Thursday, January 17, 2013

Eureka! A Valuable Companion Planting Discovery

Eureka!  I've done it!

A stick figure hovering over a table, waving a magic wand over a beaker and some seeds, exclaiming, "YES!"
Ok... it's nothing as glorious as that.  What I discovered, however, does bring a huge smile to my face.  I discovered information.  Good information.

I had to go all the way to Australia by way of Bali to do it!

Yeah.  I'm being dramatic again.  I didn't physically go anywhere near Bali... or Australia.  I simply did a web search that eventually brought me to a valuable guide created by the IDEP foundation in Bali... but, you know... it just sounds so much more awesome if I make dramatic claims of great adventures.  Right?

Maybe?

Well, then.  I'm sure you want to hear about what I found, especially since it's something you can use, as well.

Amazing knowledge right at our fingertips.
Amazing, downloadable knowledge.
Amazing, downloadable, and useful knowledge.

SCORE!!!

So, what was it, you ask?

Nothing mind-bendingly spectacular for most people, to be honest.  Rather, it's a simple chart.

I mentioned earlier that I was starting to think about planning next season's garden.  I'll have to do quite a bit in containers, since there's no guarantee that I'll still be in this house after May.  You know, that whole renting thing.

I decided to look into companion planting. 

I wanted to know which plants could be planted together for maximum effect.  If I could place plants in the vicinity that would act as barriers against pests that would otherwise attack their companions in other containers, I'd be able to not only give those plants added protection, but save time on pest control, as well.

Squishing beetles tends to take a lot of time...

I went searching for a good guide on companion planting.  Most of what I found was very basic: only a few plants with only a few of their companions.  Very, very useless.  Well, not entirely useless.  That is, I'm sure some people would be perfectly happy with that smidgen of information.

I'm not one of them, and if you're reading this, you aren't either.

We want the good stuff.  We want information that lists multiple plants and multiple companions for them.  We desire the knowledge of what works and what doesn't.  We need a guide.

I found that at the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia.  The PRI of Australia was created to educate people about sustainable practices be viewing everything from a whole world approach.  Naturally, they had a wealth of information dealing with sustainable gardening.

Companion planting, naturally, fits that description.

They link to a .pdf file on their site that was designed by IDEP in Bali.  It's a guide that lists several plants.  Each plant is paired with another, using grid form, and the pairs show whether plants effect each other positively (happy face), negatively (an x), or not at all (blank space).

Total grid boxes?  A few thousand.

It also has a listing of plants that repel different types of insect pests along the right hand side.

Wow!

I've already begun soaking in all of the information.  It's been downloaded to my computer and my netbook, as well as side loaded into my Nook.  I can take this chart with me everywhere, and I imagine that after seeing this companion planting guide, you'll want to do the same.

So click the link below, and check it out.  You'll see what I'm talking about:





2 comments:

  1. Superb way of explaining, and great blog to get wonderful information.
    clicking here

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad I could help, Rohail. I hope that balcony garden of yours is going well!

    ReplyDelete