There are all sorts of different ways to organise your garden, but if you’re looking for a way to ensure organic pest control, improve pollination and see your shrubs and flower beds thrive, you might want to look into companion planting, which involves positioning different plants next to each other in a mutually beneficial way.
For example, if you want to grow the likes of cabbage, cauliflower or kale, you could find it helpful to plant nasturtiums nearby, so that cabbage white butterflies lay their eggs on the flowers, rather than on the veggies.
Or what about sowing some spring onions in with your carrots? Carrot fly will be put off by the scent of the onions and the smell of the carrots will keep onion fly away from your onions… it’s a win-win for all!
Other ways you can use companion planting to your advantage is to bring in taller plants like sweetcorn or peas so that you can create shaded areas for crops that like to bolt, such as spinach, lettuce and coriander.
Intercropping is something else to research, a process that involves sowing fast-growing crops like radish and lettuce between rows of slower crops like parsnips and Brussels sprouts. Doing this can help keep weeds at bay, reducing the risk of disease, as well as making the most of all the space you have in your garden.
Different plants complement each other if chosen well, reducing competition for nutrients in the soil if you have plants with shallow roots next to those with deeper ones. They can even improve the soil for other plants by enriching the nitrogen content, as well as repelling certain types of garden pests.
Do you need help with the landscaping for your Chester home? Get in touch with us here at LW Landscapes today to see what we can do.