Plant Partners is the latest go to for gardeners keen on companion gardening. Tried and true techniques are discussed alongside the science to back them up.

eARC kindly supplied by publisher and Netgalley

This is a great gardening book! I have to start with how beautiful this book is. The photography & the layout makes it a joy to to flip through. Beyond how beautiful it is, Plant Partners is also a useful gardening book. What makes this an important book for gardeners is that all of the work is based on scientific experiments, but it is easy to read and understand without needing to know a lot about science. Companion planting and what veggies to plant next to each other has been done for a hundreds of years and some of it makes sense based on gardeners' observations and some of it has just been superstition, but I've never seen information about what to plant together based on scientific experiments before. This book has a narrow scope; it can't be your only source for gardening information, but it adds practical, organic tricks for a number of important garden issues like improving output by controlling pests and improving the soil. I received an advanced copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

I initially heard about this book while listening to a Joe Gardener podcast with Joe Lamp’l and Jessica Walliser. After hearing everything they discussed on the show, I knew I was going to buy the book as soon as it became available. So I was surprised when I saw it as an ARC on NetGalley and I was approved to read it. Yay!

There was lots of information for beginning gardeners but I was looking for the ‘meat and potatoes’ to questions I’ve had for years. I read Louise Riotte’s Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening and Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers years ago, but I found Ms. Walliser’s book both interesting and concise with references that backed up her statements.

I wanted the actual names of plants with the best combinations of companions. And the geeky part of me wanted to know why they performed this way. I wanted needed the science that supported these PLANT PARTNERS.

While I read I kept thinking the author would make an awesome teacher. She made learning fun. Her knowledge was printed in an easy-to-read format and the colorful photos enticed me to work in my garden now .

Thank you to Net Galley and Storey Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve been interested in companion planting for some time and Plant Partners provides the science behind it all in a easily understandable and digestible form. The book is written for an American audience but contains a lot of information that can be adapted and applied to UK gardens. The overall principle is to increase diversity by growing more plants that benefit other plants by suppressing weeds and improving soil health or provide food and shelter for pollinators and predators. There’s also an extensive list of references for anyone who wants to learn more.

What’s not to like about a natural approach that can beautify your garden, make it more wildlife friendly and allow you to enjoy more of your crops? I liked this book so much that I’ll be buying paper copies for myself and a gardening friend.

"Plant Partners" is a very informative book about garden plant pairings that help improve the yield and health of your harvest crops. The author talked about cover crops, living mulches, using allelopathy to combat weeds, plants that can be used as living trellises, plants that can be used to lure pests away from harvest crops, plants that help suppress disease in their plant partners, plants that attract beneficial insects, and plants that bring in more pollinators to the garden for an increased crop. She focused on plant pairings that have been studied at universities and such for their effectiveness.

She also talked about related issues, like no-till gardening or studies suggesting the reasons behind why these plant partners work well. The many pictures usually showed how the plants can be planted near each other (interplanted or planted in alternating rows). Her description of how to implement these plant partnerships (when to plant, where to plant, etc.) was also clear to me. Overall, I was so impressed with this book and its usefulness for a home gardener that I bought a physical copy because I'll be referring to it often. We're going to try some living mulch this year along with a couple of the plant partners that were suggested to bring in beneficial insects. I'd highly recommend this book to home gardeners.

I never thought there's something to be learned from planting specific plants together. This things that this book has to offer is both useful and amazing, total gardening gold! If you're looking to start your own garden, or you already have one and want to additional knowledge, PLEASE READ THIS!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for this ARC. This review is posted of my own accord, with no compensation from the owners of this advanced reader's copy.

Easily said.... plant partners or companion planting to help you get the most out of your garden. This was a useful guide if you are planting the items in this book. Most companion plants have been mostly word of mouth passed down through generations but today it has adapted a more scientific approach.

What did I like? The benefits of companion planting are numerous but easily identified in the book. Just the thought of reducing pests is a no brainer. As I start constructing where my plants will go in my garden this book gives you an idea of how to partner your plants. I’m going to follow a few and see how much it helps.

Would I recommend or buy? The book gives a wealth of information but only time will tell if it works. It was eye opening and interesting look at how to partner your plants to reduce pests, weeds, disease, and improve fertility in soil and pollination. If you love gardening take a look! Five stars for me!

I received a complimentary copy of the book and voluntarily left a review!

