Steve Yoder
I'm Steve, a 30-something urban gardener fascinated by companion planting research. Growing up surrounded by greenery sparked my passion for gardening early on. I enjoy transforming my small backyard, experimenting with companion planting techniques and eco-friendly practices. Sustainability matters—I advocate for native plants and composting.
Table of Contents
Benefits of Kale Companion Plants
Companion planting is a way of growing plants together that helps each other grow better. There are many benefits to kale companion planting, including:
- Pest and disease prevention is one of them. Companion plants help protect each other from pests and diseases. This succeeds by providing barriers or by emitting chemicals that repel pests.1
- Fertilizer enhancement is the second benefit. Some companions contribute nutrients back into the soil through their root systems. Like that, they help all nearby plants get more nutrients as well. For example, garlic planted near carrots will add nitrogen back into the soil. So, cabbage family crops like broccoli or cauliflower can thrive instead of getting rusty by nutrient deficiency.
- Attracting beneficial insects is another benefit. Companion plants may attract helpful bugs to your garden that eat pests or improve the quality of your crops in other ways. For example, aphids won’t bother cilantro if they’re busy eating nasturtiums.
4 Best Kale Companion Plants
Basil – This is a great companion plant for kale, and they grow well together. Basil repels pests and attracts beneficial insects. This makes basil a typical companion plant for many plants.
Chervil – Chervil is an herb that grows in the shade and water well. It’s also considered to be one of the best companion plants for kale! It helps deter whiteflies, aphids, spider mites, Japanese beetles, and more.
Chives – Chives are another herb that grows well with kale in both sun or shade soil conditions. Yet, they need more water than most other herbs do so keep this in mind when planting them nearby your kale patch!
Dill – Plant dill close to your Kale plants but make sure you don’t plant them too close together. Otherwise, you risk not having enough room for each plant to spread out properly. This could cause stress on both plants resulting in stunted growth or even death!
Kale is a perennial plant that can grow in many different locations, but it does need full sun. The plant is very hardy and can survive cold winters as well as many other adverse conditions. Kale also grows fast from seed to harvest and has many uses, making it a versatile addition to your garden. It is habitual nutritious! Kale has one of the highest concentrations of vitamins A and C per calorie than any other vegetable. Also with beautiful varieties ranging from purple to green leaves with white or yellow veins running through them.2
Kale companion plants are those that can enhance the growth and flavor of kale when grown together in your garden bed or container garden space.
What not to Grow With Kale
Kale is a hardy vegetable that can withstand the cold climate of the winter. On the other hand, there are some plants that you should not plant as kale companion plants.
These vegetables need full sun to grow in a proper way. Kale does well in partial shade and will thrive even if you give it less water than usual. It can also survive in areas such as Alaska where temperatures fall below freezing for long periods during the winter season. The reason is its thick leaves. These insulate against high wind speeds and heavy rainfall.
Kale doesn’t do well when planted near potatoes! The reason is that they compete for nutrients from the soil. This makes both crops weaker than they would be without each other nearby. Kale is also known for having an impressive sensitive root system. This root system makes it difficult for them to grow alongside strawberries. Since both plants need similar conditions (a lot of nitrogen), they start competing. Thus, either one may suffer from stress due to a lack of nutrients caused by another competing crop nearby.
References
- da Silva, V. F., dos Santos, A., Silveira, L. C. P., Tomazella, V. B., & Ferraz, R. M. (2022). Push-pull cropping system reduces pests and promotes the abundance and richness of natural enemies in brassica vegetable crops. Biological Control, 166, 104832.
- Avigal, Y., Deza, A., Wong, W., Oehme, S., Presten, M., Theis, M., … & Goldberg, K. (2021, May). Learning Seed Placements and Automation Policies for Polyculture Farming with Companion Plants. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 902-908). IEEE.