Garlic and broad beans

[Plotter]

Can anyone offer any advice or experience regarding growing garlic and broad beans together? I had planned to do these in the same bed, but something was niggling me about not planting the two together. A brief internet search seems to advise not co-planting other types of bean with garlic and other alliums, but broad beans are seemingly excluded.

Anyone tried these as companion plants? Success? Failure? I have sown the beans already so if you have any advice I would be grateful.

[Urban Ayisha]

i would presume that the strong smell of garlic might ward some pests off your broad beans, but i dont know why the other alliums wouldnt be a good idea, perhaps they arent smelly enough?! i too, according to the companion planting in the SSish bible, have planted a row of garlics inbetween 2 rows of broad beans, so if it all goes to pot il be blaming dave and andy ! hehe only kidding.

sorry, thats probably not much use to you, as i dont really know why garlics yes but other alliums no!

[JulieSherris]

Hmmm.... this year I planted broad beans on one side of my bed - spring onions in the centre row & peas on the other side.... I had a few gaps in amongst the broad beans, so planted some leeks... result? Fantastic!!

OK, the onions & leeks didn't keep any bugs off the beans or peas, but good crops were had from all in this bed

[Derry]

hmmmmmm. i did wonder about this too, but i still put white onions, garlic, red onions and then a row of broad beans in my blokes veg patch.....

[grahamhobbs]

I wouldn't plant broad beans too close to the garlic because they could easily overshadow them. I have never heard of a companion synergy. Garlic doesn't suffer really from pests and broadbeans really only suffer from blackfly, which will not be deterred by garlic. Plant a few nasturiums nearby, they will detract any blackfly and incidentally any cabbage white butterfly from your cabbages.

[grahamhobbs]

Browing the Self Sufficentish Bible last night I read that beans and garlic are not companion plants, in fact the reverse.

[Cheezy]

Your not supposed to plant alliums with legumes because the legume is a provider of nitrogen. Too much nitrogen with alliums will encourage them to put on green growth (and bolt) at the expense of bulb development.

It's also why you shouldn't put a lot of fertilser/muck onto alliums . If you have well manured area (or post legumes) I companion brassicas with alliums , as the brassica's are greedy.


Cheezy
(Hummersknot allotment soc. Winner: Best dressed onion from set 2008,2009 )

[Peggy Sue]

I did this a couple of years ago, half my row of broad beans overlapped next to a row of garlic. It was really marked how the beans NOT next to the garlic thrived and th ones next to the garlic were quite stunted. An accidental experiment but interesting. I also assumed the garlic would ward off blackfly but it didn't.
So now my beans are far from my garlic.