Radishes, Squash, Pumpkins: Does Companion Planting Work?

Earlier this year, I did some reading up on companion planting in the gardening.  There seemed to be some really good evidence and testimonials that companion planting really does work.  But as for everything, there were some sites that said that it does not work.  Since there was such a wide swing of opinions on the subject, I decided that I wanted to try some of the ideas that I read about to see if they would work for me.

Several years ago, I planted zinnias at the end of my tomato and pepper rows to add some prettiness to my yard.  Little did I know when I planted everything that zinnias attracted braconoid wasps and that braconoid wasps laid their larva on tomato horn worms thus destroying the horn worms.  Since the two plants were right next to each other, I did not have any problems with horn worms devastating my tomato crop.  Ever since then, I have been interested in companion planting and know that there are at least some benefits to using that method in my garden.

This year, my experiment was going to be on my squash, pumpkins and cucumber plants.  Every year since I have had a garden, I have had issues with striped cucumber beetles on all of my vine growing plants. It isn’t like the little bugs aren’t cute or anything, but they transmit a bacterial wilt that will kill and destroy my crops.  Not wanting to lose my crops, and trying to remain as organic as possible with my garden, I decided to try planting radishes all around my squash, cucumber and pumpkin plants.  I got as far as planting radishes next and between my summer squash and not around anything else.  Sure enough, the pesky beetles soon arrived to start chomping on my plants.  But oddly enough, they were only touching the cucumbers and pumpkins and leaving my summer squash alone.  Check out these pictures of the damaged plants verse and summer squash with the radishes around them.

After looking and comparing my plants with and without radishes, I will definitely be planting my radishes around my cucumbers, squash and pumpkin plants next year.  For me, it seemed to work quite well at repelling the little bugs and it was an organic way to treat my problem.

I would love to hear your experience with companion planting in the garden.  Please feel free to either comment on this post, or post your experience on my Facebook page.