What Are the Companion Plants for Plant Supports?

Companion plants for plant supports are essentially any plants that benefit from or enhance the use of trellises, stakes, cages, or other structural elements in your garden. These aren't just climbing vines; they include plants that gain stability, improve air circulation, offer aesthetic appeal, or even boost the health of the plants using the support. Thinking about companion plants in this context means selecting varieties that thrive alongside supported plants while also contributing to the overall beauty and productivity of your garden space.

Why Should You Use Companion Plants with Supports?

Using companion plants alongside supported plants isn't just about filling empty space; it's a smart gardening strategy that brings a multitude of benefits to your garden's health, productivity, and visual appeal. By carefully selecting plants that complement those growing on trellises, stakes, or cages, you can create a more robust and harmonious ecosystem. The primary reasons to integrate companion plants with supports include maximizing garden space, improving plant health through pest control and pollination, and enhancing the overall beauty of your cultivated areas.

Here's a deeper look into why companion planting with supports is so beneficial:

Maximizing Garden Space:
- Vertical Gardening: Plant supports inherently allow you to grow more plants in a smaller footprint by encouraging upward growth. Companion plants can then fill in the horizontal space at the base, optimizing every square inch of your garden.
- Layered Planting: You can create layers – tall, supported plants in the back, medium-height companions in the middle, and low-growing ground covers or edibles at the front – to fully utilize the vertical and horizontal dimensions.
Pest Control and Deterrence:
- Natural Repellents: Many companion plants release compounds or scents that naturally deter common garden pests. Planting them near supported crops can create a protective barrier. For example, marigolds are known to repel nematodes and various insects, while nasturtiums can act as a trap crop, drawing aphids away from more desirable plants.
- Beneficial Insect Attractors: Some companion plants, especially those with small flowers like dill, cilantro, yarrow, or sweet alyssum, are magnets for beneficial insects such as ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps. These natural predators and parasites help control pest populations, reducing the need for chemical interventions.
Improved Pollination:
- Flower Power: Many supported vegetables, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, rely on pollinators for fruit production. Planting flowering companions nearby, such as borage, calendula, or zinnias, attracts bees and other pollinators, leading to better yields for your supported crops.
Soil Health and Nutrient Management:
- Nitrogen Fixation: Certain companion plants, particularly legumes like bush beans or peas (even if not climbing themselves, they can be companions to climbing plants), have a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria that convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants. This enriches the soil, benefiting nitrogen-hungry supported plants.
- Weed Suppression: Low-growing companion plants or ground covers can help suppress weeds by shading the soil, reducing competition for water and nutrients that your supported plants need.
- Soil Protection: Ground covers help prevent soil erosion and can moderate soil temperature, keeping roots cooler in summer and warmer in cooler months.
Enhanced Aesthetics and Visual Appeal:
- Layered Beauty: Thoughtfully chosen companion plants add color, texture, and variety around the base of often utilitarian supports. This transforms a functional element into a beautiful garden feature.
- Concealing Bases: Companion plants can elegantly hide the sometimes less attractive base of trellises or stakes.
- Continuous Blooms: By selecting companions with different blooming times, you can ensure there's always something in flower around your supported plants, adding continuous visual interest.
Disease Prevention:
- Improved Air Circulation: While the supported plant itself benefits from improved air circulation, companions can be chosen to maintain this benefit. Avoid planting companions that are too dense and create a humid microclimate right at the base, which can foster fungal diseases.
- Repelling Disease Vectors: Some companions may deter insects that act as vectors for plant diseases.

By strategically incorporating companion plants with your garden supports, you're not just supporting a plant; you're cultivating a thriving, resilient, and beautiful garden ecosystem.

What Types of Plants Benefit Most from Supports?

Certain plants in the garden have a natural inclination or a clear need for extra help to stand tall, produce abundant harvests, or simply grow in a more organized fashion. Understanding which types of plants benefit most from supports helps you choose the right structural aids and companion plants for them. Generally, vining plants, tall-growing vegetables, and plants with weak stems or heavy fruit loads are the prime candidates for various forms of plant supports.

