Customer Reviews

Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My first impulse was to give this book only one or two stars, but:
a) I read it right after Carol Deppe's "Breeding Your Own Vegetable Varieties" and that is a really tough act to follow. It is CRAMMED with information and fun and intriguing ideas.
b) After reading other reviews, I don't think I had a good idea of what the book was like. That isn't the book's fault.

My first frustration is that the book is not very well organized. The information that is useful is buried in meandering chapters that tend to repeat themselves.

Second frustration--the recommended companions are almost all flowers. I have a small garden and not much room for flowers. I was expecting to know whether I should plant my onions next to the tomatoes or the peas...just a few basics. But there isn't that kind of information in here. In fact, Ms. Cunningham doesn't mention a single thing NOT to plant next to anything else. If I remember right, from Biology class, some plants don't grow as well next to others. I've gotten this idea from a few internet sites as well, but I guess I'll have to go buy another book to find out for sure.

My final and biggest problem with the book is that she rarely explains why she mixes the flowers that she does. Over and over she mentions the same three reasons for her style in general:
1) attract pollinators
2) "confuse" insects that damage your garden
3) to look pretty (!)

I do think that some people might prefer this kind of lighter read, and there are a few pages of useful information about each main type of garden crop in the back. It's just not nearly enough for a beginning gardener to know where to start.

If you grew up in a city with no exposure to the out-of-doors and find the idea gardening to be a little intimidating, she might be just the right person to put you at ease. However I like a more scientific approach...something that tells me exactly what to do, when, where, and most importantly, WHY, then I can judge what corners I need to/want to cut, and adapt it to my needs.

Although GREAT GARDEN COMPANIONS appears to be about what to plant with what, Sally Cunningham's book is about much more. Cunningham is a `Master Gardener' associated with the Cornell Cooperative Extension in upstate New York (growing zone 6) and has spent many hours practicing what she preaches in her nearby garden. Her garden (as shown in diagrams and photographs) reminds me somewhat of those shown on National Public Television's long-running Victory Gardens (raised beds, yummy soil), but Cunningham's advice and ideas are 100 percent organic.

While many people understand organic gardening involves the use of raised beds, mulch, compost, and cover plants that enhance soil friability, retain moisture, and restore soil, few books discuss the ecosystem within which gardens exist. Cunningham works a large garden at the edge of fallow farmland (where the glaciers left very nice black soil), however, many of her ideas will work in a smaller and/or less fertile places.

Some of the more interesting sections of Cunningham's book cover "old-time" notions such as how to build row hedges that attract birds and act as wind breaks; how to identify insect friends and foes and cultivate the former while repelling the latter; why toads, moles, birds, dogs, cats and horses can be great garden companions. For example, Cunningham says moles have been given a bum rap and dogs and cats can actually help you ward off the bunny rabbits and other critters who might make a meal of your lettuce. Horses are a fabulous source of organic fertilizer-should you be so lucky to own one.

Cunningham uses virtually everything that is biodegradable to make compost. She stops by the side of the road to sweep up leaves and pine needles discarded by others. She rips newspapers into long strips and mixes them into compost piles. She buries composted material directly in the garden under straw and other coverings to decompose over the winter. These practices work. I have buried half-digested material next to my roses in fall and by spring produced fabulous flowers on 3/4 canes ordinarily measuring a third of an inch.

Regarding companion planting, Cunningham suggests mixing the members of "families (i.e. tomatoes, eggplants, peppers) in the same bed along with companion herbs and perennials. She suggests members of the same family have similar growing requirements and by combining like with like you will save work. This might be so, but many garden writers suggest the opposist--combining plants from different families as companions. These writers believe the pests and diseases that attack one member of a family are likely to attack another member of the same family and by separating them you confuse the enemy. In addition, authors like Riotte (CARROTS LOVE TOMATOES) suggest certain combinations produce synergistic results. I tend to agree with Riotte, but like much else in life, you will have to experiment with various combinations to find the answer for your garden.

This is what gardening is all about! This text approaches gardening in a sustainable, "natural-chaos", good for you and the earth manner. The illustrations are clear, the diagrams simple, new/unfamiliar terms well explained. Very clear, concise, imaginative, and inspiring. The author deserves a BIG thank-you for writing this book. It takes the guess work and mystery out of organic gardening and companion plants. Her methods are simple and effective.

Which plants enhance other plants, attract good bugs, repel bad bugs. Vegetables that are compatible and incompatible. Each section is comprehensive, easy to follow. Great tips, especially the home-made Tomato cages. The paperback version is very nice, lots of pictures and illustrations and large, I also have the hardback. There is information about diseases, ways of planting (container, etc.)This should be in every gardner's library, from beginner to professional.

As a beginner gardner, this book is helping me to, hopefully, put my garden in order. 'Great Garden Companions' is written in a conversational style and is nicely organized. Ms. Cunningham's experience in gardening shines through with helpful hints and sound advice based on years of working with her companion system. She outlines which vegetables, herbs and flowers work best together to repel pests naturally, covers many basic gardening skills (which I need to develop), and her enthusiasm is evident on every page. I think this book would be an excellent choice for any new gardner or for someone interested in gardening organically.

