Plant These 8 Tomato Companion Plants for 2x The Harvests!

Tomatoes are one of the most exciting things to grow in the garden, but they're also one of the most dangerous. Between pests and disease, there are a million things that could go wrong before you even get your first ripe tomato. So today I'm going to teach you my top plants that I surround my tomato plants with to ensure that I protect my plants from disease and keep away the pests so that I get as much fruit as possible. And if you stick around to the end, I'm even going to tell you the plants that I would never plant near my tomatoes. So So let's get started. Basil is a great protector for tomatoes. Tomatoes are often attacked by aphids and hornworms, and those are the two pests that the smell of basil leaves actively repels. Basil also has been shown to actually improve the flavor of the tomatoes that it grows next to. Basil is in the mint plant family, but it's quite different from some of the other mint plants. Things like rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme—those are perennial plants, meaning they will come back every single year in your garden, but basil is actually an annual. So you can see it will actually start to go to seed in the middle of the summer, then the plant will actually grow back from seed the next year rather than from the roots like perennial plants. Basil does not like frost, so it has to be planted after your last frost in the garden, which totally tracks with tomatoes because tomatoes also do not like frost. To grow basil next to your tomatoes, you can either plant it right to either side of your tomato plant or in a raised bed like this, you can actually plant your basil right along the edge of your bed in the same bed that's growing your tomatoes. Basil will grow extremely tall if you don't pinch it back or prune it, so you want to be sure that all the basil growing around your tomato, you cut at the tips so that you get branches rather than just really tall stems. This is going to make it a perfect companion to tomatoes. As they grow nice and tall, you'll have big bushy basil all around your plants. If you only add one plant around your tomatoes this season, make it this one. Calendula is a huge helper to tomatoes in so many ways. First off, calendula acts as a trap crop, so it's got these sticky stems, and aphids and whiteflies, they'll actually attach themselves to calendula before they get to your tomatoes. It literally traps the bad guys over here so they leave your tomatoes alone. Secondly, these blooms, they attract tons of beneficial insects, things like lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic wasps, the exact bugs that will attack all the bad bugs like the hornworms on your tomatoes. So you're not just trapping the bad guys, you're actually attracting the good ones that will go to war against the bad guys that are trying to get to your tomatoes before you can. Calendula is in the Aster plant family. It is obviously a beautiful flower. The benefit of this is it grows almost year-round from seed, so I start calendula by seed directly in the soil as soon as the soil can be worked, and calendula will start to grow well before you passed your last frost. So just as the tomatoes went into the garden this season after the last frost, the calendula was already blooming. It was already ready for the tomatoes, so the timing could not be more perfect. Then if you deadhead these blooms, if you come in once a week and cut back the flowers, you're going to get more and more flowers. And then inside every single flower after it's done blooming are at least a dozen to 20 more seeds, and these seeds are so powerful. The minute they drop in the soil, a new plant will grow in its place. Calendula also has been shown in its roots to let off certain chemicals that also suppress nematodes. Plus, calendula is edible. You can make all kinds of medicinal herbs, oils, teas with calendula. You can top off your salads with the blooms. There are endless ways that you can use this plant, and it keeps your tomatoes safe from harm. It's a win-win. Next up is lettuce. Lettuce is unique as a companion plant for tomatoes because lettuce is actually a cool season plant, meaning that it prefers temperatures be before your last frost, but tomatoes, they hate frost. So the way we work this is we plant lots of lettuce in your bed to start the season. So as soon as the soil can be worked, you'll plant lettuce around your tomato bed to prep it, and the way we use lettuce is it's a protection for your tomato plants as they first start to grow. I planted this at the beginning of March, and then by the end of April, when it was time to add tomatoes to my garden, I had this nice well-covered patch of soil where I could just tuck in tomatoes right alongside the lettuces. Lettuces have these nice, really shallow roots, so they don't compete with tomatoes, but the little bit of growth that covers the soil made it such that the soil did not dry out and that there was plenty of protection for the tomatoes as they started to grow. Now as it's warming up, I'll remove these lettuce plants and add in some new companion plants to surround my tomatoes, but they've been well protected up into this point, and they're ready to be on their own. Marigolds are a great plant to put around your tomatoes. First of all, they beautiful. They add a little bit of color. They're going to make you so happy, but also they are going to repel whiteflies and nematodes, two pests that are so often found on tomatoes. Marigolds are in the Aster plant family, but they actually also prefer to grow when there's no chance of frost. You can grow marigolds from seed planted directly in the soil, but I like to buy some really small marigold starts from local nurseries. It just speeds up the process, and once you plant marigolds once, you can pick the blooms and grow the plant from seed year after year. So one marigold will supply all marigolds you need for many seasons to come. There are tons of marigold varieties you can plant around your tomatoes. One of my favorites is the French or the Gem marigold. That puts off a unique smell that is especially powerful with nematodes, so if you can find that variety either at the local nursery or in seeds, I highly recommend that one around your tomatoes. Next up is cilantro, which helps tomatoes in a way you probably wouldn't think. Most times at a store, you're going to see little baby cilantro plants selling at the same time as tomato plants, but these two plants actually don't grow at the same time. Cilantro is also a cool season plant. The kind of cilantro we like to eat in the kitchen, it loves to grow that in the earliest parts of the year or in the fall season. It does not like the heat. That's why it's doing what it's doing right now, which is putting out flowers and bolting. So cilantro needs to go near your tomato area early in the season. You want to put it in as soon as the soil can be worked. This was grown simply by putting some seeds right in the dirt. You're going to get lots lots of cilantro that you can harvest and enjoy