Companion Planting Guide
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Trees — by Peter Dilley July 30, 2010
IDEP’s Companion Planting Guide
Click here for full PDF
Sometimes you end up wishing you had a resource at hand to make it easier to apply Permaculture principles. This was the case for myself when it came time to start thinking about beneficial groupings of plants and those groupings that do not go well together.
This is what I often find lacking with the current publications on offer from PRI and from those in the community. There is a lot of good knowledge locked up that could benefit so many of us in applying permaculture principles.
A simple A3 or A4 information sheet or booklet of a small number of pages is easy to mentally digest and take in and very handy to have as a reference, either printed out and hung up on the wall or on the computer when we sit down and start thinking about designing our gardens or food systems.
That is why I was so happy to learn about the IDEP Foundation, a non-profit non-government organisation in Indonesia. IDEP maintains a host of produced small documents on permaculture from free training guides and tools to teach the very basic of permaculture principles to students to information on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), gardening, composting, waste management, health and nutrition, seed saving, seed propagating, and community based disaster management. Best of all, they offer their materials free of charge to the wider community in English and Indonesian languages.
I would like to call out special attention to the A3 poster on companion planting. This chart is just fantastic. It communicates so much, so easily and is a tool of great benefit to many.
More important we should make more of these brochures even more expanded in coverage by adding listing items for E (edible) N (nitrogen fixing) and G (green manure). We can break these down by climate zones so that anyone who needs help getting started can find the lists of plant resources to get them started on the right footing in their move to a more sustainable and permanent way of living.
Comments (37)
Yes!! :D
Comment by Jess — July 30, 2010 @ 11:30 pm
Thanks Peter! This is just the kind of interaction we like to see from our readers. We provide the portal – the place where info can be shared and distributed – and we need the help of the greater permaculture community to make the best use of it. That’s what I’m here for – to be used as a tool by you all.
As much as we might wish the PRI was a publically funded research unit, being able to concentrate on experimenting with the most efficient, planet-friendly systems appropriate for all each respective climate zone and cultural niche, in turn passing the info along to active people on the ground worldwide for them to trial and improve upon and return feedback, etc., we live in a free market economy where the interests of large scale agribusinessmen takes precedence. We’re trying to undermine these unsustainable-but-presently-all-powerful systems by getting info out in the best way we can. Your input, and the input of other readers, to this end is what it’s all about. Keep it coming, and we’ll keep sharing it.
Comment by Craig Mackintosh — July 31, 2010 @ 12:20 am
Beautiful, thank you!
Comment by Helen Evans — July 31, 2010 @ 4:40 am
wonderful.THANK YOU
Comment by gilles — July 31, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
This resource and website is exactly what a network of gardeners like us need. Does anybody know where there are more documents and resources like this available online?
Comment by Dominique — July 31, 2010 @ 7:33 pm
what a lovley thing t o do well done thank you peace on!
Comment by andrew curr — August 1, 2010 @ 9:43 pm
Charts like this don’t change my planting practice whatsoever. I’m sure there’s truth in there, possibly even more truth than falsehoods. Nevertheless, I would need to see A LOT of references cited for these claims to believe them.
Comment by JBob — August 2, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
I was searching on the web for this kind of chart these days and found just a small one. This will be a big help in the design of my garden for next year…
Thanks a lot for sharing this chart!
Comment by Florin Baci — August 2, 2010 @ 6:51 pm
wow, thats one handy pdf thats going up on the wall right away :) thanks
Comment by Greg — August 3, 2010 @ 1:42 am
WOW… Thank you Peter!
So very kind of you for sharing!
“Sharers are Carers!” :)
Comment by Siobhan — August 3, 2010 @ 12:51 pm
Hi Peter, I can’t view the poster in PDF – it comes with an error message to contact the author. I love the idea of a poster. We have just started a veggie garden for the first time and need all the help we can get. Many thanks Maggie
Comment by Maggie — August 7, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
That is realy a good stuff!
I ony have a small problem while reading it, lets take an example of Asparagus and Chivers. The cell of Asparagus row and Chives column is empty, but the cell of Chives row and Asparagus column has a smiley. Does this mean Chives do not help Asparagus, but Asparagus help Chives or vice vase?