Nonfiction | Adult
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We’ve all heard about Roses Love Garlic, and Carrots Love Tomatoes – those popular titles that first promoted companion planting. This is the newest generation, drawing on current science to help gardeners create healthy and fruitful crops that are often as beautiful to look at as a traditional perennial border. Those of us who eschew straight rows of vegetables can rejoice in this news – chaos should reign instead. Well, not exactly chaos, but thoughtful disorder that encourages plant partners to work together and improve the soil, discourage pests, invite pollinators, and in general work to create a bountiful crop for your enjoyment at the table.
The book begins with an explanation of what plant partnership is and how it can benefit home gardeners, then moves into a discussion of specific partnership solutions to address seven common issues, devoting a full chapter to how plant partners and help with each topic. They are: Soil Preparation & Conditioning, Weed Management, Support & Structure, Pest Management, Disease Management, Biological Control, and Pollination. Along with a short resource list, there is a helpful glossary of science concepts, a complete and extensive bibliography organized by chapter, and a comprehensive index complete with see references (yay! though sadly, no reference to deer and how I can repel them). This is a very good resource for the home gardener, and public libraries will want to consider if they still have those 80s standbys on the shelves! My thanks to Storey Publishing for the advance reading copy provided digitally through NetGalley.
More discussion and reviews of this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49150958

Plant Partner's is a great reference book for helping in the garden by having plants working together with others to stop weeds and diseases.

It also has some other great ideas for using plants to attract insects and bees and butterflies to the garden.

Great photography and well researched.

Thanks to Netgalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC Copy. My Review is my own opinion.

Plant Partners; Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser is about the best way to grow plants together so that your vegetables don't get eaten by bugs, for instance!

It has lots of plant partners suggested, and tells you about using other plants instead of bean poles, how to attract pollinating insects, using plants for weed management, and disease management.

It has a lot of beautiful photos, and tells you about why you are putting these plants together.

It's a good book if you're looking to grow organically, or if you just want to stop an insect from eating your vegetable plants!

Plant Partners; Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden is due to be published on 22nd December, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.

You can follow Jessica Walliser on her  website  or on  Twitter .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Storey Publishing .

A fantastic resource for planning a garden that allows plants to work together. Walliser includes but goes beyond the sacrificial plant to mulching, intriguing living trellis plant companions, and pollination etc. I got so many ideas just on first flip through and I know I'll want to return to this book!

Incredibly informative, scientific explanation of how and why companion plants work together to repel pests, attract beneficial insects, reduce diseases, and address other gardening problems. I appreciated the in-depth information, though I do wish it had a bit more info on a wider variety of plants and pests in different zones/climates (for example, Japanese Beetles, which have invaded here and just decimate many plants), maybe presented in an index or table format after all of the explanatory details. I also loved the sections on pollinators and creating habitat for beneficial bugs.

This book went so far beyond what I was expecting. I thought it would be a standard companion planting book, the sort that tells you to plant marigolds next to tomatoes to bring in polinators and deter bad bugs. It is so much more. While it does give lots of information about plants that help each other, it does it for all different subjects and also tells how plants can help your garden in other ways. For instance, there's a chapter on plants that will improve your soil and another on plants that will bring beneficial insects. I love that she provides information on useful plants to plant as sort of protectors or sacrificial plants, so that the bad bugs will just happily chomp on them and leave your prized garden veggies alone. There are so many chapters with so many really smart ideas, and it's all backed by studies instead of just lore (though she mentions those too, even when studies haven't proven them). It's also packed with gorgeous photos that actually relate to the topics and expand on the knowledge instead of just relying on Shutterstock pretty images that don't help explain the text. And yes, there are some images that are just gorgeous garden photos too, but not many gardeners will have a problem with seeing too many beautiful garden photos.

This is a fantastic guide and will be incredibly helpful to beginner and advance gardeners.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Walliser presents “science-based companion planting strategies to minimize disease, reduce pests, improve soil fertility, and support pollination in the vegetable garden.” And although this book is science-based, it is not boring! There’s just enough detail to convince you of the solid reasoning behind the techniques. These concepts are well beyond adding marigold and nasturtiums to your garden. The topics include soil preparation & conditioning, weed management, support & structure, pest management, disease management, biological control, and pollination. Think cover crops, all kinds of way to bring in nitrogen, breaking up heavy soils, living mulches, living trellises, luring, trapping, tricking & deterring pests, attracting good insects, and drawing bees. For each, she tells you which plants to put together. And each section is supported by beautiful photography.

https://patch405.com/2020/11/03/book-review-by-candlelight/

I received an advanced review copy from Storey Publishing through NetGalley, and here are my thoughts.

As someone with a permaculture design certificate, I welcome books like these that use straightforward language to present basic gardening science. The average home vegetable gardener will likely find much useful information in this book.

Chapters include information on:

Soil Preparation
Pest Management
Disease Management
Weed Management
Support Structures
Pollination
Biological Control

And more.

For someone who does not have many gardening books, this would be an excellent primer, as it covers many topics, all of which are based on scientific study.

The reason I rate it 4 stars and not 5, is because I feel the reader could benefit greatly if the Table of Contents included more detail of the specific plants or topics written about, For example, if a list of "plant partners" were listed in the table of contents, then you could more easily flip to that page instead of having to flip through an entire chapter trying to find the one plant you're interested in.

