Are you ready for spring? I can’t hear you. Are you ready for spring?!

I know I am. To beat these chilly blues, I’ve been planning my garden. Right now I’m deciding what to plant where. Last year, I made a few companion planting mistakes I’ll be sure to avoid this year.

We’ve built our raised beds, and I’ll be doing more square foot gardening this year.

(This article is an excerpt from my book, Organic By Choice: The (Secret) Rebel’s Guide To Backyard Gardening. In that book, you’ll find an encyclopedia of how to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce, and more. You can buy it on Amazon or off this website to save 20% and get the digital version free.

Buy now right here to save 20% and get the digital version FREE!)

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If you’re new to square foot gardening, then here’s my beginner’s guide to square foot gardening – it’s super easy to implement, but you have to make sure you get the companion planting right.

If your spacing is poor or your vegetable plants don’t “get along well,” then you’ll probably not have the harvest you’re expecting.

I think a salsa garden and an all-tomato garden are definitely on the list!

This year, my garden will be awesome. 

6 Companion Planting Mistakes That Can Destroy Your Harvest

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I’ve picked out a place for the radishes, near the house where the soil is loose but rich with the compost from plants of yesteryear. (I’m not the biggest fan of radishes, but they’re about as instant gratification as gardening gets, and this year I want to try to pickle them!)

The kale will line the walkway that leads to our front door, since kale, which doesn’t grow too tall, makes an attractive border, adding texture to our front lawn.

The cabbage will go in the front of the house, where I’ve been composting manure, and where they will be easily accessed.

It’s also far away from my radishes, since radishes and cabbage don’t grow well together. That was companion planting mistake #1 last fall. I planted my cabbages near my radishes, and neither did too great!

In fact, just like some foods just don’t like each other, some veggies don’t make good companion plants. Using a companion planting chart when planning your garden can help prevent costly mistakes.

As you plan your spring garden, use this easy companion planting guide to avoid 6 common companion planting mistakes:

Companion Planting No-Nos

Now, you do need to pay attention to zones (you can find out your USDA zone right here

Your season also will dictate what you’ll plant. Here’s guides for each month of the growing season:

January    February    March    April    May    June     July    August    September

Itching to start gardening RIGHT NOW?

Here’s 12 crops you can start in cold frames – including lettuce, spinach, radishes and more!

You can also learn how to heat your green house right here.

What will you plant in your garden this spring? Will you try companion planting? How will you avoid these 6 common companion planting mistakes?

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Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category.  Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.

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7 Comments

  1. It’s so hard to gauge whether or not companion plantings are working or not, but I sure do like to believe they work! I will have to keep these in mind when I am planning the garden! I know I have had success planting my peas near wild Queen Anne’s Lace. It seems to attract lady bugs very well, which helps with aphids on my peas. 🙂

  2. Thank you for all this great and helpful info! Your advises seem to be of a great help for my sister. She’s just making her first steps at companion planting and each new idea and advise are welcome. Surely recommending your post to her. Happy gardening!

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