Using Herbs In the Garden

Planting herbs is a great addition to the vegetable garden. Besides providing delicious, fresh additions to meals, they are easy to care for, pleasant to look at, and pack a powerful punch as companion plants.  Herbs are the easiest plants to intersperse between food plants, in order to increase yields. They are strongly scented to attract beneficial insects thus encouraging pollination and providing shelter for them, or repel and confuse the bad ones.There are dozens and dozens of herbs.

I’ve chosen 16 that will be great additions to your vegetable gardens.  Let’s jump right in!

Vegetables That Are Companions

The mere mention of the term “Companion Planting” will make some agricultural nostrils flare with disdain, as they view it as pure hype, and some suggested companions out there may very well be. However, you may have to backtrack a little if you poo poo its effectiveness as an increasingly number of studies conducted by reputable institutions bear out the viability of companion planting.

Background and the Three Sisters Guild

Companion planting uses both science and art to unite plants in beneficial combinations.  It is a technique based on a long history of observations of the interaction between plants in the garden.  Certain combinations of plants can add to, or detract from the abundance and health of edibles in your garden by:

1. Altering the soil,
2. Attracting or repelling insects, or
3. Creating a helpful microclimate.

Companion planting has been used for centuries.  Some plant relationships have been scientifically proven, others developed by trial and error over hundreds of years.