Companion planting is one of the best ways to improve the growth of your vegetables, fruits, berries, and legumes in your home veggie garden.
Strawberries can be temperamental, and getting these lush red berries to grow well can be a challenge.
Luckily, companion planting has some answers to the most challenging obstacles that growing your own strawberries can bring.
This is what I discovered when I asked, “What plants grow well with strawberries?”
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What Plants Grow Well With Strawberries?
There are many plants that can help strawberries avoid pests, improve their flavor, and help them hide from greedy birds. Strawberries also help other plants by offering dense foliage to cover exposed roots and tuber tops with veggies such as beetroot and rhubarb. Your options for companion planting with strawberries include asparagus, beans, chives, and herbs.
Vegetables That Grow Well With Strawberries
Beans
Beans, especially bush beans, are a great growing companion to strawberry plants.
Bush beans are exceptional bug-repelling plants, and I plant these in between my strawberry plants to ensure beetles don’t come scavenging at night among my strawberries.
Onions
While I’m on the topic of bugs, onions are great bug-repellent plants too, and their pungent aroma is effective for keeping small flying insects away that can affect the quality of the strawberries when they are still young.
Asparagus
I love to boost the soil’s nutrients by planting my strawberries around an asparagus patch.
These two plants are great complementary growers as they use different levels of nutrients and replace other nutrients that each plant needs.
Spinach
Another great insect repellent, spinach is a beneficial growing partner to strawberries.
The rich green foliage of spinach also shields the strawberries from harsh sunlight and roving birds’ view.
Lettuce
Planting leafy green vegetables like lettuce among your strawberries will improve their flavor, keep the soil moist, and protect the fruits from birds and bugs.
Herbs to Grow With Strawberries
Borage
This is an excellent herbal companion to strawberries. It keeps bugs away by being a powerfully pungent insect repellent, and it also attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies to your vegetable patch.
Strawberries require sufficient pollination during their flowering stage to form healthy and plentiful fruits.
Additionally, I find that borage improves the flavor of my strawberries, which is an added bonus.
Catnip
I’m fond of planting this for my cats, but this handy herb is also great at repelling smaller insects like aphids and mites that can severely damage your strawberry plants.
Chives
Another great herb, which is also pungent like an onion, is chives. This herb repels insects and also other garden pests like snails and worms that could target your strawberry plants.
Their presence will protect your strawberry plant’s roots from ground-based scavengers like beetles and ants.
Yarrow
With strawberries, I try to encourage as many pollinators into my vegetable garden as possible, and yarrow flowers are great for attracting these.
Thyme
This sweet-smelling herb helps me keep different kinds of worms away from the general vicinity of my strawberries.
The pungent aroma also penetrates the soil, helping to protect my plants from an underground attack.
Flowers to Cultivate With Strawberries
Marigolds
If you have marigolds and strawberries, then you have a classic combination. I love these cheery flowers, especially their deep woody scent, which is also a great insect repellent.
In my own vegetable garden, I use marigolds by planting them at random between different vegetables and fruits, like my strawberries.
Their scent repels bugs and worms, and I have even noticed there are fewer invading weeds when I have marigolds on station.
Lavender
While lavender is not technically a flower, since it’s a herb, it is better known for its flower heads, which is what I cultivate in my garden.
Not only does it improve my strawberries’ flavor, but it is a magnet for pollinators like moths, butterflies, and bees. Healthy lavender means my strawberries are healthy too.
Plants To Avoid Near Strawberries
While I believe anything can and will grow near strawberries, there are a few plants I religiously keep away from my strawberries.
Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage should not be planted in the same bed as strawberries as they use the same nutrients and are faster growers, meaning they can compete with and starve my strawberries.
Aubergine, potatoes, and tomatoes can spread a fungal disease to my strawberries, so they are also planted on the far side of the house or as far away from my strawberries as I can.
Even walking from one vegetable patch to the next can spread verticillium fungal spores, so I am careful to rinse my boots when I am gardening.
Frequently Asked Questions About What Plants Grow Well With Strawberries
What is a good companion plant for strawberries?
The best companion plants for strawberries improve their fertility, pollination rate, and repel pests. Look at borage, thyme, marigolds, and onions to ensure healthy strawberries in your garden.
Can I plant tomatoes and strawberries together?
Tomatoes spread the fungal disease verticillium that causes wilting in strawberries, so don’t plant these together. You should not even plant strawberries in a garden bed that has recently had tomato plants in. Wash your hands after handling tomatoes if you are going to handle your strawberry plants.
Can you grow strawberries and blueberries together?
These two berries grow well together. Blueberries grow a medium-high shrub, while strawberries form a low-growing ground cover. The two complement each other as the blueberries protect the strawberry plants from heat and roving scavengers like birds. The strawberries keep the soil from drying out by providing ground cover under the blueberry shrubs.
The Final Strawberry
Strawberries are delicious and nutritious, but if you don’t create a vegetable garden that will keep them healthy and pest-free, you won’t be harvesting much at all.
Use these growing partner plants to ensure your strawberries have the right companions and are safe, well-nourished, and flavorsome.
Daniel has been a plant enthusiast for over 20 years. He owns hundreds of houseplants and prepares for the chili growing seasons yearly with great anticipation. His favorite plants are plant species in the Araceae family, such as Monstera, Philodendron, and Anthurium. He also loves gardening and is growing hot peppers, tomatoes, and many more vegetables.