Companion Planting Okra and Oregano

Insect Repellent

• Oregano works as a pest repellent for many of the vegetable plants in your garden. Some of the bugs that oregano repels include cucumber beetles and cabbage butterflies. Plants affected by these insects include cucumbers, melons, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Since the broccoli and cauliflower are early planters in the garden, while cucumbers and melons are later, you might want to plant oregano at two different times of the gardening season. Planting the oregano in pots is another option; that way you can move them around to the plants affected by the insect pest.

Shade Providers

• Okra is a bushy plant, which makes it a good shade provider for lower growing plants. Established oregano plants can help to provide a little bit of shade to plants like lettuce that are very low growing, but providing shade with oregano might work best if the oregano is planted in a pot that is taller than the lettuce or other vegetables that need some shade in the hottest part of the day.

Okra

• Okra is a good companion plant for many of your vegetable garden plants. Plant lettuce around the base of your okra plants to benefit from the larger plant's shade from the hot sun. When lettuce has a little bit of shade in the hottest part of the afternoon it will give you a little bit longer growing season. Some plants just grow better when planted next to okra in the garden. Plant okra alongside cucumbers and basil. When you plant okra near your peppers and eggplant the okra helps protect the stems from any damaging winds and also improves the overall growth of the plants. Black-eyed peas are another vegetable that just grows better when it is planted near okra. You may plant okra next to any vegetable without harm.

Oregano

• Oregano is one of those herbs that can be planted among many of your garden vegetables without it taking over too much. Besides having the value of being an all-natural bug repellent for some vegetables, oregano also helps to improve the flavor of cucumbers when the two are planted near each other. Oregano, like okra, is a very friendly garden plant. You can plant it near almost any other edible plants in your garden.