Comment by Jeff Li — August 17, 2010 @ 9:16 pm
I really appreciate you sharing of your knowledge so that we can avoid making time-consuming/ poor production mistakes. Thank you.
Comment by Gilli Bruce — January 27, 2011 @ 9:26 am
What a great resource! Thanks for sharing :)
Comment by Lauren — January 30, 2011 @ 10:36 am
This chart is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for, and the fact that there is no charge makes it even sweeter…thanks.
Comment by Nadja — March 17, 2011 @ 12:04 pm
Hey there! Very good work! Thanks! Should we translate into portuguese?
Big hug from Portugal!
Muarício d’O Fojo
Comment by Maurício Umann — April 12, 2011 @ 1:51 am
Hey this link is not working anymore… Could anyone please guide mi to the pdf somewhere else?
Comment by Sudep B — July 16, 2011 @ 4:19 pm
Hi Sudep – I’ve just fixed the link for you. Try again.
Comment by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor — July 16, 2011 @ 7:46 pm
Namaste and thank you from hills of Nepal!
(Your climate (altitude?!) suggestion would be a wonderful thing)
Comment by Tom W — July 27, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
Thanks Craig :)
This has turned out to be quite a fantastic resource. Many thanks to IDEP Foundation.
Comment by Sudep B — August 1, 2011 @ 7:04 pm
I’ve also been compiling a spreadsheet like this based on all the sources, books and online, I could find on the subject. It grew to an enormous size and became too unwieldy to use easily. I also came across a lot of conflicting information – one source would say x and y are great companions, another would say inimical – so the whole thing got put on hold and I went back to the commonest combinations and avoids and left the rest to suck-it-and-see. There are a lot of other factors determining whether a plant does well aside from what it’s growing next to and it would be helpful to have access to that information when evaluating companion planting recommendations. If some bright geek were to put together an online database that anyone could contribute their own experience to, that might end up being a really useful resource for the permaculture community …?
Comment by Wendy — August 29, 2011 @ 6:19 am
Thank you for such a useful chart. I have used rosemary to keep ants out of my kitchen cupboards with great success.
Comment by Jack D — November 6, 2011 @ 7:54 pm
Thank you so much for sharing , been searching for something like this and voila! THANK YOU!!!!!
Comment by Jessica — November 7, 2011 @ 4:50 am
YES:)
Comment by Job — November 22, 2011 @ 8:28 am
I’m unable to access the PDF file for this chart now. I’d love to be able to download this again. My old copy has faded in the sun :(
Comment by Steve S — December 29, 2011 @ 5:34 pm
Hi Steve – just fixed that. Please try again.
Comment by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor — December 30, 2011 @ 2:25 am
Thanks for sharing. I’ve added it to my list of “Gardening Charts for Australia”. http://gustoso.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/gardening-charts-for-australia/
Comment by Gustoso — December 31, 2011 @ 3:59 pm
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
Comment by Ellen Evans — February 11, 2012 @ 3:20 pm
GREAT. THANKYOU !!!!:)
Comment by jo bray — May 29, 2012 @ 12:38 pm
Gorgeous resource that I’m copying for a Landcare Gardening Group.
Comment by Edwina Hayes — June 27, 2012 @ 12:46 pm
Are ginger and garlic more compatable or counter-productive …
Comment by George Wakelin — August 27, 2012 @ 9:12 pm
Great chart! Just printed out a bunch to give away to friends!
Comment by Mathew Mercury — August 28, 2012 @ 5:47 am
Fabulous chart, I was wondering if I could buy it anywhere
Comment by Gayl Rose — September 10, 2012 @ 3:27 pm
wow all I can say is wow This is the best Thnx!!!!
Comment by bruce smith — March 7, 2013 @ 1:25 am
When I click full pdf file it is blank. Too small for me to read otherwise. Can you e-mail it to me. Maybe then I can see it or inlarge it. Thank-you.
Comment by Dana Wise — March 7, 2013 @ 2:46 am
Great information … thanks!
Comment by Lurene Fitzpatrick — March 7, 2013 @ 6:07 am
What about Peppers???? or HOT PEPPERS?
nothing there… i want to know what woudl be the companion of my 40 different varieties!
Comment by David — April 12, 2013 @ 11:07 am
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