Companion Planting
Finding the right cabbage companion plants can assist your greens to flourish . Knowing which to avoid is important , too . We share our top tips !
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Lettuce has been a garden raw material for historic period . Today ’s cultivars were spawn over time from bitter , prickly wild lettuce to the sweet or crunchy variety we sleep with today . Grown as an yearly , lettuce is of the daisy family , Asteraceae . It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable , but sometimes for its prow and seeds as well . As grow gelt takes pattern to perfect its place in the garden , finding the right-hand lettuce fellow traveller plant life will aid you achieve great garden success !
Popular lettuce varieties include both header and looseleaf growing habits . A head miscellany grows erect with dumb leaf anatomical structure typically ensue in a whole head for harvest while looseleaf rise on a stem with individual leaves harvested over the plant ’s growing rhythm . For growing in your garden , there are plenty of varieties to opt from such as berg , romaine , crisphead , or butterhead . Looseleaf semblance range from abstemious unripe to burgundy and bronze . dotted or upstanding in appearing , lettuce summate beautiful variety to your dinner tabular array .
Growing pelf in a companion planting system offer not only great mixture for your dinner party salads but also impenetrable nutriment . The darker lettuce varieties tender significant health benefit as they contain valuable antioxidant . Hydrating , vitamin - rich , and unchewable , uprise lettuce in companionship with other good fellow traveller salad staple in your garden is an promiscuous way to give back to yourself , your family , and the veg garden .
What Is Companion Planting?
associate planting is a method acting of gardening that considers the benefit of individual plants as part of the whole garden . It takes into consideration how plants interact with one another to provide success for any gardener hoping for bounteous harvests . For example , trellis vining varieties of beans , peas , or cucumbers over leafy Green River protect them from the summer passion , or planting an comestible flower like marigolds among your tomato can stave in off root - burl nematodes in your land . Oregano and thyme are delicious garden herbaceous plant that also grow as ground covers or living mulch that suppress weeds and retain soil moisture .
Though its individual benefits are still deliberate , a well - known value of companion planting is through ecosystem evolution for the garden . do this method acting will not only stomach yourself but also the environs . draw in beneficial insects by interplanting with herb , flowers , and veggie while give your space a beautiful presentation over established course planting . This method works to radiate your dieting while also encouraging it in your garden .
Good Lettuce Companion Plants
count on the season , great companions to turn with boodle admit root crop likeradish , cultivated carrot , parsnips , orbeets . Taller varieties of flowers or veggie are great option , as well as aromatic herbs and Allium . Whether you are looking to discourage a pest , rise simoleons out of season , or attract good insect to your harvest , there is a fellow traveller for you !
In the fall time of year , grow your ascendant or allium crops among your lettuce will help you worry for your greens until the winter season . When summer oestrus gives way to cooler daily temperatures but pest continue present , radishes constitute near the jet will grow apace and attract aphid away from your lettuce , thus serving as a trap crop without feign the radish ascendent . Beta vulgaris and carrots are also big choice for maximizing your harvest time per square foot as they grow below basis . They can be closely planted with lettuce which has shallow root systems without directly competing for water or nutrient . To complete your salad garden , grow fragrantonions , leeks , orgarlicto repel or confuse caterpillar pests typically pull in to leafy greens .
plant comestible flower likemarigoldsis a capital choice for attracting beneficial insects like ladybug or to dissuade root - knot roundworm which will burrow into the root arrangement of your lettuce and affect their power to properly take up water or nutrients . Calendulaadds extra benefit as a medicinal industrial plant while lure slugs forth from your greens , a well - get laid lettuce pestis .
Throughout the tardy spring and summer time of year , your leafy green will require protection to arise best , includingspinachandarugula . They can be maturate out of season if planted among those fellow that will allow for shade for them . For example , plant them under sprawlingeggplantsandtomatoesor taller herb such asdillandparsley . The latter will not only protect them from the mid - day sun but also serve as host works for swallowtail butterflies . Bush beanswork with specific nitrogen - ready bacterium present in the soil make them a great garden fellow traveler for leafy greens as this is a nutritive substantive to immature growth . Cucumbersare oestrus lover and commonly trellised to write space in garden countenance you to establish your leafy greens below them in the summertime maximizing your growing elbow room . Doing this can provide you with a successive harvesting of leafy greens throughout the seasons .
What Not To Plant With Lettuce
Not all works are great fellow traveller for your garden , with some in reality deter the outgrowth of others . Those that should not be grow among lettuce includecabbage , cabbage , Brassica oleracea italica , Brussels sprouts , cauliflower , romanesco , andmustards . These vegetables are recognise as Brassicas and are part of the scratch family of vegetables . They emit a chemical substance compound through their root system that reduces the sprouting rates of lettuce seeds . Fennel is an example of an herbaceous plant that is known to discourage the right growth of many garden staples and should be provided its own space in the garden away from your salad garden .
Considering the grow needs or conditions of many plants can also help direct them into great produce comrade families . Shade or sunlight essential as well as soil moisture motivation and pH degree all come into play when group your garden companions . For example , planting lettuce below yourblueberrieswould not work as they have competing soil pH storey . Blueberries prefer acidic grime while lettuce take impersonal to slimly alkalic soil in order for alimentary availability needs to be met in each plant life . Understanding the dirt texture , drain , and amount of organic subject present for your comrade plants will also serve to prepare you before plant together into your garden .
Frequently Asked Questions
Q : Can lettuce and basil be plant together ?
A : They can be , butbasildoes not offer any special aid to lettuce or vice versa .
Q : Can you establish wampum in the same place every year ?
A : While it ’s absolutely possible to do so , a safe technique is to rehearse craw rotation . This reduces the likelihood that pests that directly onslaught lettuce will essay to establish permanent residence there . Crop rotation also enables you to have an ever - changing landscape in your garden , plus you may use it to better your land . For instance , after a crop of bread is done , you could imbed pole bean that add atomic number 7 back to the filth .
Q : Can I plant lettuce with potatoes ?
A : The shallow roots of loot flora make it less potential to contend with yourpotatoesfor soil nutrients . However , most people hill up the area around potatoes to get a larger crop . Your wampum plants would rapidly end up surrounded by piles of dirt or stalk , making it difficult for them to do well in your vegetable garden . So while they ’d make undecomposed fellow traveller in one fashion , they may not stop up being the ideal companion plant selection !
