato, at least in my Arizona garden. Nice to have help, isn’t it?
On the flip side of this coin, I enjoy Itty’s company, but if I don’t keep one eye on her, she will eat her weight in carrots. Tomatoes have enemies too. I didn’t know about the tomato fruitworm until I planted Corn next to a tomato plant. Seems both corn and tomatoes share this enemy. To corn it’s called the corn earworm. Tomato fruitworm or corn earworm.. same bad dude, so planting corn near tomatoes is asking for double trouble. Also not smart to plant potatoes near tomatoes. Ever heard of early blight or late blight? Both tomatoes and potatoes share that bad boy, too. The one last one that causes me grief is the broccoli/tomato connection. Broccoli will inhibit growth in tomatoes. Not good, not good at all. Like bad marriages, some things are better avoided.
Hi, Kathy and everybody else! We were at Lamont’s over the weekend and got to enjoy the “fruit” of his labor from his garden 🙂 Lamont showed us this web site, so I thought I’d cruise around it this morning. I’m attempting to grow pepper plants, but nearly lost my newest little fellow to a bad worm of some kind…stripped most all the leaves off the stalk. Well, Kathy, I think the tomato hornworm you mention here is/was the culprit!! I googled the name and, sure enough, an image came up that looks just like it. ‘Course, he met his demise (can I say that here? :)), but now I know what to look for. Thanks for the info! Happy gardening!
Hey Shar,
Love meeting new gardening buds, (Pun intended). Hope you are a Southwest gardener, as I just love input from others who can enhance my gardening skill. Actually, I hesitate to call it skill, probably gardening practice would be more accurate. Hope to hear more from you in the future.