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6

COMPANION PLANTING

GOAL: Focus on the whole garden to create a thriving
mini-ecosytem that has beneficial interrelationships

ike people in relationships, certain plants like or
dislike each other, depending on the specic natures
involved. Seedlings of transplanting size begin to
relate more and more with the plants around them.
These relationships become especially important as adult
plants develop distinct personalities, essences, and
aromas. Green beans and strawberries, for example,
thrive better when they are grown together than when
they are grown separately. To get really good-tasting
Bibb lettuce, 1 spinach plant should be grown for every
4 Bibb lettuce plants.
In contrast, no plants grow well near wormwood due
to its toxic leaf and root excretions. However,
wormwood tea repels black 'eas, discourages slugs,
keeps beetles and weevils out of grain, and combats
aphids. So wormwood is not a totally noxious herb. Few
plants are. Instead, they have their place in the natural
order of things.
Weeds are often specialists and doctors in the plant