Zucchini Companion Plants : A Comprehensive Guide
If you’re thinking of growing zucchini and you wanted to incorporate companion planting in your garden, you should have a list of zucchini companion plants.
These plants will not only help the zucchini to grow but will also protect it from pests and diseases, while also improving the nutrients of the soil. On the other hand, the zucchini can also help these plants to grow better.
Zucchini is a great plant to grow in the garden since it’s super expensive to buy in the supermarket. If you take good care of the plants and provide them with the nutrients they need, one plant alone could yield tons of zucchinis. One way to help make your zucchini plants to grow faster is by applying companion planting.
What is Companion Planting?
Companion planting is a gardening method that requires planting different types of crops in close proximity to each other. This method of planting provides plenty of benefits to the crops.
Aside from enriching the soil, the companion plants for zucchini can help to drive away harmful pests while attracting beneficial pests.
In fact, the main reason why farmers and gardeners would apply companion planting is to deter pests. When done correctly, companion planting can help stimulate the growth of your zucchini plants.
Benefits of Companion Planting
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As mentioned, there are many benefits that come with companion planting. Here are some of them:
1. Repel Harmful Pests
One of the biggest challenges you will have to face as a gardener is the infestation of harmful insects and pests, such as beetles, worms, flies, and moths. Companion planting may be the best solution to this. That’s because certain plants are capable of driving away these pests. So if you grow them near your zucchini plants, they will help to protect your zucchinis from these pesky pests.
Here is the list of the best pest repelling plants for your garden.
2. Attract Beneficial Insects
Not all insects are bad for your garden. Pollinators like ladybugs and bees can help to stimulate the growth of your plants. Some gardeners would use companion planting to encourage these insects to visit the garden and encourage pollination.
3. Improve the Nutrients of the Soil
When your zucchini crops will start to grow, they will take up lots of valuable nutrients from the soil. If this happens, you will have to work really hard to revitalize your soil’s nutrients. But if you apply companion planting, some of these plants can help to put nutrients back into the soil such as nitrogen. As a result, your plants will grow healthy and well-fed.
4. Stimulate Growth
Some of the plants to grow with zucchini could release certain chemicals that could stimulate the growth of your zucchini plants. These chemicals will not only stimulate their growth but will also help your plants to produce better tasting yields.
15 Plants to Grow With Zucchini
1. Beans
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Beans are one of the best plants to grow with zucchini and other garden crops. That’s because zucchini is capable of fixing the nitrogen level of the soil to balance the soil’s pH level. Zucchinis and other nitrogen-loving plants can certainly benefit from the presence of beans.
2. Borage
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Also called the “starflower”, borage is a flowering plant that produces edible leaves and flowers used in herbal medicine. Aside from attracting beneficial insects such as bees, borage can also help deter harmful pests. By growing borage flowers in your garden, your zucchini plants will be kept protected from pests like worms that could eat away the leaves of your zucchini plants.
3. Corn
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Corns are among those plants that could deter dangerous garden pests, including squash vine borer, a type of moth that would lay eggs at the base of the crops. When these eggs hatch, the larvae will burrow into the stems that would eventually weaken and kill the plants. Aside from being a great companion plant for zucchinis, corn can also work well as a companion plant to cucumber, beets, dill, parsley, and peas.
4. Dill
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Dill is a great herb to grow with your zucchini plants. These herbs are capable of driving away pests that could harm your vegetable crops. It could repel cucumber beetles as well as flea beetles, so your zucchinis and other vegetable crops can grow with no problems. Dill can also attract beneficial insects into your garden, which helps your crops to grow easily.
5. Garlic
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Garlic is a plant that belongs to the family of onions. It is one of the best companion plants for zucchini and several other vegetable crops. That’s because garlic has strong sulfur compounds that produce the pungent smell that drives away several harmful pests, including aphids. Aphids are among the most common pests that could affect zucchini plants, and garlic can help to drive them away.
6. Marigolds
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Marigolds are among the best plants to grow with zucchini. This plant is attractive to pests like whiteflies, mosquitos, squash bugs, and aphids. By growing the marigolds in your garden, these pests will not go near your zucchinis, as they will instead go to the marigolds.
7. Mint
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Mint produces certain aromas that could drive away grazing animals such as deer. These pesky animals love to roam around the garden and could ruin your precious crops including the zucchinis.
8. Nasturtiums
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Nasturtiums are recognized for their bright and colorful flowers, which attract aphids. So when growing nasturtiums as companion planting for zucchinis, make sure you plant it at a short distance away from the zucchini crops. This flowering plant will attract the aphids to prevent them from attacking your zucchinis.
9. Oregano
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Oregano is a great companion to most vegetables. You can grow it with basil, parsley, chives, rosemary, thyme, and, of course, zucchinis. This aromatic herb could repel destructive pests like cabbage moths, which are known to attack vegetable crops including zucchinis.
10. Parsley
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Just like oregano, parsley produces a strong smell that could ward off pests and insects. So if you want to protect your zucchini crops from destructive insects and pests, consider growing parsley as a companion plant to your zucchinis. Parsley is easy to grow and requires little more than ample water and lots of sunlight.
11. Peas
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Peas provide the same benefits to your zucchini crops as beans. They help to improve the level of nitrogen in the soil, which balances its pH level. In doing so, your zucchini crops will receive plenty of nutrients that will help them to grow faster.
12. Phacelia
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Phacelia is another flowering plant that can promote good pollination in your garden. Thus, it’s one of the best zucchini companion plants. Phacelia is also a great companion to several other vegetables. It attracts pollinators, which promote good pollination essential to the growth of crops.
13. Radish
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Radishes have several friends in a vegetable garden. For as long as the crop isn’t severely shaded, it can grow at the feet of many species of plants. When grown along with zucchinis, radishes can help to improve the quality of the crops. Plant a variety of radishes liberally throughout the garden. The strong scent of radish repels and confuses a variety of pests.
14. Rosemary
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Just like the other strong-smelling plants, rosemary can make for an excellent plant companion to your zucchini crops. It produces a strong smell that can naturally drive pests away. Aside from being a great repellant, rosemary is a great herb to grow in your garden since it can be added to a wide variety of recipes.
15. Spinach
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Spinach and zucchini are beneficial to each other. Zucchinis protect and shade the spinach from the summer heat, while zucchinis reap the nutrient benefits that spinach provides to the soil. So if you want your zucchinis to grow healthy, you should grow spinach in your garden.
Poor Zucchini Companion Plants
Aside from knowing the best companion plants for zucchini, you must also know which plants are considered “bad companions” for zucchinis. Here are some of them:
1. Potatoes
Potatoes are heavy feeders. If you grow them with zucchini, they could steal some of the nutrients in the soil and this will harm the growth of your zucchini plants.
2. Fennel
Fennel may attract some beneficial insects in your garden, but they also tend to impede the growth of their companion plants. Therefore, avoid growing fennel with zucchini.
3. Pumpkin
Even though pumpkins belong to the same family as zucchinis, they could affect the growth of your zucchini plants due to cross-pollination.
Final Thoughts
Companion planting is a great strategy to apply to your garden. It’s a method implemented by gardeners who will prefer a more organic approach to protecting their crops from pests.
But for this method to be effective, make sure you know which plants are a good companion to each other.
If you’re growing zucchinis, find out the best zucchini companion plants to grow and avoid those that are the worst companions for zucchinis. Hopefully, this guide can help make your companion planting for zucchinis a success.
