Can Beans Grow Alongside Other Vegetables?

Nitrogen Fixers

• The most common nutrient deficiency that occurs in the garden is a lack of nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient, and plants utilize a lot of it. Adding beans to your garden is a way to improve and add an extra boost of nitrogen to your soil. Beans are nitrogen fixers, meaning, they remove nitrogen from the atmosphere and store it in nodules in their root system. The roots of other plants growing in the vicinity are able to take in and use this nitrogen to aid their health and growth. For this reason, it is a good idea to plant beans next to heavy-feeding plants, such as potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), corn (Zea mays) or squash (Cucurbita spp.).

Companion Planting

• Beans grow well with other vegetables that are known to be companion plants. Companion planting is a gardening technique which has been utilized for centuries to improve plant growth and crop yield. Although it is not an exact science, companion planting places mutually beneficial plants in close proximity in order to decrease competition for water and nutrients, improve crop flavor and health, and award off various pests and diseases.

  The Native Americans developed a classic companion plant combination, using corn, pole beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and squash. A symbiotic relationship is created with these three plants as corn provides a support structure for growing pole beans, and pole beans provide added nitrogen for heavy-feeding corn and squash. Other vegetable companions of beans include cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), celery (Apium graveolens), eggplant (Solanum melongena), peas (Pisum sativum) and potatoes.

Interplanting

• Interplanting is another planting technique where beans benefit other vegetables in your garden by maximizing the number of crops you can grow in the same space. Interplanting techniques place fast-growing crops in the planting spaces between slower-growing crops, like beans. Beans perform well when interplanted with various greens like kale (Brassica oleracea), Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla), lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and spinach (Spinacia oleracea). By the time your fast-growing greens are ready for harvest; your bean plants will have not yet reached maturity. This means that you do not have to worry about your beans competing with or stealing sunlight from interplanted crops.

Combinations to Avoid

• Companion planting tells us that there are certain plants which benefit each other, while other plant combinations detract from each other’s flavor, crop yield and overall health. Certain chemicals in the plant’s leaves and root system do not do well together in the same growing space. For example, bush beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and pole beans should never be planted with members of the onion family (Allium spp.). Never plant pole beans with sunflowers (Helianthus annuus). Although the height of the sunflower seems like it would make a good support structure of growing pole beans, these plants do not perform well together. Additionally, pole beans do not perform well with beets (Beta vulgaris) or Kohlrabi ( Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes).