Ultimate Garlic Companion Plants for Healthier, Tastier Crops and More Abundant Harvests

Companion planting is the ultimate garden hack to boost your garlic crops with less manual labor. Garlic companion plants help your bulbs grow better, ward off disease, and taste richer. This style of planting is an old trick that saves you work and keeps your garden humming with minimal fuss – and eventually maximum flavor! By pairing your garlic with the right neighbors, you create a self-sustaining ecosystem that fights pests, improves soil, and can even look better.

Think of garlic as a built-in bodyguard, thanks to its potent sulfur compounds. While we love that scent in dishes, garden pests like aphids and beetles find it repulsive. Garlic companion plant selection is not just about cramming random plants together, though – some plants are amicable bedfellows, while others kick up a fuss. Learning how to grow garlic plants with the right companions involves savvy, time, and strategic placement. Here is how to organize your garlic plantings, create the perfect combinations, protect the patch, and set your bulbs up for the best harvests ever.

Best Companion Plants with Garlic

Companion planting garlic is a natural protector for your garden, and a very robust and versatile option to grow alongside other plants, both ornamentals and crops. Thanks to its potent aromas and pest-repellent capacities, you end up using fewer sprays and enjoy healthy crop combinations. Alongside this, there are mutually beneficial partnerships where the companion is equally supportive and generous in keeping your garlic varieties growing at their best – whether that’s via soil benefits, shade benefits, and flavor enhancements. Here are the smartest ways to use your garlic planting space – get it right, and your whole plot will be pulling its weight. Meet your “who’s who” of garlic companion planting.

1. Garlic Companions for Growth & Flavor

While garlic is often the one helping other plants in the patch, these select companion plants for garlic give as good as they get, leading to a mutually beneficial partnership that ensures larger bulbs and more aromatic cloves:

• Chamomile: Often called the plant doctor, chamomile increases the production of essential oils in garlic, leading to a much punchier, bolder flavor profile. Try Burpee Organic Roman Chamomile Seeds from Amazon for your garlic patch.
• Summer Savory: This herb is a double-threat, as it improves the overall vigor of garlic plants while acting as a natural deterrent for the dreaded onion fly. These quintessential flavor makers boost essential oils as well as vigor. They also help to fix up soil health. Win-win!
• Yarrow: Known as a nutrient accumulator, yarrow improves soil quality around the garlic’s root zone and attracts predatory insects like wasps that keep garlic-munching larvae at bay. These garlic protectors are a genuine asset for your bulbs. You can buy ‘Strawberry Seduction’ Yarrow Seeds from Nature Hills.
• Beets: These root crops thrive in the same soil conditions as garlic. Garlic’s presence prevents beetles from attacking beet greens, while the beets help break up the soil for expanding garlic bulbs. These two classic crops make ideal root neighbors that help maximize your garden space. You can buy a range of beet seeds from Burpee, with purple, white, gold, and striped varieties available.
• Dill: This herb improves the micro-environment for garlic. Dill attracts hoverflies, ladybugs and other beneficial predatory insects, which act as a cleanup crew for stray pests, allowing crops to mature problem-free. You can buy Dill ‘Bouquet Organic’ Seeds from Burpee.

2. Garlic Companions for Pest Controls

Garlic is a powerhouse repellent, but it works even better when paired with trap crops or secondary defenders to create a no-fly zone for insects. These classic pairings help to maintain healthy, nourishing crops all round:

• Carrots: Planting carrots near garlic is a classic move. The garlic’s strong scent masks the smell of carrots from the carrot rust fly, while the carrots provide a living mulch that keeps the soil cool. Ideal root neighbors that maximize garden space.
• Tomatoes: Garlic helps prevent spider mites, blight, and fruit borers ruining your tomato crop. In return, taller tomato plants provide necessary afternoon shade in scorching climates. A classic pairing for hearty growing. Buy ‘Black Cherry’ Tomato Seeds from Amazon.
• Cabbage & Broccoli: These brassicas are magnets for cabbage worms and moths. Garlic acts as a chemical shield, confusing these pests and preventing them from laying eggs on your greens. Cabbage grows happy with garlic, which stops diamondback moths. Broccoli thrives with garlic’s knack for kicking cabbage worms and shielding against fungal woes.
• Kale: Similar to cabbage, kale is often decimated by aphids. Garlic’s sulfurous secretions are absorbed by the soil and nearby roots, making the kale much less tasty to sap-sucking insects. You can buy ‘Black Tuscan Lacinato’ Kale Seeds from Amazon.

3. Garlic Companions for Florals & Displays

Your vegetable patch doesn't have to look utilitarian – and there are some dazzling garlic companions to choose for color and texture. These floral companions offer aesthetic beauty while serving a functional purpose:

• Roses: Garlic and roses are a legendary pairing. Garlic protects roses from aphids and prevents black spot (a fungal disease) from marring those beautiful petals. Roses are a great companion, and they pair well with garlic, since they will keep aphids and black spot at bay for healthier blooms. Shop for stunning rose shrubs at Nature Hills, including grandiflora and floribunda varieties.
• Nasturtiums: These vibrant blooms act as a trap crop. They are so attractive to aphids that the bugs will congregate on the nasturtiums, leaving your garlic and other vegetables untouched. There are some gorgeous nasturtium seed varieties available from Burpee, including bright pink, tangerine, and mixed tonal breeds.
• Marigolds: These sunny flowers produce a chemical called alpha-terthienyl, which kills root-knot nematodes in the soil that could stunt garlic growth. Marigolds also draw pollinators to nearby crops.
• Fruit Trees: Planting a ring of garlic around the base of fruit trees creates a pest barrier with its sharp smell, protecting the tree from aphids, scab, fungal disease and borers, while keeping rabbits and deer from nibbling on young bark.

