Companion planting tomatoes and herbs

[hangin'witthepeeps]

I learned that you cannot put 1 tomato per square in a SFG. I plan on using 4 squares and having 8 tomato plants in one 4x8 bed. I have heard you can plant basil with tomatoes, but I was wondering about thyme or rosemary? I will put my cilantro in pots along the edges of my little raised bed garden. Cilantro will grow back and I don't want it in my beds.

Are there any other herbs I can put in? I plan on putting 2 or 3 strawberry plants on the afternoon shady side.

 

[thistlebloom]

As far as companion planting goes, thyme "gets along" with about everything. Don't know about rosemary, but they are both perennials, so they could have a permanent place. Supposedly tomatoes and brassicas don't do well close to each other, and fennel should not be in the same bed.
Here's what does complement tomatoes:
chives
onions
parsley
marigold
carrots and nasturtiums.
I gleaned this info from an old companion planting book I have. I've followed the guidelines in it and things have grown well for me , so who knows?

 

[bid]

I suggest you grow rosemary in a pot that you can move indoors or to an easily protected location in the winter. I had a very nice plant in a permanent location in the garden I grew from cuttings that survived for about 3 winters, but they were very mild. That 4th year the winter was very cold (kinda like it has been this last week and it's not even winter officially!) and that just killed it off. If I had of known then what I know now I would have taken cuttings every fall and rooted them over the winter to make sure the cold didn't kill the plant.

 

[obsessed]

I am pretty much over the SFG. To me it is more work to try to stay organized and my plants dont want to fit in the SFG. I tried to plant the tomatoes that way but my season is so long that the plants get to big. As well as my peppers. Anyway I think that plants are happier went not crowded. And I forgot this topic was about companion planting.

 

[wsmoak]

I can't get past the '8 tomatoes in one 4x8 bed' part. Nothing else is going to fit...

My beds are 4x8 and last year in one I put 4 tomato plants across the 'back' and some other things in front. (The seedlings looked so small and innocent!) The tomatoes were horribly crowded and bushed out enough to shade the plants in front, forcing them to spill over the sides to get any light.

I really think the lack of airflow contributed to disease, plus when the horn worms showed up it was really hard to get in there and pick them off.

Next year I'm going to run 8' of livestock panel down the middle of the bed and put only four tomatoes, two on each side, offset. The herbs can live elsewhere.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Basil worked great with my tomatoes. I had lemon basil and sweet basil growing between the tomato plants and almost no bug damage on my tomatoes.
(before you get too jealous - they still went after other veggies.)

 

[StupidBird]

FYI - the only way I've grown eggplant is to drown the block bed, which is apart from the rest of the garden, in basil plants. Ratio roughly of 4 basil around each 1 eggplant. I had to dust twice early on for bugs, but after that the basil hid the plants and I got a really good crop. This year, I'm putting basil EVERYWHERE. I've had terrible time with insect spread diseases.

I start basil from mixed variety pack into a flat, then prick out to yogurt cups.

 

[wifezilla]

Interesting! Bugs destroyed my basil, but don't see to like the Texas tarragon, so I am planting THAT everywhere