Let's explore the categories of plants that most appreciate a little extra help:

Vining Vegetables:
- These are perhaps the most obvious candidates. They naturally want to climb and spread, and a support structure gives them the vertical space they crave.
- Examples:
  - Cucumbers: Most cucumber varieties are natural climbers. Using a trellis (garden trellis for climbing plants) keeps them off the ground, improves air circulation, and results in straighter, cleaner fruit.
  - Pole Beans: Unlike bush beans, pole beans produce continuous yields and can grow quite tall. A bean pole tepee or a trellis is ideal.
  - Peas: Sweet peas and snap peas readily climb with tendrils. Netting or a lightweight trellis works perfectly.
  - Winter Squash/Melons (smaller varieties): While large varieties are too heavy, smaller butternut squash, cantaloupes, or even sugar pumpkins can be trellised, especially if you provide slings for the developing fruit.
Tall-Growing Vegetables:
- Even if they don't vine, some vegetables grow quite tall and can become top-heavy, prone to toppling over in wind or rain.
- Examples:
  - Tomatoes: Indeterminate (vining) tomatoes grow continuously and absolutely require staking or caging to support their heavy fruit load. Determinate (bush) varieties can also benefit from cages, especially if they are heavily laden with fruit. You can find specialized tomato cages or use strong stakes.
  - Eggplants: Especially taller varieties, can become top-heavy with their large leaves and fruit. Staking prevents snapping branches.
  - Peppers (tall varieties): Larger bell peppers or chili peppers, once laden with fruit, can benefit from a single stake to prevent branches from breaking.
Flowering Vines:
- These are grown for their ornamental value and are excellent for softening hardscapes, creating privacy screens, or adding vertical interest.
- Examples:
  - Morning Glories/Moonflowers: Rapid growers that quickly cover supports with beautiful blooms.
  - Climbing Roses: Many rose varieties are bred to climb and look stunning on arbors, pergolas, or trellises.
  - Clematis: A diverse group of flowering vines with breathtaking blooms, perfect for trellises or obelisks.
  - Honeysuckle: Fragrant climbers that attract pollinators and hummingbirds.
Heavy-Fruiting Shrubs or Perennials:
- Plants that produce a lot of fruit or have dense, heavy foliage can sometimes sag or splay open, especially after rain.
- Examples:
  - Raspberries/Blackberries: While some varieties are self-supporting, many brambles benefit from wires or trellises to keep canes upright, improve air circulation, and make harvesting easier.
  - Peonies: Their large, heavy blooms can cause them to flop over, especially after rain. Grow-through hoops or stakes keep them upright.
  - Delphiniums/Foxgloves: Tall flower spikes can be easily damaged by wind. Individual stakes or grouping them can offer support.
Leafy Greens (for vertical growing):
- While not traditionally "supported," some vertical gardening systems (like wall planters or towers) act as supports for crops like lettuce, spinach, or herbs, allowing them to be grown upright.

Using supports for these plants improves their health by increasing air circulation (reducing fungal diseases), keeps fruit off the ground (preventing rot and pest damage), makes harvesting easier, and creates a more tidy and productive garden.

Which Companion Plants Repel Pests and Attract Beneficial Insects to Supported Crops?

Choosing the right companion plants for supported crops can transform your garden into a natural fortress against pests and a haven for beneficial insects. These green heroes work by either emitting deterrent scents, having compounds that pests dislike, or by offering nectar and pollen to attract helpful predatory and parasitic insects. Effective companion plants for pest control and beneficial insect attraction include marigolds, nasturtiums, borage, dill, cilantro, and various low-growing flowering herbs.

Here's a breakdown of excellent companions and their specific benefits:

Pest-Repelling Companions:

Marigolds (Tagetes spp.):
- Target Pests: Nematodes (especially French marigolds), whiteflies, aphids, squash bugs, tomato hornworms, cabbage worms.
- How they work: Their roots release chemicals that deter nematodes, and their strong scent often confuses or repels other flying insects.
- Best with: Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, beans, peas.
Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus):
- Target Pests: Aphids, whiteflies, squash bugs, cucumber beetles.
- How they work: Act as a "trap crop," meaning pests prefer them over other plants. Aphids, for example, will often congregate on nasturtiums, leaving your supported plants alone. They can also deter some pests with their peppery scent.
- Best with: Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pole beans, fruit trees (especially as a ground cover).
Garlic/Onions/Chives (Allium spp.):
- Target Pests: Aphids, slugs, snails, Japanese beetles, carrot rust fly.
- How they work: Their strong sulfur compounds are offensive to many pests. Chives, in particular, are great for repelling aphids.
- Best with: Tomatoes, peppers, climbing roses (chives are great for rose aphids), fruit trees.
Mint (Mentha spp. - use in pots!):
- Target Pests: Aphids, cabbage moths, flea beetles, ants.
- How they work: Its strong aromatic oils are repellent to a wide range of insects.
- Best with: Cabbage, tomatoes, peppers. Caution: Mint is extremely invasive; always plant it in a pot to prevent it from taking over your garden.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum):
- Target Pests: Flies, mosquitoes, tomato hornworms, thrips.
- How they work: Its pungent aroma is thought to confuse or deter certain pests. It's famously known to improve the flavor of tomatoes.
- Best with: Tomatoes, peppers.

