View source for Companion planting

'''Companion planting''' in gardening and agriculture is planting of different crops in close physical proximity. It is a form of [[polyculture]].

Companion planting is used by farmers, and gardeners in both the industrialised world as well as the third world. 

For farmers, techniques are already being used in [[Integrated_Pest_Management|IPM]], and systems can be set up to allow the farmer to have more yield and/or reduce [[pesticides]].

In the third world, tropical crops are used instead of temperate ones and provide NGO's, and other organizations a tool for allowing the poor to get out of poverty.

For gardeners, the combinations of plants also make for a more varied, attractive vegetable garden.  
It can also be used to mitigate the decline of biodiversity.
Many of the modern principles of companion planting were present many centuries ago in the [[cottage garden]].