early in the season, but the main magic happens later when this is going on with your cilantro, when it starts to flower and bolt and your tomatoes are starting to come up the trellis. The reason being is that this plant doesn't so much repel bad pests as it does attract good ones. It attracts good bugs, things like parasitic wasps, hoverflies, and ladybugs. These have all proven to be beneficial insects that actually attack the predators for your tomatoes, and the timing could not be better. Just as your tomatoes start to ripen, start to flower and fruit, your cilantro is going to bolt because that's when summer is really heating up. So you'll have flowers, you'll have seeds, and that's what's going to bring in all these predatory insects to help you protect your tomatoes. So when you see your cilantro do this, don't fret and definitely don't pull it out of the garden. Let it do its thing because it's going to bring in all the good bugs to keep your tomatoes growing. Now you might be watching this and not even have a garden set up yet or have a garden but you definitely want to make it better, and if that's the case, then I want to invite you to an upcoming workshop that I'm teaching called the Garden Game Plan Workshop. In this 30-minute class, I'm going to teach you how to get the setup, the timing, and the planting right so that you love your garden as much as I love mine. You can find a place to sign up for the next class right below this video. Next up are carrots. Carrots grow so well next to tomatoes because they grow totally differently. Carrots can be planted directly buy seed into the soil, and these are another plant that you want to start as soon as the soil can be worked. So way before you put your tomatoes in the ground, you want to have your carrot seeds growing. So you're going to plant rows and rows of carrot seeds right along the area where you're eventually going to be growing your tomatoes. As carrots tap their root down into the soil, they're going to start to loosen their soil around the area where your tomato is going to grow. As your tomato gets started in the garden and established, all this growth for the carrots is going to protect it and be sure it doesn't run out of water, and that the soil doesn't lose nutrients. Carrots are in the same plant family as cilantro, so if you let them go to flower, you're also going to be attracting hoverflies and some other beneficial insects to your garden right alongside your tomatoes. Carrots will take 60 to 75 days before it's time to harvest, so you'll be picking these carrots out of the garden long before you finish your tomatoes, but they're a great way to get your tomatoes started, and then you can replace those with another kind of companion plant later. Borage is another perfect companion plant for tomatoes. It does get huge, so you might want to put it on edge of your bed. Borage is one of the few plants that's been scientifically proven to repel tomato hornworms, which is basically the biggest enemy of your tomatoes. Borage also— these blue flowers, they are little bee magnets, and your tomatoes are going to need lots of movement among all their pollen to create beautiful set fruit for you. So having more bees coming to your garden is always a plus. Borage also has a deep taproot that's been proven to bring up calcium and other nutrients from the soil. So if you have it near your tomatoes, this is going to help with a lot of the disease problems that tomatoes incur. Blossom end rot is usually prevented when calcium is available at your tomato's roots. You can plant borage from seed along the corners of your raised bed and get all these benefits without taking over your bed with these huge plants. These are just getting started, but bush beans are one of the most fantastic companion plants for tomatoes. First off, these are nitrogen-fixing, so as the beans grow in the soil, they're actually fixing nitrogen underneath the soil, and tomatoes love lots of nitrogen, in their first month or so of growth. So you want to have bush beans growing right alongside the edge of your garden where your tomatoes are planted. But they don't just add more nutrients to the soil around the tomatoes; they actually protect the tomatoes too. They've been shown to repel Colorado potato beetles and some leafhoppers that will attack your tomatoes. There are two varieties of beans that are common in the kitchen garden: pole bean and bush bean. And with your tomatoes, you want to focus on bush beans. Bush beans grow in a bush, just as they said, but pole beans are going to grow long and tall. They're more indeterminate, so they're going to be fighting with space with your tomatoes. They're both going to be vertical climbers, and they're going to be looking for sun together. So instead, you want to use bush beans right around the edges, and those two different types of growing styles is what will benefit both plants the most. You've heard me talk about lettuce and carrots and how those grow in the cool season and they'll need to be replaced later on. Well, bush beans are a great replacement. Just as you pull up those carrots or cut back that lettuce, you can just take some bush bean seeds and plant them in the place of those plants. You'll get lots of nitrogen for your tomatoes, pest protection, bonus, you'll get a ton of beans to eat with your tomatoes. Now here's what not to grow near your tomatoes. First off are brassicas: broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts. These first of all grow in a totally different season. They're in the cool season; tomatoes are in the warm, but also these two plants compete for the same kinds of nutrients, so you wouldn't want them to be right next to one another. Next up are potatoes. Potatoes and tomatoes are in the same plant family, and they share similar pest pests and disease. So if you have them near your tomatoes, you're likely creating like a pest highway where the pests can just go from one plant to the next. Also, if you haven't watched my video about why I never put potatoes in a raised bed, you should check that one out. I would never have potatoes near my tomatoes because I don't put them in raised beds anyway. The next thing is corn. Corn and tomatoes both share a similar pest. I think it's called the corn earworm, and that is also something that would create a pest highway if you have your corn right next to your tomatoes. Besides, corn is going to get super, super tall, and your tomatoes are going to be growing really tall as well. You really don't want these two plants competing with each other for space and sunlight. And then finally, everyone says that fennel is a no-go when it comes to a companion plant. Supposedly fennel puts off a secreted chemical that slows down the growth of other plants, so the experts say fennel needs to go in its own container far, far away from your tomatoes. Now you're probably wondering how I keep all these plants going in my garden from cool season to warm season. I made you a step-by-step video on how to convert your garden from spring to summer, and you can watch all the steps right here.