Companion Planting: the Honest Guide: Charts, Bed Layouts and Crop Rotation for Beginners — What Research Actually Shows, With Every Claim Rated by Evidence

Most companion planting charts have never been tested.Trace the famous pairings back and they converge on a handful of mid-century books that cited no trials at all. Those charts have been copied from one another ever since - the good parts and the invented parts side by side, in the same typeface, with nothing to tell you which is which.So gardeners follow all of it, get mixed results, and conclude either that companion planting is magic or that it is nonsense. It is neither.Every claim in this book carries a ratingFive levels, from STRONG - repeatedly demonstrated in controlled trials - down to NOT SUPPORTED: tested, and not confirmed.You will find claims rated NOT SUPPORTED here that appear as fact in most other companion planting books. That is the point. A guide that tells you everything works is not a guide, it is a list.What actually works- Trap cropping. Perimeter Blue Hubbard squash cut cucumber beetle infestation on summer squash by up to 95% in Connecticut field trials.- Feeding the predators. Small open flowers support the hoverflies and parasitic wasps whose larvae eat aphids - the single highest-value thing a home gardener can plant.- Push-pull. The best-documented companion system in agriculture, and how to scale it down honestly.- Spacing and rotation. Both beat every pairing in the book, and almost no companion planting guide mentions the competition cost of interplanting.And what doesn't- Aromatic herbs repelling pests by scent- A few marigolds protecting their neighbours from nematodes- Beans feeding the sweetcorn beside them this season- Basil repelling tomato hornwormInside- 45 chapters across six parts- Crop by crop - 15 chapters covering every major vegetable family, with what helps, what to ignore, spacing and rotation group- Bed layouts you can copy, built from the mechanisms rather than from a chart- Spacing tables, a four-year rotation plan and a sowing calendar anchored to your last frost date- A master table of every pairing in the book with its rating and chapter- Pest-to-response table, glossary, sources and a find-it-fast index- Trial record sheets - because a book that rates other people's claims owes you the tools to check its ownGrow the basil with the tomatoes. Just put the alyssum in as well.