Planting Garlic with Companions

Setting up a companion-planted bed with garlic requires a little bit of foresight, but it pays off with a low-maintenance yet highly productive summer. Plant bulbs in late fall or early winter, so bulbs can root and establish before conditions get frozen. You can also plant certain garlic varieties in late winter, though the bulb sizes may be smaller.

Get the best garlic bulbs you can – there’s a great range of garlic varieties available from Burpee, including fast-growing and heirloom varieties. Break them into cloves, and use a dibbler like the American Cast Dibbler from Burpee to help plant each one 2 inches (5 cm) deep, pointy end up, and 4-6 inches (10-15 cm) apart, in loose soil that is slightly acidic or neutral, with a pH of 6-7. Use a soil meter like the Yamron 4-in-1 Soil Meter from Amazon to help you identify soil pH, moisture levels, light, and nutrient load. Allowing ample space means that when other plants are growing later, you are still giving garlic bulbs plenty of space to bulk up.

Spacing your garlic and companions with consideration is key. Even friendly plants shouldn't be on top of each other. Don’t crowd things too tight, or you could wind up compromising garlic vitality. When spring arrives, place taller companions (like tomatoes) on the north side of your garlic rows. This ensures that sun-loving garlic isn't shaded out as the other plants grow tall. For underground companions like chunky carrots or beets, give them at least 12 inches (30 cm) of clearance from the garlic to prevent the roots from competing for the same space and tangling up.

Mix in a high-quality compost or aged manure into the soil before planting. A bit of compost at planting, such as Espoma Organic Mushroom Compost from Amazon, gives it a kick. Your garlic also needs full sun to develop big, juicy cloves. Keep the soil moist, but never soggy. Garlic is prone to rotting if it gets wet feet, so ensure your bed has excellent drainage. Add a layer of straw or leaf mulch after planting. This regulates soil temperature and keeps weeds down, meaning less competition for your crops.

Don’t Plant These Together!

Not every plant is a friend of garlic, and certain crops need to be cultivated at a safe distance to preserve overall health, vitality and productivity. Avoid these specific neighbors to prevent a busted harvest:

• Beans and Peas: Garlic is an allelopathic plant to legumes, meaning it produces chemicals that can stunt the growth of beans and peas and interfere with their ability to fix nitrogen. The strong scent of garlic can slow pod formation and stymie root development. Indeed, garlic’s natural chemicals can stop these legumes entirely.
• Sage & Parsley: These herbs are heavy feeders that compete directly with garlic for the same nutrients, often resulting in smaller, leggy garlic bulbs. Sage clashes with garlic, as its heavy aroma disrupts garlic’s bulb formation and flavor. Parsley isn’t a good idea when planted with garlic, since it throws off its growth and weakens its taste. These herbs are far too greedy for the nutrients garlic needs to bulb up.
• Onions & Leeks: One might think that since they are all part of the same family (alliums), they would rub along nicely. However, because they are in the same family, they attract the same pests (like onion maggots and onion flies). Keeping them together creates a buffet that can lead to a localized infestation. Leeks can also wind up competing with garlic for the same nutrients. Best to keep these cousins apart.
• Asparagus: This is a terrible plant to grow near garlic, because it competes for nutrients, stunting both crops’ growth. Asparagus plants, in particular, need plenty of space, so should be planted apart, ideally in a separate bed.

The Garlic Companion Calendar

Because garlic is in the ground for a long time (up to 9 months), it potentially shares the soil with different companions at different stages of its life cycle. Make the most of the time each crop and ornamental spends in the ground with this garlic guide:

1. The Foundation Phase (Oct-Jan): Plant your cloves in late fall or winter. For most companions, it is either too late or too early in their cycle, but you can plant winter rye and apply a light mulch to protect the soil while the garlic roots initially develop. This helps garlic to establish before your companions are even seeds in the ground.
2. The Awakening Phase (March-April): In early spring, green shoots emerge. Apply a light compost tea or organic fertilizer to the soil. Now is the time to sow carrots, beets, and chamomile. These will grow happily alongside garlic as the weather warms.
3. The Growth Spurt (May-June): In late spring, snip off the curly scapes (flower stalks) to force energy into bulb production. This is the window to transplant tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds into the gaps. The garlic is now large enough to provide a scent-barrier for these younger, more vulnerable plants.
4. The Handover (July-Aug): From midsummer on, it’s harvest time! Stop watering 2 weeks before you plan to dig them up. Once the garlic is pulled, tomatoes and flowers will have more room to spread roots and soak up the sun, taking over the bed for the rest of the season.

Companion planting garlic is one of those moves that feels like you’re gaming the system. By picking the right crew – like tomatoes for protection, or chamomile for flavor – you let nature do the heavy lifting. You’ll end up with fewer bugs, better bulbs, and a range of happy edibles and gorgeous ornamentals. So make sure your garlic doesn’t grow without some of these friends around.

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