Some healthy competition can be good, especially when it comes to gardening.
The scoop
TikToker Seb (@solidarity.acres) shared how bountiful harvests from "polyculture" gardens can be.
@solarity.acres 👇 Do plants compete for nutrients? This is the biggest worry I hear when people are discussing polycultures. Plants obviously DO compete for nutrients. But, as Mark Sheppard points out in 'Regenerative Agriculture', polycultures will overall yield MORE biomass than monocultures. In a polyculture garden, you'll get less of each individual vegetable, but you'll get more food overall. Nature doesn't grow monocultures. And neither should we. Plants can work synergistically together to grow more than if they were planted by themselves. BUT this doesn't mean that everything is a good combination. Follow along because I'm going to be making videos about how to choose specific companion planting partners, and how to take companion planting to another level with 'guilds'. Comment GUILDS if you want this video so I know who is interested (and who actually made it this far in the caption 🤣). The general rule of thumb though is to think about the roots + think about the way the plant grows. Lettuce has shallow roots, likes some shade and grows pretty small. Kale has deeper roots, can handle lots of sun and grows big and tall. That means that these would be great partners to companion plant (and they are, I've had great success with this combo). But WHY STOP THERE? Let's add another plant to the mix. Kale and lettuce both use nitrogen, so let's add bush beans to this planting as they'll fix nitrogen. Now these 3 plants will grow MORE overall. Drop your fav companion planting ideas in the comments and see if others agree! #permaculture #kitchengarden #organicfarming #companionplanting #veggiegarden ♬ original sound - Seb 💚
"Some people think if you plant plants too close together, they're going to compete for nutrients," Seb started off, showing a garden with many different plant species growing side by side in anything but neat rows. "Plants will compete for sunlight, plants will compete for nutrients, but a lot of that is pretty overstated."
Seb explained that because different plant species have different root systems, they "can work synergistically together to grow more than if they were planted by themselves."
How it's helping
This is an easy gardening method to increase yields, said Seb, "as Mark Shepard points out in 'Restoration Agriculture,' polycultures will overall yield more biomass than monocultures. In a polyculture garden, you'll get less of each individual vegetable, but you'll get more food overall."
Seb matches plants to grow side by side based on some characteristics of the roots and growing processes. For example, Seb shared how "lettuce has shallow roots, likes some shade and grows pretty small. Kale has deeper roots, can handle lots of sun and grows big and tall. That means that these would be great partners to companion plant (and they are, I've had great success with this combo)."
Seb continues to note that because kale and lettuce use nitrogen, they might plant bush beans with them in order to create nitrogen, improving the growth of all three species. Completing this simple puzzle can help to maximize your vegetable garden's yields.
Growing your own food can save you hundreds of dollars per year, and you don't need a ton of space to do so. One commenter wrote, "I'm growing about 230 tomato plants in a 27.5 M2 area for the first time in my life. I'm growing [them] quite close."
Gardening benefits your mental health as well as your physical health.
What everyone's saying
Some commenters pointed out that polyculture gardens can also help to reduce threats from insects or invasive plants without using dangerous chemicals. "Some plants also help others — basil helps keep aphids off tomatoes, for example," said one comment.
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How often will you be gardening this summer? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Every day 🥗 "Love polycultures," wrote one commenter.
"That's awesome," said another.
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