Carrots Love Tomatoes

April 13, 2009
Companion planting is when you put two or more plants together and, like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, they help each other out. A la Tom Fischer, this classic book teaches dudes that "watermelons are good to interplant with tomatoes," lettuce grows well with strawberries, and "cucumbers are offensive to raccoons, so they are a good plant with corn" (16). But Riotte also shares which plants don't make amicable companions, ending up like Courtney Love and Madonna locked in a room together. Sections on pest control are also worthy, with tips like using deploying praying mantises garden guardians, and interplanting onions among the cabbages and lettuce to repel rabbits.-Douglas Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Middletown

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