Instead, the designer opted for a nice-looking, but lacking, one page table of contents.

As a gardener, I would appreciate having each topic, plant or condition being listed in a more detailed manner.
For me a detailed Table of Contents for a gardening book is a must.

Yes, there is an index, so that helps somewhat. But it doesn't replace a well thought out Table of Contents at the front.

So in short, this is a solid book with plenty of useful information. Very useful for someone wanting a "best practices" gardening guide, who doesn't yet already have a library of such texts.

This book got my attention because I have a small space for growing vegetables. I learned so much about how to combine plantings to not only save space, but also to benefit the companion plants and improve soil quality. The few downsides to companion planting are also addressed. Many combinations are covered here, giving the reader plenty of choices to plan their garden next year. I'll definitely be giving plant partnering a try!

Thank you to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Plant Partners is a guide on how to plant your garden in an efficient way.
It notes which plants attract various bugs, which plants live well with other plants, and similar advice, giving very practical examples.
Something I didn't like as much was the formatting of the book - it might translate a bit better to print, if it's a big form book. But even so, I'm definitely not a fan of the two columns of tiny-sized text, sprinkled with a bit too many images. All images were good quality and some were quite useful, e.g. depicting root rot, however there were a lot of images that felt added just for the beauty of them - I'm sure most if not all readers are aware how tomatoes look - unlike potatoes, they look basically the same on the plant and on the table. So, with a big quality photo of a tomato we've just lost space in which the text could have expanded to a bigger and easier-to-read font.
Aside of that, I liked how the information was given, it was quite in-depth given the volume of information it provides.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.*

As an organic gardener of some 10 years I was delighted to received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been chemical and pesticide free in my current garden with a small veg plot for the last 4 years and over that time I have seen an explosion in the numbers of wildlife returning to my little suburban patch. In the second year, I had my organic patience tested as I watched the stems on some of my beautiful literally turn black with black fly. I sat on my hands to resist buying a pesticide spray.... and little did I know I was about be rewarded by a little wonder of nature. Literally overnight the blackfly were gone and in their place, hundreds of tiny ladybird larvae. I was astounded at the incredible display that nature had just shown me. With that in mind I have been companion planting throughout my garden and seen some really positive results.

Now it’s time to spread the organic love a little further as I begin my next big project creating an organic community garden. This book will come in extremely useful this winter as I plan the planting schedule and space and I intend to work through all the suggestions, pen and notebook in hand. I am well aware that the science doesn’t always work in the real world but this book gives me a great foundation both to plan and to teach my volunteers from.

Full of handy facts and experience and beautifully illustrated, I will be purchasing a real live copy which I very much hope will become muddy and tattered as it takes pride of place in our little community shed. Highly recommended for all gardeners out there, new or old, passionate about working with nature rather than against it.

A guide to companion planting. I do not know if I will use all the techniques in my own garden, but I will use some of them. For example I will try tomatoes and basil, and onions with marigolds and take notes to see how I get on. I am sure this will be a useful addition to my reference books.

Plant Partners is a new science based companion planting guide by horticulturist Jessica Walliser. Due out 22nd Dec 2020 from Storey, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

Plants have developed survival mechanisms over millions of years. Some have physical protections (thorns, stings, caustic sap), are bitter or hot (peppers, etc), exude growth inhibiting chemicals (allelopathy), and a myriad of other techniques. By learning about these natural defense mechanisms, we can plan our gardening efforts to maximize the benefits to increase yields, control weeds, attract beneficial fauna/insects and more.

I remember my grandmother telling me that "bad bugs are just food for good bugs" and by allowing the natural balance to exert itself instead of fighting an uphill (unwinnable) battle by increasing dependence on pesticides and fertilizers, we increase the health of our soil and the nutritional value of the foods we eat.

This book provides a much more in-depth and tidy look at what gardeners can do to to stack the deck in their favor.The book has a logical and easy to follow layout; concepts are grouped together thematically by chapter: companion planting, cover crops, living mulches and alleopathy to combat weeds, trap/lure crops to minimize damage to desired crops, interplanting for health and vigor, attracting beneficial insects, interplanting tall crops for support/trellising, and attracting pollinators.

The author does a good job introducing general concepts in each chapter followed by more specific techniques and information. The chapters contain concrete specific utilizable techniques with specific plants for particular purposes. There is a great deal of good information. This would make a superlative selection for note taking and planning in the winter season when gardens are sleeping and gardeners are surrounding themselves with masses of catalogues and dreaming about springtime.

The book also includes some useful appendices: resources and links for further reading, a glossary, bibliography, and an index. It's well but not lavishly illustrated. Included photos are clear and attractive.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.