If you do `Organic', then you probably already know Rodale Press and their penchant for searching out and finding the best possible authors. With Sally Jean Cunningham they certainly have a hit the jackpot. She writes so clearly and with such joy that you would think she was a Rodale herself.

To give you an idea of what her style is like, in the introduction, Sally Jean illuminates the three harvests that she personally derives from her garden. The first is what you would expect, healthful vegetables and beautiful flowers; the second however is "satisfaction and peace of mind". And the third, she says, is the experience of getting to teach to others the techniques and secrets that she has learned over a lifetime of experimentation in the garden.

It would be very difficult to outline all that she teaches. Giving the chapter headings would only be misleading, but suffice it to say that she covers companion planting, french intensive/raised gardening, organic soil building and pest control (which happily includes how to train dogs and children to stay out of the raised beds-LOL) And this in the first few chapters.

From there she covers `"good guys" or those beneficials we'd all like to see dancing about our blooms, the inclusion of perennials amongst the seasonal throng; and design elements, such as arbors, creative mulch, creative garden design, etc.

Of continual use to me over the years are the sections at the end of the book where she goes veggie by veggie describing friends, foes, growing essentials, spacing, feeding, harvesting tips and problems one is likely to encounter.

She also has some summary charts for Beneficials (insects) and plants they like; plants and the pests they may repel; as well as several pages on "Preventing Pest" problems in the first place.

Personally, I have only 3 gardening books at home and this is one. And if you are organic (or want to be) or if you just want a wealth of veggie and flora information, then this book will be a great addition to your gardening library.

A friend of mine borriwed this book often, so I bought them a copy for their birthday. It showed me many ways to reduce pests in my garden, using companion planting, and without using pesticides. I love the mix of pretty flowers and herbs among my vegetable plants. It also offered great ideas for plant spacing within the garden.

If you like to plant in rows - just go ahead. Cunningham's book is crammed full of much useful and fun information, but you must first know that she is an avid proponent of raised beds and the intensive French Method of gardening where many different kinds of plants are sown throughout a rectangular bed in non-linear patterns.

I enjoyed so much about this book but I was disappointed in Cunningham's participation, albeit mild, in the current unilateral maligning of monoculture. Monoculture is one step in the journey of agriculture as a practice. Monoculture was derived from "sustainable agriculture" before that cliche was termed. It is not we who are learning to create gardens with high enough yields to sustain us through the winters. We are relearning what has already been done by earlier generations. We tend to forget that "sustainable agriculture" was a necessity not an experiment for many families right up to the early twentieth century.

Many of the GI Generation farmers who so enthusiastically practiced monoculture grew up as tenant farmers, often living in what we would consider shacks, and deriving nearly all of their winter provisions from a family garden cultivated when they were not working the owner's farm. Pestilence was feared because the consequence might be hunger.

So in the mid-twentieth century there were a lot of men and women with a knowledge of farming, a fear of starvation and a GI bill that was going to finally allow them land of their own. They felt like they were feeding the world. They wholeheartedly took to chemical pesticides and fertilizers because they thought their use would wipe out hunger. They were not unenlightened as is often insinuated. They were tough survivalists and they thought they were doing the right thing. Though there is much to be learned and admittedly much to be revised from their practices, I lament that I do not hear much in the way of historical context.

That annoys me and it annoyed me that such a terrific teacher and gardener as Cunningham does fall into this a bit. Beginning gardeners are easily confused by so much information. Let's not add any fears that by planting in rows they are practicing monoculture and thereby damning the planet to oblivion. Two rows of beans flanked by three rows of corn is not monoculture. Monoculture is acres and acres of the same plant. Nor are they sellouts if they break down and spritz a plant with the occasional hit of bottled insecticide.

Unlike agribusiness, the home gardener only sprays when a problem is evident therefore much less is used and more pointedly. I don't think home gardeners need to fight the organic battle and I find the bugs much more unpalatable than the pesticide. Second hand smoke probably did me more harm than anything my farming family ever dusted on the crops.

That said, after checking the book out of the library, I went ahead and bought her book. Though I do not completely follow either organic or intensive method farming, I found her strengths as a writer and teacher very compelling.

1) She has some of the best drawings of good and bad bugs. Growing up on the farm we had bugs we liked,and those we didn't. It was nice to learn their names and have confirmation that we were right in liking those little guys. Most of them didn't even bite.

2) For the small gardener interplanting and succession planting may increase yield significantly.

3) Grouping plant families by their feeding needs makes interplanting easier to understand and also makes crop rotation more comprehensible to someone new to the idea.

4) She dispels many myths of interplanting, such as potatoes can't be planted near any other vegetables, and that carrots hate dill. Her dedication to separating fact from folklore is invaluable. If you are serious about companion planting Cunningham is the finest source of reliable information on how to do this.

