The Top 6 Strawberry Companion Plants (and What to Avoid)

You can enjoy strawberries with whipped cream, blend them into fruity smoothies, or transform them into homemade jelly. They’re versatile, and juicy, and make a great snack all on their own. Growing them is a process and depending on the types of plants surrounding them, they may either thrive or struggle. Discover the top six strawberry companion plants! Plus, learn which plants to avoid setting up in the same area as your strawberries.

1. Lettuce

Scientific name: Lactuca sativa

This plant is excellent near strawberries. Strawberries serve as live mulch, which protects your lettuce. In turn, lettuce provides shade, concealing the bright color of your berries, which would otherwise attract birds. Foliage conserves moisture by reducing evaporation, thus minimizing the competition for nutrients, light, and water. The most important thing to remember is to space them out really well. So long as you follow through with proper spacing, the outcome will not only be healthy-looking fruit, but your garden can boast an enhanced aesthetic with the contrasting luscious green and the bright red of your juicy strawberries.

2. Spinach

Scientific name: Spinacia oleracea

This veggie isn’t just great for strawberries! It’s also great alongside lettuce and gardeners often pair all three to increase their yield. Spinach and strawberry roots reach different depths, which makes them friends in the soil as they don’t compete for any nutrients. Spinach suppresses weed growth near strawberries and produces a natural antifungal to further protect your strawberry plant. Their dense leaves provide enough shade so that the weeds do not prosper. Spinach plants tap into the soil and look for important minerals. It utilizes what it needs, then once mature, goes back to the soil. The used minerals go back into the earth and the cycle of plant life continues, allowing for a flourishing garden.  

3. Chives

Scientific name: Allium schoenoprasum

Chives are helpful repellents! They work beautifully hand-in-hand with strawberries. The odor helps to keep away slugs, Japanese beetles, and aphids. Chives act as a healthy barrier to deter these little monsters and chive flowers attract beneficial insects such as bees, predatory wasps, and hoverflies. As unbelievable as it sounds, they help with strawberry pollination, which ultimately beautifies the fruit. Chives also help increase your strawberry yield. While helping your strawberry plant, the attractive purple flowers it produces also enhance the scenery.            

4. Thyme

Scientific name: Thymus vulgaris

Being a low-growing herb, thyme has several benefits. It creates a cool ground cover and suppresses weed growth by providing much-needed shade. That is how it does not allow enough light for weed germination; this helps minimize nutrient competition. Include this herb between rows of strawberry plants for best results!

5. Marigold

Scientific name: Tagetes

Due to their strong scent, marigolds are an excellent companion plant for strawberries. They repel beetles, whiteflies, and nematodes. French marigolds help control the nematode population by emitting certain compounds from the roots that keep the bad guys away from your precious strawberries. Aside from protecting your strawberry plant from pests, they attract helpful insects like ladybugs (which love a good aphid snack).

6. Borage

Scientific name: Borago officinalis

The pollinators of borage include bees. They go after the beautiful blue flowers and by incorporating this plant, you are giving it a chance to increase the pollination rates that eventually result in better strawberries and better yields. Borage also keeps cabbage worms and tomato hornworms away. The long taproots of the plant help to break up the sometimes-compacted soil as well. Plus, borage delivers trace minerals to the soil, which could make for sweeter fruit.

Plants to Avoid Around Strawberries

Just as there are helpful neighbors for strawberries, there are also some plants that compete and obstruct, detrimentally affecting your strawberry plant when planted too close. For example, several plants can introduce fungi that cause Verticillium wilt. These are some common crops you might already have in your garden like potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes. Additional plants you should keep away from strawberries include melons, eggplants, and any kind of roses. Brassica plants like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage should also be kept from your strawberry plants as they get competitive and greedy. They end up stealing precious nutrients from your strawberries.

Summary of Top 6 Strawberry Companion Plants (and What to Avoid)

Here’s a recap of the six best companion plants for strawberries that we took a look at.