Tomato companion plants (please actually read before you say Companion planting doesn’t work)

Despite conventional agriculture of long rows of single plants in biologically dead soil, plants, just like every other organism, grow best in community and that includes common garden plants like tomatoes. Forming relationships with bacteria, fungi, eukaryotes, microarthropods, nematodes, protozoa, and other plants trading nutrients and recycling organic waste, ecosystems are going to form communities whether you like it or not and maybe outcompeting the plants you want to grow . Many plants help other plants grow by trading nutrients through their roots or connections through fungal mycelium, by using odors and exuding antibacterial chemicals to deter pests, attracting pollinators and providing habitat and nectar for insects, birds and arachnids that prey on insects looking to chow down on them.
Some plants do better planted together due to different nutrient needs, root shapes and occupying different root depths, warding off pests of the others, exuding chemicals that help each other’s growth, attracting fungi beneficial to both, providing habitat, etc. Also, in general just increasing overall biodiversity leads to better crop yields and a lower work, easier to maintain gardens.

Carrots (Daucus carota) are a well known companion plant for tomatoes, even in spring the name of the best selling Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/323589.Carrots_Love_Tomatoes). Carrots like a cooler soil, making them perfect to inter plant with tomatoes as an either an early crop that will mature before tomatoes fully take off or to grow in the shade of mature tomato plants. Carrots having umbel flowers (think umbrella) also means if allowed to go to flower they will attract many predators like ladybugs, hover flies, parasitoid wasps, beetles (also little acknowledged pollinators), spiders, lacewings, etc that prey on common vegetables.
Carrots also help the growth of beans.

Many gardeners (me included) swear growing basil (Ocimum basilicum) near tomatoes leads to bigger tomatoes and improves the flavour of both. Even if that were not so, the strong smell of basil also helps to deter pests like aphids and you can’t argue how important basil is to so many tomato dishes.

Marigolds (Tagetes genus) are welll known in the gardening community for deterring pests, even being one of the few species with studies backing up the claim. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7237031/)
Less well known is that they are edible and a common additive for tobacco making them perfect for adding to incense, smudges, smoke blends, etc.
Due to its root exuding thiopenes, make sure to plant them a comfortable distance from legumes.

Bee balm (Monarda didyma) is a great insectary plant that attracts bees,butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators in droves. Being a member of the mint family, it’s strong scent helps deter pests and the whole plant is edible tasting like a with of spearmint, peppermint and oregano.
It has traditionally been used as an antiseptic and it contains thymol, commonly used in mouthwash. As a member of the mint family with a propensity to spread, it has a reputation for being “invasive” (funny how a Native American plant can be considered invasive here but not all the thousands of acres of cotton or soybeans) but this is easily remedied by planting in containers or using fortress plants.

Amaranth (Amaranthus genus) is a great edible plant related to quinoa whose seeds can be used the same way or processed into a flower or even popped like popcorn as well as the leaves, roots, and stems also being used as vegetables. Hopi Red Amaranth was also used traditionally as a very deep red dye.
Amaranths are a great host of predatory beetles that will help keep common tomato pests in check and is also a good source for multiple species of moths and butterflies. .
They can also provide a trellis for your beans or even indeterminate cherry tomato varieties.
Multiple species are considered invasive in the US despite being here much longer than Europeans because they like to grow in the farm fields we plopped in the middle of their native habitats and have had the nerve to develop glyphosate resistance.

Another great pollinator attracting plant is Borage(Borago officinalis). It’s completely edible with leaves and flowers that have a cucumber like taste. It adds trace minerals to the soil that help the health of tomato plants and it repels tomato hornworms. It’s hairy stems also act as a physical deterrent to a lot of soft skinned insect larvae that like to devour young plants.

Nasturtiums (Nasturtium genus) serve as a trap crop for aphids and works as vigorous groundcover, as well as being a great pollinator attractant. It also has edible flowers and leaves, with a spicy peppery taste that makes a great black pepper alternative.

You’ve probably seen it a thousand times and just glanced right over it, Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a common garden plant that’s completely edible and delicious. Seeds, flowers, leaves and stems are all great in salads. It’s been used for treating a wide variety of ailments in herbal medicine, for everything from skin ailments to arthritis, to period pain , to iron deficiency.
It’s one of the first plants show up after winter, providing early food for people as well as the garden itself. It’s low growing, carpet like habit makes it a good ground for protecting the soil and it’s fast growth makes it a great mulch plant to chop and drop and feed other plants. It’s also a well loved treat for chickens and rabbits.

Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is one of the highest yielding calorie crops you can plant with varieties that even beat out potatoes. It has nothing to do with Jerusalem or artichokes , being an American native plant related to sunflowers, the name comes from a corruption of the Italian word for sunflower, girasole.
Jokingly called fartichokes due to the high inulin content making people gassy, this can be remedied by boiling, fermenting or storing them so the inulin converts to fructose.
It can inhibit the growth of tomatoes if grown too closely, but I recommend them as a windbreak for tomatoes due to their tall height and the amount of pollinators they attract.

Beans, being legumes, form a symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria in the soil. The Rhizobium bacteria are anaerobic and need an environment without oxygen and the plants let them colonize their roots in specialized nodules where they can transform the abundant nitrogen gas from the atmosphere to plant solluable ammonia the plant needs since it’s a necessary building block of chlorophyll. Growing them as a companion plant in the garden reduces or preferably eliminates the need for artificial fertilizers. (A vastly underreported source of methane emissions https://xvirity.com/2019/07/12/fertilizer-industry-releases-100x-more-methane-than-reported/ not to mention an easily accessible ingredient for bombing making like in the Oklahoma City bombing and an easy target of terrorism)

by Joeyplantstrees