5) The discussion of how interplanting various flowers with vegetables "confuses" the bugs sounded a bit farfetched to me at first. But after consideration, insects must use some sensory perception to find their food. Plants in mixed beds or seen in the woods do not seem to take the same punishment from bugs as a garden row of single plants. Differing the foliage type around the vegetables as a ruse may have some validity. Along with providing alternative housing for insects that eat bugs that destroy gardens.

6) Providing a home for wildlife can enhance insect control. Our landscape used to host a healthy population of garter snakes and I had no insect problems in my beds. My insect problems have increased upon getting a jack russell who ousts every snake she encounters.

7) Cunningham provides very useful drawings and instructions for making common garden equipment such as cages, and goes where no gardener chronicler has gone before by detailing step-by-step how to repair that dratted hose.

My disagreements or possible concerns with her advice are few.
1) Planting vegetables amidst perennials may not be an option if you want enough of that vegetable to put aside for the winter.
2)Purchasing flower seed for every bed or row can double or triple the cost of your seed purchase.
3)Raised beds may not be practical or like me, you just find them cumbersome and expensive.
4) There is a bit too much concern over walking on the soil between your rows. Most of us have a home garden, not a sustainable farm. Walk on your rows. You are going to till them up next year anyway.

Cunningham really just wants to give you everything she has got, so the book is dense with information and to the beginning gardener so much detail may feel like a heavy load of do's and don'ts. This is a book to try out a few ideas and then go back to for more the next season. When you aren't talking raised beds her tone is very inclusive and friendly and she truly wants you to enjoy your gardening adventures. This is a terrific reference volume for any home gardener packed full of innovative ideas. The politics of planting in rows aside I do recommend this book wholeheartedly and as a home gardener who enjoys putting food by I look forward to trying out several of her ideas in the hopes of increased yield.

This is a personal favorite - this book is not just about what to grow next to what, it's about a comprehensive gardening strategy that develops a strong, healthy ecosystem in and around your garden. The "garden companions" are not only plants, but animals (in the form of bugs - good and bad, house pets, her horse, birds and other wildlife) and materials (such as compost, mulch, cold frames, fertilizers, hoses, etc).

The author groups plants into neighborhoods - the tomato, the potato, the cabbage, the squash, the roots and greens, and the perennial crop neighborhoods. Within these neighborhoods, she lists Family members (for instance, the tomato neighborhood includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and greens), Friends (in this case, basil, cleome, cosmos, parsley, Queen-Anne's lace and any tall Aster family flower), recommended mulch/groundcover, rotation schedule and notes. There are solid sections on bug identification (pests and beneficials) and detailed crop information, including trouble shooting suggestions.

I did run into a few problems when trying to implement her suggestions in my own garden. First, her diagrams had no place specifically for melons or cucumbers. Not a big deal, I'd put them with the other vine crops, but they take up a lot of room and I grow a lot of them, so this has a big impact on my personal crop rotation schedule. When I was try to grow certain flowers for companion plants, I had difficulty finding dwarf varieties, and in some cases my companions outgrew my main crop and had to be trimmed back. I tried planting my corn and squash together (part of the Three Sisters planting), but the squash got ahead of the corn and overcrowded it. I can only imagine what would have happened if I had included beans. The instructions could be clearer as far as timing the crops. I also didn't like grouping my greens and roots, as I like to load up the greens area with plenty of manure, some of which is not as composted as it could be. When the beds filled up with plants, at times it was difficult to access what needed to be harvested because there was so much growing around it.

The book is written in a friendly, conversational style, with attractive photo spreads of the author's garden that make you want to get and out and work in the dirt. I like the attention to organic methods and soil building, and the insect information (identification, attracting beneficials, warding off pests) is some of the best I've seen.

I got this book to explore ways of managing insect pests without chemicals. It was a good choice. Most of the book discusses the way plants (and animals) interact. I found this far more helpful than the standard 'encyclopedic' gardening book which simply lists individual plant characteristics.

The book is an interesting mix of home-remedies and scientific know-how. Sometimes the prose is a little too optimistic (the author claims 99% of insects are beneficial), but the overall tone encourages an exploratory and confident outlook.

Here are the fundaments of garden health which I found in the book:
1) Bring together a balance of species: plants, insects, birds and animals, in big and small ways
2) Always have some water available of the animal life
3) Always have flowers in bloom since they keep beneficial insects around
4) Keep things changing, rotate planting beds annually

I particularly liked the reference material in the final 100 pages. There are sections on plants and sections on insects, but each refers to the other. For example, in the section on corn, we learn that nasturtiums are good companion plants for corn. Also, we discover that small flowered herbs will attact insects that prey on corn-borer larvae that try to steal the harvest. In the section on corn-earworms, there are lists of natural insect enemies and plants that will host the good guys while they wait for earworm to prey upon.

Finally, the color photos of the authors blended gardens should inspire everyone!