Seventy vegetable, herb and flower crops, each with the plants it grows well next to, sit on one free page at gardenbuddy.au/companion/. No account, no app to install. Here is what it actually shows and how to use it.
A minute on what the Companion Planting Guide shows and how to read it.
What the Companion Planting Guide actually shows
The page is a single table, seventy crops from Amaranth to Zucchini, each row naming the plants it grows well next to. Basil sits with tomato. Carrot sits with onion, leek, lettuce, sage, pea, radish, tomato, bean, celery and rosemary. A search box above the table filters the rows as you type, so finding your crop is one word, not a scroll through the whole list.
Underneath the table sits a shorter, separate list of crops that do better kept on their own: artichokes, asparagus pea, cape gooseberry, chilli peppers, ginger, horseradish, NZ spinach, spinach, strawberries, sweet potato, tomatillo, and yacon or oca. We checked the plugin code behind GardenBuddy.au’s planting tools while writing this, and there is no separate “avoid this combination” list anywhere in the system. What the guide gives you is which crops help each other and which crops want space alone, not a set of pairs to actively avoid.
Why it matters
Companion planting is putting crops together that help each other. Some fix nitrogen for the crop next door. Some pull pests off a neighbour that would otherwise cop the damage. Some just throw shade over a root crop that does not want full sun all day. None of it is magic and none of it replaces decent soil, but it costs nothing and it works often enough to be worth doing every time you fill a bed.
The page says plainly that this is the same crop data GardenBuddy.au’s own planting tools use, so what you read here lines up with the plants your account already tracks. It is a guide, not a rule. Soil, water and timing still matter more than any pairing, and if a combination is not working in your own patch, trust your patch over the table.
How to use it
- Quick check before you plant: search the crop going in the ground, read its row, and slot a companion from that list into the same bed or the next one over.
- Planning a whole bed: work from your main crop outward, checking each addition against the table so nothing you add works against something already growing.
- No screen in the shed: download the free one page A4 chart, every crop and its companions plus the solo list, and pin it up. It rebuilds every week from the same crop data as the page, with the build date printed on the sheet so you can see how fresh it is.
- Timing the planting: pair the companion pick with GardenBuddy.au’s Plant Now tool, so you are not just choosing a good neighbour, you are choosing one that is actually in its planting window for your climate zone right now.
Frequently asked questions
Does it tell me which crops to keep apart? Not as pairs. It tells you which crops grow well together, and separately, which crops do best kept alone rather than paired with anything. There is no “bad companion” pairing list behind the page, verified against the plugin code that runs GardenBuddy.au’s planting tools.
Does it filter by climate zone or which crops I am already growing? No. The table is the same seventy crops for every visitor, filtered only by the text you type into the search box. Zone-specific timing lives in GardenBuddy.au’s Plant Now tool and climate zone growing guides, not on this page.
Do I need an account? No. The table, the search box and the free printable chart are all open to everyone, no signup.
Where does the data come from? The page states it is the same crop data set GardenBuddy.au’s planting tools use. The printable A4 chart is rebuilt weekly from that same data, with its own build date printed on the sheet.
Related features
The Companion Planting Guide works best alongside a couple of GardenBuddy.au’s other tools.
- Plant Now: once you know a good companion, check it is actually in its planting window for your climate zone this month.
- Grow Zone Map: find your climate zone first, so the timing behind any companion pairing is right for where you garden.
- Climate zone planting guides: the month by month version of the same planting logic, zone by zone, for the longer view.
Try it now
Head to the Companion Planting Guide, search the crop you are about to plant, and give it a neighbour that actually earns its spot in the bed.
