CUTTINGS

Mr Peck himself grew sunflowers in his onion beds, not for the decorative effect, but because they will indicate when the onions need watering

Positively the last word on companion planting... A newspaper cutting was sent in by D T Holm of Colchester who thinks it came from the Essex County Standard in the early 1980s. The columnist is a commercial grower, Stanley Peck, who had been asked for advice on companion planting. "Living plants," he writes "are affected by aromas, exudations from leaves and especially roots of other plants; and also by soil micro-organisms. Thus heathers transplanted in erica soil are assisted by living organisms which help them take, yet any frame lettuce plant infilled amongst growing crops never makes up."

Suffolk growers, he points out, find that broad beans intercropped between potatoes produce heavily and if rows of earthed up potatoes are spaced widely enough, brassicas do well between the rows. Mr Peck also draws on German research which indicates that cabbage grown close to celery is less likely to be affected by hostile micro-organisms in the soil. Celery, dwarf beans and cabbage all live together happily but cabbages and strawberries fight, as do all brassicas and runner beans.

The Dutch traditionally grow leeks and onions with carrots, but members of the allium family do not do well with broad beans, peas, or runner beans. Mr Peck himself grew sunflowers in his onion beds, not for the decorative effect, but because they will indicate when the onions need watering.

Underneath cloches, lettuce, peas and carrots grow together; but tomatoes and early potatoes, despite being members of the same family do not like being near each other. Nothing flourishes under walnuts or sycamore, but ground where brambles have been burnt or where nettles grew always produce good crops. Nettles contain iron and potash, brambles are rich in magnesium.