Companion Planting [Eco Hacker Farm]

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====== Companion Planting ======

===== What is it? =====

Companion Planting in a nutshell is the use of a combination of plants to:

  - keep pests and disease away from the plants without the use of artificial chemicals
  - improve the taste of the crops grown [[http://www.thecabingarden.com/companion-planting-basil-tomatoes/|(eg tomato & basil combination)]]
  - maximising use of space by having plants that grow underground, low on the ground and tall - providing ground cover to prevent top soil from drying out
  - improve the soil quality by having both plants that need a lot of nutrients and those that put nutrients into the soil
  - attract beneficial insects/pollinators

This is based on the understanding that different plants attract different kind of insects and diseases which can be deterred by having different plants that attract competing insects. 

Examples of companion planting can be found [[https://garden.org/learn/articles/view/4012/|here]]

===== Ongoing work on a companion planting database =====

[[:start|Eco Hacker Farm]] are working on a [[http://goo.gl/lyWaZB|companion planting database]] that is easy to use for garden planning.

The purpose of the database is to enable the user to easily put together a combination of plants that compliment each other without having to go through the whole chart or wasting time in researching each and every combination online.

We want to enable anyone to plan a permaculture garden - no matter the size 
  * input desired plants / climate 
  * output combination results / suggestions
  * identifying key information
  * when to plant & when to expect a harvest 
  * important characteristics of the plant (ground cover / climber / nitrogen fixer etc.)
  * recommended plant care (water / sun / shade / greenhouse etc.)

We are looking for people to contribute, you can add to the database or [[life@ecohackerfarm.org|make suggestions]] on how we can improve it. 



==== Development Logs ====


To track the development of this project, check out the [[powerplant:development_log|development logs]].