What Grows Good With Strawberries?

Vegetables

• Lettuce is beneficial to strawberries. It attracts predatory insects which prey on harmful insects. Plant lettuce next to the strawberry plants or around the edges of a strawberry bed and leave two or three lettuce plants in the garden to go to seed. Spinach also can be grown with strawberries. Bush beans benefit strawberries by increasing nitrogen in the garden soil. Onions, including chives, garlic and leeks, improve the disease resistance of strawberry plants.

Melons

• Melons can be grown with strawberries. Summer melons such as cantaloupe, muskmelons and watermelons generally ripen within three months, depending on the variety. Casabas, honeydews and Persians are winter melons that take three to four months to ripen, although some cultivars ripen in three months.

Herbs

• Herbs can be planted with strawberries. Borage enhances fruit flavor and improves disease and pest resistance. Its blue flowers attract bees, resulting in better pollination and heavier fruiting. Borage leaves have a flavor similar to cucumbers. Caraway sends its roots deep, loosening the soil beneath the strawberry plants. It also attracts good insects, such as wasps, that prey on harmful insects. Chamomile is a beneficial companion plant for strawberries. Lovage also enhances the flavor of strawberries. Summer savory grows well with strawberries and improves the flavor of beans and onions. Thyme improves the growth of strawberry plants and attracts bees. It blooms in pink or purple. Many herb plants are tall, with dense bushy growth habits. Plant herbs where they will not block the sun.

Bad Companions

• Do not plant strawberries with any vegetables in the cabbage family, beets, blackberries, corn, eggplant, peas, peppers, potatoes, raspberries or tomatoes. They should not even be planted in the same area where these fruits and vegetables or strawberries were grown within the previous three seasons. Strawberry plants are susceptible to verticillium wilt and other fungi. All of these fruits and vegetables are susceptible to the same fungal infections. The fungal spores live in garden soil even after the plant has died or been removed.