Carrots Love Tomatoes ~ Louise Riotte

Carrots Love Tomatoes
by Louise Riotte
Well, it's that time of year. The gardening catalogs have been arriving in droves. My husband and I have already ordered nut trees, fruit trees and many seeds and other plants. We opted for open pollination and heirloom seeds so I knew we had to order early as they have limited supplies and run out of things. We've actually already recieved the seeds! The trees will arrive at the appropriate time for planning so now we have to decide exactly how we want to plant things. We also have to figure out how to deter deer and other animals from eating all the bark off the trees and killing young saplings.

We've heard of companion planting, of course. I've always planted marigolds around my garden to discourage animals from eating the vegetables and just last year I planted garlic with the rose plants because I had heard it was good for them but I didn't know exactly how. I figured it was some nutrient that they used and turned into something the roses needed. Carrots Love Tomatoes provided an explanation.

"All the alliums - garlic, onions, chives, and shallots - are beneficial to roses, protecting them against black spot, mildew, and aphids."

Anyone who has had a rose bush knows how aphids can eat those leaves right down to the stem in no time at all!

Companion planting can also help you make the most out of the space you have. (I planted the garlic right over the rose bush.) I also think of the classic three sisters tradition where the beans are planted around the corn stalks so they climb the corn stalks and the pumpkins or squash are planted around them so that their leaves shade the ground and crowd out weeds.

Information in the book is broken down into chapters including vegetables, herbs, wild plants, nuts, etc., along with chapters on garden techniques and soil improvement. There is information on what to avoid planting together as well as what to plant together. I plan to make a chart for the vegetables I will be growing with their "likes" and "dislikes" before plotting out the garden.

This will also help us make the most of the space we have, as information is provided on what can be planted close together. "Kohlrabi is mutually beneficial with onions or beets, wtih aromatic plants, and surprisingly with cucumbers, in part because they occupy different soil strata."

There are many side notes on topics like how to dry herbs or what herbs are good for tea. The chapter on wild plants contains notes on which are good food sources for humans, always a topic of interest to patrons in the library. There is information on deterring pests and model companion gardens. There are even plans for a postage stamp garden or windowsill garden. Carrots Love Tomatoes is a fairly slim volume but my husband found so much useful information in it that he ordered a copy for our home library as soon as he finished reading it.

It's been an odd winter and the growing season this year will likely provide challenges. Will it be extra wet or extra dry? Will there be more slugs and bugs than usual because we've had a fairly open winter? I wouldn't count on any predictions you've heard made so far. We'll just have to take it like it comes and adjust accordingly. The principles of companion planting are one thing that won't likely change on us though, and will help us deal with the challenges.