Companion Planting: Growing Smarter, Not Harder

As part of the Growing Resilience Project, a group of queer youth came together to explore the full cycle of local food cultivation—planting, harvesting, cooking, preserving, and saving seeds. Along the way, they discovered a simple but powerful strategy: companion planting.

Companion planting is the practice of growing certain plants next to each other because they help each other thrive. Some plants enrich the soil, like beans that add nitrogen. Others repel pests, like marigolds planted near vegetables. Some combinations even improve flavor, such as basil next to tomatoes. On the other hand, some plants compete for the same nutrients or attract harmful pests when grown too close together. Learning which plants work well together—and which don’t—can lead to a healthier, more productive garden.