15+ Chives Companion Plants – What to plant & what not to plant with Chives?
I was very interested in the idea of growing companion plants with chives, so I decided to try this experiment. Initially, I doubted whether it would affect the health of my chives, but after seeing the results, I’m now recommending these companion plants that grow best with chives.
In this informative article, I’ve compiled a list of over 15 companion plants that grow best with chives, balancing their nutrients and resulting in perfect bloom. Furthermore, if you encounter any problems while growing chives, feel free to ask me in the comment section below.
Key takeaways:
- Chives are flavourful and known for their edible leaves, scapes, and flowers.
- Scientifically chives are known as Allium schoenoprasum, the plants are easy to grow.
- Chives are really helpful in making delicious dishes.
- There are numerous Chives Companion plants that you can grow.
- Some of those Chives Companion plants are cucumbers, lettuce, dill, basil, fruit trees, and many more explained below.
- Even keep in mind some of the plants that are not Chives Companion plants.
- Companion plants are plants that can be grown with a specific plant and provide benefits and you can easily plant the chives in the pots.
Good companion plants of Chives – Chives Companion Plants
Chives itself is a great plant to grow with some plants in your garden bed. The chives help the plants in so many ways and even these plants help the chives in many ways. Let’s find out what are these:
1. Carrots
Chives and carrots are great companions as the chives help the carrots by repelling the carrot flies that attack the leaves and even the carrot crop.
The flies when staying away the carrots come out a little healthy. Chives also enhance the flavor of carrots.
2. Cucumbers
The chives again are helpful to the cucumber plants and the crop as they keep the cucumber beetles away from the plants that can munch on these plants and harm them.
3. Grapes
The grapes in your garden might need some help as many pests and insects can hop on the leaves and fruits and feed on them. Grapes are the other Chives Companion Plants.
The chives near the grape plant will help deter harmful pests and insects from the garden. Chives flowers also attract a lot of pollinators near the garden plant so you will also get many good crops.
4. Apple tree
The chives, if grown near the apple trees, still help the apple trees irrespective of their small size. It acts as a Chives Companion Plant. The chives are seen to protect the apples from the borers that can ruin the whole fruit and also the fungus that can destroy the species.
5. Strawberries
Chives have a strong aroma and can keep the animals away from the strawberries that would love to taste strawberries and much more.
The chives increase the fertility of the soil in the case of strawberries as they add some nutrients to the soil that chives need.
6. Tomatoes
The chives help tomatoes by giving them a brilliant taste just like garlic and other alliums. They also keep the pest like aphids usually messing around with tomatoes, far away, increasing crop production as well. Tomatoes get tastier in the presence of chives. Some other companion plants to grow with tomatoes are Cilantro, Garlic, Mint, Nasturtium, etc.
7. Potatoes
Chives and potatoes when grown together do not create any trouble for each other or even the planters.
The shallow roots of chives don’t interfere with the potato plants and let the potato plant grow well. Other than this many pests and insects stay away from the potato plants.
8. Peppers
Peppers get easily attacked by pests, especially aphids. Other than this, slugs and other pests create much trouble for the pepper plants.
Chive, when planted near the pepper plants, means no aphids will come near your pepper plants like bell peppers and hot peppers.
9. Brassica
The brassicas benefit from the chives plant growing near them. The chives plant keeps the worms that attack the cabbage and broccoli away.
The cabbage worm affects the cabbage leaves badly which does not happen in the case of growing with chives.
10. Lettuce
The lettuce is again badly affected by the aphids and they almost destroy the whole plant and make them useless. The chives will keep the aphids and other pesky pests far away from the lettuce plants.
11. Peas
Chives when growing near the best types of peas, help to keep the aphids away from the pea plant. The flavor is also improved in the presence of chives.
12. Dill
The pests are easily attracted near the dill plant. But, when lives are near dill then the aphids don’t come near the dill plant. some other companion plants to grow with dill are Cucumber, Asparagus, Basil, Brassicas, etc.
13. Peach trees
The peach trees having a bunch of peaches will attract many insects that will create holes in the fruit and destroy them. Having chives growing with peach trees keeps the harmful insects and worms away from the peaches.
14. Basil, cilantro, parsley, and tarragon
The herbs like basil, cilantro, and parsley can be grown together and would be beneficial as they have similar growing conditions.
15. Alliums:
These are flowering plants that have hundreds of species that are known for their culinary applications. You can grow chives alongside the allium family such as onion leaves, scallions, and garlic as the basic requirements of the plant are similar such as soil water, sunlight, etc. By doing this it will be easy to make the garden manageable. They both help each other to grow quickly with the help of nutrient-rich mulch.
16. Bok choy:
They are also called Park joy which are the Chinese cabbage that you can eat as a vegetable. They do lack heads and have green leaf blades. The taste of this vegetable is similar to spinach and water chestnuts. They are sweeter and mildly peppery.
The chives do have a strong smell which keeps the best away from pests. You can find aphids, cabbage warm, slugs, Spider mites and butterflies commonly in bok choy so growing with chives will! Help in keeping them away from them.
17. Broccoli:
The broccoli does have a blooming head stem and auxiliary leaves which you can consume as a vegetable and also can be eaten RAW or by cooking in different ways as per your taste such as Stir frying, steaming or microwaving. Growing chives with broccoli will keep the cabbage worm away from the broccoli as they do have a pest-repellent fragrance and help to grow the plant.
Cauliflower:
Cauliflower is a plant in which you can only eat the head of the plant. They are used to Bloom in white color and you can use them with a variety of dishes by boiling, frying, grilling pickling, and steaming the vegetables. Growing with chives does provide the cauliflower with a ground cover that reduces weeds and keeps the roots of the plant cool.
Growing chives do have a strong fragrance that attracts pollinators and keeps away pests such as aphids.
What are the bad Chives Companion plants?
1. Spinach
The spinach plant’s growth gets inhibited in the presence of the chives plants.
2. Asparagus
Similar to the other alliums, the chives inhibit the growth of the asparagus plants.
3. Oregano, sage, thyme, lavender
The herbs like sage, thyme, lavender, and oregano when grown near the chives mean they won’t grow well as the chives have different growing requirements than these herbs.
Summing up the context
The onion-flavored chives are a great addition to your garden as they belong to the allium groups. The bulbs and the long slender green leaves are added to dishes like omelets, yogurt, pasta, etc. What’s better than growing two plants together and getting double varieties and healthy plants? Chives as we mentioned are brilliant companion plants to many plants. We hope you have read about them all and find them helpful. We are happy to help you always with your garden and babies(plants).
Happy planting and happy parenting!