These Are the 9 Best Plants to Grow Alongside Strawberries This Summer

Why should you choose specific companion plants for strawberries? Certain plants grown next to strawberries can be beneficial to the small fruit-bearing plant. Some companions, for example, attract pollinators or beneficial insects, while others gather nitrogen that they share with their neighbors. Some leafy greens can hide the luscious red berries from would-be snackers, and other neighbors, called “trap” plants, lure pests to themselves, sparing the more desirable strawberries.

Keep in mind that companion planting strawberries or any edible is not an exact science, so the outcome can be hard to predict, and you may have to try different plantings from year to year to figure out what works best in your garden.

1. Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

A low-growing ground cover, sweet alyssum is known for the honeylike scent of its tiny four-petal flowers. The fragrance may attract beneficial insects to help control the harmful ones. In an experiment conducted at Purdue University, Robert Grosdidier and Laura Ingwell noted, “Strawberries planted alongside sweet alyssum had almost no aphids on them; meanwhile, strawberries planted alone had higher aphid pressure.”

However, Professor Marvin Pritts of Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences warns that, “one of the challenges of using flowering trap crops is that their flowering has to coincide precisely with flowering in strawberry—and this is difficult to achieve each year, particularly with some newer strawberry cultivars that often flower over a long period of time.”

In fact, in a study testing the ability of alyssum to attract pollinators, researchers found that “the bees did not move over to the strawberries and the alyssum attracted tarnished plant bugs as well.” 

The lesson here is, as mentioned above, it’s important to test various plants and growing conditions in your own garden in order to determine what works and what doesn’t. 

Best For: Attracting beneficial insects to control pests

2. Borage (Borago officinalis)

Growing to 2 or 3 feet with blue star-shaped flowers and fuzzy, cucumber-flavored leaves, edible borage makes a useful annual herb in its own right. However, its ability to attract pollinators also can benefit other nearby plants. 

According to a U.K. study, “Test strawberries companion planted with borage produced an average of 35% more fruits.”  This was attributed to the fact that “there were significantly more flies visiting the test strawberries than controls.” So, when pondering what grows well with strawberries, you’ll definitely want to consider this true-blue flower.

Best For: Attracting pollinators

3. Caraway (Carum carvi)

Best known for its anise-flavored seeds that flavor rye bread, caraway grows to a couple feet tall with carrot-like foliage and umbels of tiny white flowers. As with alyssum, those blooms attract beneficial insects that can help dispose of the “bad” ones.

Keep in mind, though, that because caraway is a biennial plant, it only will flower in late spring or early summer of its second year. After producing seeds, it dies, though it may self-sow. Therefore, taking into account the strawberry-growing season, caraway probably will be most effective for June-bearing types of strawberries rather than everbearing ones.

Best For: Attracting beneficial insects to control pests 

4. Fava Bean (Vicia faba) 

Beans often are recommended as companion plants for strawberries due to their ability to pull nitrogen out of the air and convert it into a form plants can use—a process called “nitrogen fixation.” It’s important, however, to choose the right variety of bean. New Mexico State University notes, for example, that common green beans are “poor fixers.”

According to the university,  legumes that are good nitrogen fixers for neighboring non-legume plants include peanuts, cowpeas, soybeans, and fava beans. Since the latter can grow up to 4 feet high, be careful not to place them between your strawberry plants and the sun.

Best For: Fixing nitrogen in the soil

5. Lettuce (Latuca sativa)

When contemplating how to cultivate strawberries, consider leaf lettuce, which can provide cover for strawberries, both as ground cover to suppress weeds between rows and to provide a barrier of leaves to hide revealing flashes of red from birds and rodents.

This will work best for small strawberry patches since you would need lots of lettuce to carpet or “hedge” a patch of significant size! Also, most strawberry plants throw out runners that require open soil in which to root themselves, so you’ll want to preserve sufficient strawberry plant spacing.

Best For: Suppressing weeds and hiding fruits

6. Onion (Allium cepa)

Lists of what to plant with strawberries generally include onions, because their  pungent odor is seen as a deterrent to many strawberry pests, including harmful insects and rodents. Alliums’ odor can also help conceal the scent of ripe berries, which attracts such scavengers. Some experts also note that onions planted with strawberries help the berries fight disease.

Best For: Repelling pests and disease

7. Pea (Pisum sativum)

As with beans, peas frequently are recommended as companion crops due to their nitrogen fixation. The amount of nitrogen peas can fix varies, according to the New England Vegetable Management Guide, “depending on plant density and availability of the appropriate species of Rhizobium bacteria.” Weather can also be a factor in whether or not your peas produce enough nitrogen to share. 

Best For: Fixing nitrogen in soil

8. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea)

Another of the “what to grow with strawberries” plants, spinach generally is recommended for the same reason that lettuce is, because it can keep weeds down around the strawberries as well as hide the fruits from moochers such as rodents. Leafy greens such as this one could theoretically also act as trap plants for slugs, luring them away from strawberry fruits, although some gardeners say those greens might just draw slugs closer to what you want to protect. You’ll have to see what works in your garden. 

Best For: Suppressing weeds and hiding fruits

9. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Finally, when cultivating strawberry plants, take thyme to do it right. A low-growing edging plant with small narrow leaves and tiny white or lavender flowers in late spring and early summer, thyme can repel pests with its strong aroma. Thyme’s odor helps conceal the scent of ripe berries as well and the herb should be small enough to help even if you are growing strawberries in pots.

Best For: Repelling pests and concealing scent

 

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