Garden

BASIL & AMARANTH

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PERMACULTURE & GARDENING
BY THE DESERT ECHO

True Spring Tomato (Solanaceae) Companions
Why do tomatoes and basil make the perfect pair?



 
 

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grain-amaranth-tassel



 
 

When I think of summer it’s the smell of tomato leaves as you brush them aside to pluck their fruit paired with the heady scent of basil. Once, starring at the perfection of aged purple gum leaves on parched red earth I wondered if colour harmony must be some instinctive response derived from the natural world around us: pale green saltbush against golden sand, pink blossoms waving in a clear spring sky. If this were true, perhaps taste harmony is also based on what natural grows well together in the garden. Just as the colours of a butterfly delight, think of how basil is simply perfection on a tomato pizza or on top of a pasta sauce!
 

Some things are made for one another – tranquility triumphs within a balanced garden.

 

BASIL

My favourite basil for colour is the purple ornamental, but sweet basil is the tastiest. This grows up to 45cm towering over the 15cm compact bush basils. It has been reported that basil helps tomatoes resist disease and actually improves the flavour of tomatoes it grows near, I can’t confirm this, but it certainly does attract bees if you let it flower. Be warned though, once your basil flowers it is the end, pinch those blossoms off as soon as they appear to extend the life and taste of your plants. A pesto of old basil tends to taste like grass and if you’re wondering that is as ghastly as it sounds. It repels aphids, white-fly and fruit-fly; if you leave it on a windowsill it can help yours well as the tomatoes warding off houseflies and mosquitoes.

AMARANTH

Amaranth rises through a sea of green with crimson, purple splashed or yellow foliage, rising up to 60cm. Leafy amaranth is eaten like spinach and grain amaranth dazzles with sculptural plumes. Fast growing, drought tolerant with few disease problems itself it is said to be a good companion for eggplants as it repels insects. Tomatoes become more resistant to harmful insects and potatoes have greater yields. It also loosens the soil for plants that come after the solanace rotation such as beetroot, carrots and radishes.
 
 

Berry punnets reused for seedling propagation
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Simple cut and fold the cartons for a sustainable, free draining, biodegradable seed raising pot.

 
 
 
 
 

PROPAGATION

Both these plants like the tomatoes they assist require warm weather to flourish and shouldn’t be planted out until the maximum daily temperature is reliable over 10C (November in Melbourne). In True Spring, I plant them in discarded berry punnets to keep them warm, with a tray of water underneath to keep them moist.

When they show their first true leaves I gently move them into a milk carton. Many people transplant their seedlings into milk cartons with both the top and bottom cut off, but after too many seedlings falling out the bottom before their time, I decided to fold the bottom in.

Then I place the folded carton this inside a bottle greenhouse with water in the bottom half allows them to thrive despite the cold. When the temperature is right simply unfold the bottom and plant directly in the ground without disturbing the roots.

This year the warm weather seemed to come late so I sowed a second batch of basil and amaranth in High Summer as a backup.



 
 
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Garden

COMPANION PLANTING – CALENDULA & MARIGOLD

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Plants that grow well with tomatoes
Plants that grow well with tomatoes

Orange Calendula Flowers

Yellow marigold flower growing in painted tin can
The very hungry caterpillar does his grocery shopping by scent and silhouette. The European vegetable patch, everything in neat little rows, is his ultimate convenience store. The snail can just slime along that generous aisle between vegetables and mow down each snow pea it comes to. One, two, three!

Let’s not make it too easy for them shall we?

You need to fill those gaps with companion planting! We want to propagate veggies not pests! There is no room for bare earth in my tomato bed this year!

Let’s begin by sowing seeds of Calendula and Marigold.



 
 

The Desert Echo's Tomato Companion Planting Chart with sowing times
Bee on Calendula seed head
To crawl amongst these flowers is, for a bug, like the overwhelming stench of a department store perfume floor, that sweet essence of tomato leaf gets lost amongst the confusing odours and they flee, overwhelmed.

French marigolds in particular are known to deter the nematode, those transparent, millimetre long worms that carelessly multiply in your soil spreading bacteria and viruses, leaving behind them a trail of disfigured and useless tomato roots.

The repellent effect of the substances exuded from their roots is meant to last several years after the plant has been long dead.

Whiteflies tend to plague tomato plants, quivering merrily under each leaf in shimmering clouds. Tiny sucker mouths by the thousand cause young growth to deform and wilt and fruits to become disfigured. Happily marigolds deter these nasties, whilst Calendula gallantly act as a decoy crop attracting them away from the precious tomatoes.



 

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