Beneficial Insect Attracting Companions:

Dill (Anethum graveolens):
- Attracts: Ladybugs, lacewings, predatory wasps, hoverflies (which eat aphids).
- How it works: Its umbelliferous (umbrella-shaped) flower heads provide easy access to nectar and pollen for many small beneficial insects.
- Best with: Cucumbers, corn, lettuce, brassicas (cabbage, broccoli).
Cilantro/Coriander (Coriandrum sativum):
- Attracts: Ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, parasitic wasps.
- How it works: Like dill, its small, accessible flowers are ideal for beneficial insects.
- Best with: Tomatoes, peppers, beans.
Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima):
- Attracts: Tiny parasitic wasps, hoverflies.
- How it work: Its clusters of tiny, abundant flowers provide nectar for very small beneficial insects, which are crucial for controlling even smaller pests.
- Best with: Almost any supported crop, especially around the base of trellises. It forms a lovely, low-growing carpet.
Borage (Borago officinalis):
- Attracts: Bees, parasitic wasps.
- How it works: Bees love its star-shaped blue flowers, leading to improved pollination. It's also thought to deter tomato hornworms.
- Best with: Tomatoes, squash, strawberries.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium):
- Attracts: Ladybugs, lacewings, predatory wasps.
- How it works: Its flat-topped flower clusters are perfect landing pads for many beneficial insects.
- Best with: Most vegetables and fruit plants, adds excellent structural diversity.

By strategically weaving these companions into your garden plan around your supported plants, you're not just creating a beautiful display, but also building a resilient and naturally balanced ecosystem that requires fewer interventions and yields healthier harvests. Remember to plant enough of these companions to create a noticeable effect!

How Do Companion Plants Improve Soil Health and Yields Around Supports?

Companion planting around supported plants isn't just about deterring pests or attracting pollinators; it plays a vital role in nurturing the very foundation of your garden: the soil. Healthy soil is the bedrock of vigorous plant growth and abundant harvests. Companion plants contribute to improved soil health and increased yields by fixing nitrogen, suppressing weeds, moderating soil temperatures, enhancing nutrient cycling, and preventing erosion.

Let's dig into how these green partners enrich your garden from the ground up:

Nitrogen Fixation:
- Legumes: Plants like bush beans, peas, or clover have a remarkable ability to "fix" atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. They host special bacteria in their root nodules that convert nitrogen gas (N₂) from the air into a form that plants can use (ammonia).
- Benefit to Supported Plants: Nitrogen is a critical nutrient for leafy growth and overall plant vigor. When nitrogen-fixing companions are planted near supported, nitrogen-hungry crops (like tomatoes, cucumbers, or peppers), they essentially act as natural fertilizer factories, slowly releasing this essential nutrient into the soil, reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.
Weed Suppression:
- Groundcover Effect: Low-growing companion plants, such as sweet alyssum, various herbs (thyme, oregano), or even carefully managed clover, act as living mulches. They create a dense canopy over the soil, shading out weed seeds and preventing them from germinating.
- Reduced Competition: By preventing weeds, companion plants ensure that your supported crops don't have to compete for water, nutrients, and sunlight, all of which are vital for strong growth and good yields.
Soil Moisture Retention and Temperature Moderation:
- Natural Mulch: A living groundcover helps to reduce water evaporation from the soil surface, keeping the soil moist for longer. This is especially beneficial for supported plants, which often have extensive root systems.
- Temperature Regulation: In hot climates, companion plants can shade the soil, keeping root zones cooler and preventing heat stress for your supported crops. In cooler climates, they can help insulate the soil, maintaining a more consistent temperature.
Enhancing Soil Structure and Nutrient Cycling:
- Root Systems: The diverse root systems of companion plants can help break up compacted soil, improve aeration, and increase water penetration. Over time, as these roots grow and eventually decompose, they add organic matter to the soil.
- Organic Matter: The decomposition of companion plants (whether they are left as chop-and-drop mulch or incorporated into the soil) continuously adds organic matter, which improves soil structure, water retention, and provides a slow-release source of nutrients.
- Mineral Accumulation: Some companion plants, known as dynamic accumulators (e.g., borage, comfrey), have deep taproots that draw up minerals from deeper soil layers, making these nutrients available to shallower-rooted supported plants when the accumulator plants decompose.
Erosion Prevention:
- Holding Soil: For supported plants on slopes or in areas prone to heavy rain, companion plants with their extensive root networks can help stabilize the soil, preventing valuable topsoil from washing away.

