Companion Plants For Lettuce: What To Plant With Lettuce In The Garden

Lettuce is a popular choice in most vegetable gardens, and for good reason. It’s easy to grow, it’s tasty, and it’s one of the first things to come up in the spring. Not every vegetable grows well next to every other vegetable though. Lettuce, like a lot of plants, has some plants that it likes having as neighbors and some that it doesn’t. By the same token, it is a good neighbor itself to some plants more than others. Keep reading to learn more about growing lettuce companion plants.

What to Plant with Lettuce

Lettuce benefits from having most vegetables near it. Chives and garlic, in particular, are good neighbors because they naturally repel aphids, a common problem for lettuce. Similarly, marigolds, one of the big powerhouses of pest repellers, can be planted near lettuce to help keep the bugs away. There are plenty of other plants that, while they don’t actively repel lettuce eating bugs, are very happy growing next to it. These companion plants for lettuce include:

• Beets
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Strawberries
• Radishes
• Onions
• Asparagus
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Peas
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Sunflowers
• Coriander

This isn’t an exhaustive list of lettuce plant companions, but it is a lot of vegetables to get you started. Some companion plants for lettuce have their texture improved by its being nearby. Radishes planted near lettuce are supposed to stay softer longer into the summer, avoiding the classic woodiness they experience with hot temperatures. There are, of course, some vegetables that may not be good lettuce plant companions. These are basically everything in the cabbage family, such as:

• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower