Utilizing all your planting space is easy with companion planting. Picking plants that work well together lets you pack them in tightly. Many plants provide nutrients and deter pests, reducing garden work.
1. Broccoli
Planning your garden to accommodate giant beetroots and broccoli leaves will be worth it after you figure out the spacing. Every plant needs calcium, but beets and broccoli need it differently. Beets don't need much calcium, so broccoli will absorb it all.
2. Bush Bean
Grow beans to prepare next season's bed! While beets don't need much nitrogen, planting them with beans may not require additional nitrogen unless your soil is entirely depleted. Plant bush beans with root crops, not pole beans.
3. Cabbage
Cabbage, like broccoli, needs a lot of calcium and can help moderate beet intake In this combination, cabbage benefits from vigorous root crops. They break up the soil and make nutrients more accessible to cabbage, improving cabbage harvests and soil.
4. Catnip
Catnip grows well near beets if you don't mind cats. Strangely, this camaraderie deters mice. Beetroots from the garden are tasty to mice. You can't blame them, but those are for you! Grow catnip near your beets since they loathe the fragrance and will stay away.
5. Corn
Despite seasonal differences, corn and beets go nicely. Your first beets will be half-ripe when you plant corn. Sequence planting beets builds corn tall enough to shade. Beets enjoy spring sun and hate summer heat, thus corn extends beet season.
6. Endive
Serve endive cold or hot in salads or dishes. Eat it with beets—it goes nicely together. You can easily cultivate with them. Bushy endive rarely spreads more than 6 inches. Packing beetroots and leaves together won't hurt them because they grow above and below earth.
7. Garlic
As nature's pest management, garlic makes a fantastic partner. Use to control beet pests. Aphids, armyworms, cutworms, and garlic-hating mice attack beets. For their underground output, garlic and beets need enough of space.
8. Kale
We recommend planting kale and beet salad together. They like cooler conditions and the same light and water. Beet and kale roots reject weeds and thrive together. Maintain adequate space to prevent pests from spreading.
9. Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is another Brassica that fixes soil calcium. Some types can grow up to 18 inches tall and wide, so check your kohlrabi and beets before planting.
10. Lettuce
Growing lettuce in garden gaps is easy. If your beet bed is vacant, plant lettuce. Large beet leaves shade lettuce, and little roots don't matter. Rapid-growing lettuces decrease weeds when planted with beets.
11. Marigold
Marigolds are compact and shallow-rooted. They'll be smaller if growing close to anything and larger if given enough space and not competing for resources, like most plants.
12. Mint
When I propose mint, I won't plant it. Mint fans enjoy its fast growth, but it stunts neighbors. Maintain mint with a container or daily pruning. Summer after I thought I had eradicated mint, I could smell it in my yard!