By carefully integrating these companion plants, you're building a more resilient, self-sustaining garden where the soil is continually nourished and improved. This, in turn, fosters healthier, stronger supported plants that are more productive and less susceptible to environmental stresses, ultimately leading to more bountiful harvests.

How Can You Plan Companion Plantings for Aesthetic Appeal Around Supports?

Integrating companion plants with your garden supports offers a fantastic opportunity to elevate the visual appeal of your outdoor space, turning functional structures into captivating garden features. It's about blending form and function to create a harmonious and beautiful landscape. Strategic planning for aesthetic appeal involves considering height, texture, color, and bloom times of companion plants to create visual interest and complement the supported plants and their structures.

Here's how to plan companion plantings for maximum aesthetic impact around your supports:

Consider Height and Layering:
- Varying Levels: Think about creating distinct layers around your support. Tall, supported plants form the backdrop or central element. Medium-height companions (1-3 feet tall) can sit in front of or around the base, and low-growing groundcovers or edibles can fill the very front.
- Examples: A tall tomato cage could have medium-height basil or marigolds around its base, with a low carpet of sweet alyssum spilling out in front. This creates visual depth.
Balance Texture and Form:
- Contrasting Textures: Mix plants with different leaf textures (fine, broad, feathery, glossy) to add interest. For instance, the broad leaves of a supported cucumber can be complemented by the delicate, feathery foliage of dill or parsley nearby.
- Varied Forms: Combine upright, bushy, mounding, and trailing plant forms. A rigid obelisk trellis supporting a climbing rose can be softened by mounding catmint at its base and trailing nasturtiums weaving through the lower branches.
Strategic Color Palettes:
- Complementary Colors: Choose companion plants whose flower or foliage colors complement the main supported plant or the garden's overall color scheme. For example, orange marigolds might pop against the green foliage of a supported pepper plant, or cool-toned blue borage flowers could look lovely next to a white climbing rose.
- Monochromatic Schemes: Create a serene look by using different shades of a single color.
- Continuous Bloom: Select companion plants with staggered bloom times to ensure there's always something in flower around your supports from spring through fall, providing continuous color and interest.
- Foliage Color: Don't forget foliage! Plants with variegated leaves, purple hues (like some basil varieties), or silvery foliage (e.g., lamb's ear) can add year-round color and contrast.
Concealing the "Naked" Base:
- Many plant supports, especially trellises and stakes, can look stark or utilitarian at ground level before the supported plant fully covers them.
- Low-Growing Companions: Use low-growing, bushy, or sprawling companions to elegantly hide the base of the support and create a more natural transition into the garden bed. Petunias, creeping thyme, or prostrate rosemary can achieve this beautifully.
Aromatic Appeal:
- Incorporate fragrant herbs or flowers as companions, especially near pathways or seating areas. The aroma of lavender, sweet alyssum, or basil can greatly enhance the sensory experience of your garden as you pass by your supported plants.
"Flowing" Effects:
- Let some companion plants gently spill or "flow" out from under the support structure. This softens the lines of the support and makes the planting look more natural and less rigid. Trailing herbs or annuals are perfect for this.
Consider the Support Itself:
- If your support is decorative (e.g., an ornate obelisk or arbor), choose companions that will highlight, rather than completely obscure, its design.
- For simpler supports, companions can add all the visual flair.

By intentionally selecting companion plants with these aesthetic principles in mind, you transform your garden supports from mere functional necessities into vibrant, multi-dimensional focal points that delight the eye throughout the growing season.