Ready-made plant combinations from the permaculture tradition. Click "Add to my plan" and all plants land directly in your garden plan.
🌽 Three Sisters
Maize supports the bean, the bean fixes nitrogen for the maize, the squash covers the ground and keeps it moist. Vertical symbiosis: tall, climbing, creeping.
Tomato at the centre, basil against whitefly, parsley attracts lacewings to fight aphids, marigold deters root nematodes. Complete biological protection.
Pinch tomato suckers and tie to stakes — otherwise mildew risk
Plant marigold at bed edge, roots work in 30 cm radius
Sow basil only when soil is warm — tomato shade helps in midsummer
Source: Helga und Margarete Langerhorst, Mein gesunder Naturgarten (eigene Adaption)
🌱 Cabbage Protection
Celery scent masks cabbage from the cabbage white butterfly, marigold deters root nematodes. Classic DACH bed protection against cabbage's two worst enemies.
Cabbage is a heavy feeder — work in compost before planting
Celery between cabbage heads, marigold at bed edge
In spring use insect netting against cabbage root fly until plants are fist-thick
Source: Helga und Margarete Langerhorst, Mein gesunder Naturgarten (eigene Adaption)
🌿 Herb Spiral
Mediterranean herbs with shared needs: full sun, dry soil, lean substrate. Lavender at the top, rosemary/sage in the middle, thyme/oregano at the base.
All four are edible — flowers in salads, borage in water glasses
Borage self-seeds heavily — cut seed heads before ripening if undesired
Calendula blooms until frost if you deadhead spent flowers
Source: Sepp Holzer, Sepp Holzers Permakultur (2004, eigene Adaption)
🥒 Cucumber Crew
Dill as classic cucumber companion (in the bed as in the pickle jar), bush bean fixes nitrogen. Protects against cucumber mosaic and grows the bean side dish at the same time.
Source: Helga und Margarete Langerhorst, Mein gesunder Naturgarten (eigene Adaption)
🌶️ Maikel's Vertical Stacking
Maize at the northern edge as living windbreak, pepper in full southern sun in front, nasturtium as ground cover and aphid distraction between. Three layers — one, two, three.
Holzer's nutrient island: comfrey roots reach 1.5 m deep and mine potassium — as mulch or slurry the best organic fertiliser. Nettle slurry adds nitrogen. Rhubarb leaves (do not eat — oxalic acid!) cover the soil, retain moisture and shade. Three deep-rooting classics that feed each other.
Cut comfrey 4-6 times per season, lay fresh leaves as mulch around tomatoes/potatoes
Nettle hosts butterfly caterpillars — leave one corner wild
Never chop comfrey root if you want to remove it — it regrows from every fragment
Rhubarb: harvest ONLY the stalks, NEVER eat the leaves (oxalic acid poisoning). Do NOT use rhubarb leaves as mulch on vegetable beds — oxalic acid harms young plants
Source: Sepp Holzer, Sepp Holzers Permakultur (2004, eigene Adaption)
🍓 Strawberry Alliance
Garlic deters grey mould and strawberry fungi, borage attracts pollinators to the blossoms, spinach as ground cover provides nitrogen. Classic self-sufficient alliance.
Plant garlic cloves in autumn between strawberry rows
Borage self-seeds — one plant per year produces 5 seedlings next year
Spinach as pre-crop in March, then between strawberries until fruit set
Source: Helga und Margarete Langerhorst, Mein gesunder Naturgarten (eigene Adaption)
🌿 Nitrogen Booster
Bush bean and pea fix atmospheric nitrogen (root-nodule symbiosis), marigold deters root nematodes. Heavy feeders (cabbage, tomato) profit on the same bed the following year.
Sow peas early (March), bush beans after last frost (May)
After harvest leave roots in the soil — the nitrogen nodules are the gift to the next crop
Leave marigolds until frost — roots keep working even as they decay
Source: Gertrud Franck, Gesunder Garten durch Mischkultur (1980, eigene Adaption)
🪴 Balcony Mix
One tomato as the star, basil right at the stem against whitefly, chives as aphid repellent and bee magnet, parsley as beneficial-insect lure, strawberry as ground cover. Fits in an 80 cm balcony box or small raised bed.
