Companion Planting Chart
Tap the vegetables, herbs and flowers you plan to grow. The chart builds a companion matrix for exactly your list, flags pairs to keep apart with the reason, highlights helpful pairings and suggests conflict-free additions.
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1. Choose your plants
2. Conflict check
3. Companion matrix
✓ good companions ✗ keep apart · no strong effect known. Hover or tap a mark to read why.
Look up one plant
How to use the Companion Planting Chart
- Pick your plants by tapping them, or search by name.
- Read the conflict check: pairs to keep apart are listed first, with the reason.
- Scan the matrix: tap any ✓ or ✗ to see why the two plants help or hinder each other.
- Add suggestions that get along with your list, or look up a single plant below.
- Copy, download or print the result to take to the garden.
Why some plants help each other
- Attracting beneficial insects: flowering dill, cilantro, parsley, thyme and borage feed hoverflies, lacewings and parasitic wasps that eat aphids and caterpillars.
- Trap crops: nasturtiums and radishes draw aphids and flea beetles away from more valuable crops.
- Scent masking: strong-smelling alliums and herbs may make it harder for pests like carrot fly and cabbage moths to find their host plant.
- Structure and shade: corn and sunflowers support climbing beans and cucumbers; tall tomatoes shade heat-sensitive lettuce.
- Soil: beans and peas host nitrogen-fixing bacteria; deep and shallow roots share the same bed without competing.
Quick reference for popular crops
| Crop | Good companions | Keep apart |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato | Basil, carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, marigold, nasturtium, lettuce | Potato, corn, fennel, cabbage family, dill |
| Pepper | Basil, onion, carrot, spinach, oregano, marigold | Fennel |
| Beans | Corn, squash, cucumber, carrot, potato, strawberry, rosemary | Onion, garlic, leek, chives, fennel |
| Cucumber | Beans, peas, corn, radish, dill, sunflower, nasturtium | Potato, sage |
| Carrot | Onion, leek, chives, lettuce, radish, peas, rosemary, sage | Dill, fennel |
| Cabbage family | Onion, garlic, dill, celery, beet, rosemary, sage, thyme, mint (in pots) | Tomato, strawberry |
| Potato | Beans, corn, cabbage, marigold | Tomato, cucumber and squash, sunflower, eggplant |
| Corn | Beans, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, peas, sunflower | Tomato |
Companion planting tips
- Spacing still matters: a good companion planted too close still competes for light, water and nutrients.
- Rotate families: move nightshades (tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato), brassicas and cucurbits to a new bed each year.
- Let herbs flower: beneficial insects need the blooms, so leave a few dill, cilantro or parsley plants to flower.
- Contain spreaders: mint and oregano can take over a bed; grow them in pots placed among the vegetables.
Frequently asked questions
What is companion planting?
Companion planting means placing plants near each other so they help one another, for example by attracting pollinators and pest predators, acting as trap crops, providing shade or support, or using different root depths. It also means keeping apart plants that share diseases or slow each other's growth.
What should not be planted next to tomatoes?
Commonly listed poor companions for tomatoes are potatoes (shared blight and pests), corn (corn earworm is the same insect as tomato fruitworm), fennel, cabbage-family crops and mature dill.
What are the Three Sisters?
The Three Sisters is a traditional Indigenous North American planting of corn, beans and squash together. Corn provides a pole for the beans, beans host nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots, and squash leaves shade the soil and suppress weeds.
Why shouldn't onions and beans be planted together?
Onions, garlic, leeks and chives are widely reported to stunt beans and peas. Gardeners usually keep alliums and legumes in separate beds or several feet apart.
Is companion planting scientifically proven?
Some effects are well supported, such as trap crops, attracting beneficial insects with flowering herbs, and French marigolds reducing root-knot nematodes when grown densely. Many other pairings come from long gardening tradition and observation. Treat the chart as a helpful guide alongside good spacing, soil and crop rotation.
How far apart should bad companions be?
There is no fixed distance, but separate beds or at least a few feet of space, ideally with a neutral crop in between, is a practical rule. Plants that share diseases, like tomatoes and potatoes, should also be rotated so they don't follow each other in the same soil.
Are all the tools on FreeToolCabin tested for quality and accuracy?
Yes! Every tool on our site undergoes automated Q/A testing in real browser environments to ensure high precision, correct output, and zero errors. If you happen to spot a bug or have a suggestion, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will review it right away.