After many years, companion planting is again becoming a more and more popular gardening tool. Strawberries benefit from a wide range of plants that improve their ability to take up nutrients from the soil and enhance their flavour. Growing other plants with strawberries can help to repel pests and attract pollinators.
However, just as there are good companions for your beloved strawberry plants, there are bad buddies. These plants are harmful, resulting in fewer berries, flavourless fruit, and, in extreme cases, dead strawberry plants.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, expert gardener Lucie Bradley of Easy Garden Irrigation has shared one particular plant to stay clear of when planting strawberries.
Proving disastrous to strawberry plants, Lucie warned gardeners to avoid growing cucumbers alongside them.
Cucumbers, as well as other members of the cucurbit family, which includes melons, pumpkins and squash, “should not be grown close to strawberry plants” as they are all susceptible to verticillium wilt, which can “ultimately kill the plants” as well as “remain active in the soil for years”.
This soil-borne fungal disease enters the strawberry plant through its roots, causing it to die back, with leaves becoming dry and dropping.
Once the plant has this disease, it’s very hard to get rid of it, and at its worst, it can spread to all your strawberry plants so that “they won’t produce berries and will die”.
Plants which are members of the nightshade family are also susceptible to verticillium wilt, so shouldn’t be grown alongside strawberries; this includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and aubergines.
Similar to cucumbers, mint is another plant to avoid planting near strawberries. Although mint is great at repelling some pests due to its strong scent and attracting pollinators, due to its aggressive nature, if planted into the same soil as strawberries, it would soon “outgrow and overpower” your strawberry plants.
With a root system that is “highly invasive,” it would compete with strawberry plants for space, nutrients, and water, ultimately depriving the strawberry plants of all three and reducing their yields.
Mint is also known to spread verticillium wilt, a fungal disease that could affect strawberry plants, causing them to “wilt and die.”