Companion planting in the garden can serve a number of purposes, ranging from maximizing garden space to attracting beneficial insects and pollinators to luring insect pests away from other food crops.
Both sweet and hot peppers benefit from companion planting (much like their fellow nightshade, the tomato). Here are the herbs, flowers, and vegetables that will best complement your pepper patch.
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Basil
Arguably one of the most popular summer herbs, basil is great on its own, but also has a place next to and around pepper plants. It's claimed that growing basil next to peppers boosts their flavor, and may help to repel some common garden pests, such as aphids, spider mites, thrips, mosquitoes, and flies. Plus, pesto!
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Chives
Growing chives near peppers can help to deter aphids and other insects. Chives are also said to add to the flavor and yields of plants nearby. Chives are a handy and flavorful kitchen herb, and because it's a perennial, a single planting can come back year after year.
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Carrots
Growing carrots around peppers can help to shade out some of the weeds, providing a living mulch, and are a great way to maximize space in the garden. Plus, who doesn't love a fresh carrot, straight from the soil?
Carrot Plant Care Guide: How to Successfully Grow Carrots
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Onions
Onions don't take up a lot of room above the ground, and can deter many common insect pests in the garden, such as aphids, slugs, and cabbage worms, making them a good companion plant for peppers. Besides the onion bulb itself, onion greens can be clipped throughout the season as an addition to salads and other fresh vegetable dishes.
Growing Guide for Onions: Plant Care, Harvest Tips, and Varieties
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Chard
Swiss chard is another incredibly useful plant in the garden, and interplanting it with peppers can offer partial shade and protection from winds, while also crowding out weeds. Chard also happens to be one of the easier veggies to grow, and can add some color to garden beds.
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Lettuce
Growing lettuce as a companion planting to peppers is a great way to get an additional harvest in a small space, due to their lower growth habit, while also crowding out weeds.
How to Grow and Harvest 'Cut and Come Again' Lettuce, for Perpetual Salad Greens
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Spinach
Spinach can be a compliment to peppers in the garden, for many of the same reasons that both lettuce and chard are, and because of their shorter stature, will not shade out peppers and other taller plants.
Okra
Growing okra near peppers can offer wind protection and partial shade for the peppers in the heat of summer, and may offer some protection from pests such as aphids.
What not to plant near peppers?
There are few plants that experienced pepper growers say are absolutely off-limits. But be warned that cabbage and its brassica relatives (like broccoli and kohlrabi) are known to hamper the growth ofnightshade family vegetables like peppers due to a soil mismatch. Planting fennel nearby is discouraged as well.
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Leeks
Although not quite as popular to grow as its family members, such as garlic and onions, are, leeks can be a good companion plant for peppers. They don't take up a lot of room, so growing leeks can help to fill in empty spots in the garden, and they are also thought to repel some insects, such as carrot flies.
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Radishes
Radishes are not only easy to grow, but are also one of the quickest (as little as 3 or 4 weeks from seed). Growing radishes around peppers allows you to get a fairly quick food crop in a small amount of space.
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Beets
If you've only ever eaten canned beets, eating fresh beets from your garden is quite a treat. Growing beets near peppers is another method of filling in empty space in the garden and shading out weeds while helping to keep soil moist.
The Ultimate Growing Guide for Beets: Plant Care Tips and Varieties
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Corn
Besides being one of the most popular summer vegetables, corn is also a unique plant to have in the garden, as we don't often grow any other giant grasses in our beds (at least on purpose). Due to its tall growth habit, corn can serve as a windbreak or to cast shade on pepper plants during parts of the day. Corn is also said to also act as a trap crop for aphids, which may keep them off the pepper plants.
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Beans
Besides fixing nitrogen in the soil and helping to feed other garden plants, beans can provide other benefits for pepper plants, including crowding out weeds and helping to block the winds or cast partial shade.
How to Grow Green Beans, Even With a Brown Thumb
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Tomatoes
Although it's usually recommended to not plant tomatoes and peppers right after each other in the same bed every year, they can be grown together in the same garden bed (and then rotated to another bed next season). Growing tomatoes near peppers helps to shade the soil and can offer the peppers some protection from the sun in the hottest parts of the day.
How to Grow Tomatoes
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Asparagus
Although asparagus is a perennial, and can't be planted for an instant crop in one season, pepper plants can be grown in the asparagus patch to optimize the use of that space during the summer, after the spring asparagus is picked and eaten.
Growing Guide For Asparagus: Plant Care Tips
Garlic
Growing garlic as a companion plant with peppers can help repel or deter aphids and certain beetles from taking over the peppers. Planting garlic around peppers, or peppers among garlic, is another way of maximizing garden space for better yields.
How to Grow Garlic in Your Fall Vegetable Garden
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Squash
Both summer and winter squash can be grown near peppers, where their large leaves can help keep the sun off the bare soil and keep weeds down.
How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Butternut Squash
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Oregano
Due to its shorter stature, oregano grows well around peppers without competing for space, covers bare soil, and is a great complement to many dishes that also include peppers.
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Dill
Dill is said to attract beneficial insects and to help repel pests such as aphids. It may also improve the flavors of vegetables grown nearby. Planting dill around peppers is a great use of space, while their feathery leaves offer some contrast and texture to the garden.
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Parsley
Growing parsley around pepper plants not only helps you get a second edible from almost the same amount of space, but also serves to provide some shade and cover for bare soil.
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Marjoram
Another lower-growing herb that won't compete for space with peppers, marjoram is said to improve the flavor of vegetables and herbs grown near it, while also providing a tasty culinary herb.
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Buckwheat
Growing buckwheat around pepper plants can attract pollinators and other beneficial insects, as well as serve as a green mulch (cut and chop the buckwheat and lay on the ground in garden beds).
Our Guide to Growing Buckwheat: Plant Care Tips, Varieties, and More
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Rosemary
Rosemary can be a great addition to your culinary herbs, while also serving as a groundcover plant to minimize bare soil and high evaporation rates.
Growing Guide for Rosemary: Plant Care Tips, Varieties, and More
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Cucumbers
Cucumbers are another summer vegetable favorite, as great to eat fresh as they are pickled, and go well with many pepper dishes.
Growing Cucumbers: How to Add Crunch to Your Garden This Season
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Eggplant
Also a relative of peppers, this member of the nightshade family enjoys the same soil conditions that peppers do, and can add some diversity to garden beds while providing another tasty summer vegetable.
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Parsnip
Parsnips aren't usually one of the vegetables people name as their favorite, but growing this root vegetable around peppers can yield another food crop while helping to crowd out weeds and keep soil shaded.
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Peas
Peas are a tasty treat in the spring and summer, and the pea plants help to fix nitrogen in the soil to benefit other plants growing nearby or afterward.
Growing Guide: How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Peas
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Geraniums
Growing geraniums as companion plants for peppers can help repel cabbage worms, Japanese beetles, and other pests. They also provide some wonderfully colorful blossoms in the garden.
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French Marigolds
When grown near other garden crops, French marigolds can stimulate their growth, while also repelling nematodes, aphids, whiteflies, and slugs. Marigolds are a great companion to plant near peppers.
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Petunias
In addition to providing a splash of color in the garden, petunias can be a great companion plant for peppers due their ability to repel asparagus beetles, leafhoppers, tomato worms, and aphids.
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Lovage
Lovage, as a taller plant, can offer protection from drying winds and sun, and is said to improve both the health and the flavor of many garden vegetable plants.
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Nasturtium
This edible flower is not only beautiful, and can benefit the flavor and growth of many other plants, but also is used to deter aphids, beetles, squash bugs, whiteflies, and other common garden pests.
