Madison MoultonWhen planning your vegetable garden, it’s vital to combine plants that play nice with each other or even help each other out in terms of growth. Placing incompatible plants together can quickly wreak havoc on all your plants, encouraging pests or inhibiting growth that impacts your harvest at the end of the season. While tomatoes have plenty of wonderful companions, there are also a few plants you should always avoid placing next to them.
Cabbage
As tomatoes are a warm-season plant and cabbage a cool-season plant, there are very few scenarios where these two will be placed together. But if you are considering it between seasons, avoid this combination. Cabbages rapidly draw nutrients from the soil, leaving little for other plants nearby. This also applies to other members of the brassica family, like kale.
Fennel
Although they can be a good match in a salad, fennel and tomatoes should never grow in the garden together. Fennel doesn’t grow well with most plants as it is believed to release a chemical that inhibits the growth of other plants. It also tends to take over areas it is planted in, increasing competition and negatively impacting your tomatoes. Rather grow fennel in a pot to protect your other crops, including tomatoes.
Potatoes
Tomatoes and potatoes are two of the most popular plants in vegetable gardens, especially for beginners. Unfortunately, as useful as they are, keeping these two plants far apart is better. They come from the nightshade family (along with brinjals) and share the same pests and diseases, often through the soil. Keeping them apart will go a long way to limiting your spread risk.
READ MORE: HOW TO GROW TOMATOES
Feature image via Pexels
