Celery is one of my favorite vegetables to grow for a number of reasons. Not only is it crispy and juicy, but it can be used in many dishes. As a base in soups, stews and casseroles, cooked, raw and nibbled, celery tastes best when fresh and picked from the garden.
Celery is also a plant that responds well to being planted with the right companion plants. It’s also good for companion planting because you’re planting celery quite far apart, giving companions plenty of options.
Celery also likes frost protection because frost makes the stalks soft and intercropping can do that. Want to improve your celery crop? Let’s go.
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Why a companion plant?
Before we explore the different plants that grow with celery, we’ll quickly see why we use companion planting, also known as intercropping. It is a skill for all your cultivation activities.
Companion plants stimulate each other’s growth, repel pests and allow you to use your garden space efficiently. Pollinators attracted to one plant will move to all plants in companion planted gardens.
Soil health is often better when plants are companion planted and crops last longer throughout the season. Some plants are a line of defense for the other plant they are planted with.
Companion Plants That Grow Well With Celery
Here are the best options for growing with celery:
1. Legumes
Celery takes up a lot of nutrients from the soil because it is a big eater. Legumes replace nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil that celery gobbles up. Celery takes about 16 weeks to fully grow, so it takes a long time to flush out nutrients.
Try these legumes for a healthy partnership:
- Lenses: Once the soil temperature is above 40ºF, plant lentils about six inches between or around the celery. Although not a common or popular choice, give it a try and see what happens in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 11.
- Beans: These have a double advantage. Beans provide nitrogen to the soil while celery gives off an odor that repels whiteflies. Additionally, beans often struggle with whiteflies, so celery and beans benefit a lot from this partnership. Celery and beans are one of the most successful companion plantings.
- Garbanzo beans (chickpeas): These sun lovers are suitable for planting celery and share the same temperature requirements. Both plants need 60ºF to 70ºF to thrive and both are slow growing in that they take over 100 days to harvest.
2. Brassicaceae
Anyone who has planted crucifers knows how much whiteflies love these plants. They will mangle the leaves and leave you with a poor harvest. The celery plant gives off an aroma that whiteflies avoid. When you plant both celery and crucifers, you keep them out of that garden, or at least keep the numbers down.
A study shows that crucifers helped celery grow bigger and stronger.
- Broccoli: Celery is said to improve the flavor of broccoli and repel whiteflies. Both are sun lovers.
- Radishes: Plant fast-growing radishes among slow-growing celery. Radishes are protected from whiteflies, and you can get two or three radish crops for one celery crop. Don’t plant the radishes too close to the shallow root systems of the celery or you’ll disturb them.
- Kohlrabi: Some gardeners say celery enhances the flavor of crucifers. Kohlrabi tastes more earthy next to celery.
- Cabbage and cauliflower: Celery, cabbage, and cauliflower all have strong odors that keep pests away from each other. This combination makes it difficult for pests to focus on their favorite vegetable.
Also try:
3.Allium
Alliums are thought to increase the sweetness of celery stalks. A great test to do is to have a plot of celery plants without companion plants and a plot of celery plants with alliums to test the difference.
- Onions: Alliums, and especially onions, release a substance into the soil that helps repel insects that attack the roots of plants like celery.
- Garlic: The antifungal property of garlic helps keep the soil around the celery healthy.
- Chive: Chives help repel insects attracted to celery, especially the common garden pest that seems to eat everything, aphids.
- Leeks: A study with leeks showed that the plants benefited each other and increased yields.
4. Herbs
The herbs in celery beds help deter pests by masking the smell of celery with their more potent scents. They attract pollinators and larger grasses can provide some shade from the intense afternoon sun.
- Mint: This strong grass can help deter rabbits, hares and deer from coming for your celery.
- Rosemary: Rosemary attracts pollinators in large numbers. Rosemary can repel carrot fly, cabbage looper, and even slugs and snails. If you prefer a garden without sprays or chemicals, try rosemary as a repellent against slugs and snails, which like tender young celery.
- Thyme: Celery hates weeds that gobble up nutrients, so ground cover grasses like thyme will help prevent them by covering the ground.
- Dill: The distinctive aroma of dill attracts beneficial insects to the garden. Praying mantises, ladybugs and wasps. These insects love to feed on aphids and other insects that want your celery.
- Parsley: Parsley is a good sacrificial crop to use near celery as it will attract whiteflies. It’s not technically a companion crop because you don’t want to plant it near celery. The whitefly will move from parsley to celery, so use parsley away from the celery garden.
Other grasses you can plant with celery provide shade, insect repellent properties, weed suppression, and soil health:
- Oregano (in containers placed near the celery)
- Coriander
- lemon balm
- Wise
- Basil
- Chamomile
5. Flowers
There are many flowers that look great in the garden with pops of color and beneficial properties for celery. Think of a mixed garden, rather than vegetables.
- Worry: Nematodes are repelled by marigold, so it’s a perfect flower to be near any vegetable, not just celery. Marigolds also repel flea beetles and cabbage worms. Plant in line in front of the celery. or around them.
- Cosmos: Cosmos attract parasitic wasps. When they’re drawn to your celery patch by the cosmos, they’ll find a whole buffet of bugs they love to eat targeting your celery plants.
- Nasturtiums: I have a love/hate relationship with nasturtiums. They will attract aphids and whiteflies away from the celery, but this plant has its drawbacks. Nasturtiums spread in a way that could be considered invasive if left to their own devices, and they drop lots of seeds to sprout in the spring. If you are using nasturtiums, put them in containers, not in the ground. Keep them pruned to where you want them to be and remove any seeds you find on the ground.
- Geraniums: Slugs hate group planted geraniums. The scent of geraniums also deters flea beetles and snails.
6. Tomatoes
A study from a few years ago found that cherry tomatoes provided benefits over celery and the result was a bigger and healthier crop.
Other Plants You Can Pair With Celery
The herbs we have covered so far are the herbs best suited to accompany celery for beneficial reasons. There are other plants that grow well with celery. Some have benefits for celery, others grow well alongside it. They understand:
- Spinach
- Cucumbers
- Zucchini
- turnips
- snapdragons
Plants you should not associate with celery
Some plants just don’t get along. They can stunt each other’s growth by devouring the same nutrients or they attract pests and diseases that are detrimental to the other plant. The wrong combination can be harmful to plants and your harvest.
- Corn: It is a heavy food and will compete for the nutrient requirements of celery. The corn also gets very tall and will shade the celery too much.
- Potatoes: Celery and potatoes suffer from similar diseases. Planting them side by side jeopardizes both crops. Timing is also off with most potatoes. You will harvest potatoes when the celery needs a little more time in the garden. Harvesting potatoes near the celery may disturb it too much.
- Carrots: Celery and carrots require the same nutrients, so a garden with the two planted side by side becomes deficient in these nutrients.
- Parsnip: Similar to carrots, parsnips need the same nutrients as celery.
- Strawberries: Both plants suffer from verticillium wilt. Planting celery next to strawberries can kill your strawberry field. Then you have a part of the garden where you don’t want to plant celery or strawberries for a few seasons.
- Rutabaga: Celery has a shallow root system. Harvesting Rutagaba disrupts this root system and pulling them out will cause the celery to suffer.
4 tips for planting companions with celery
- Practice with different celery plantations. Some plants that you absolutely cannot plant with celery. Others work well. Sometimes different gardens allow for different companion planting results, so get to know your garden and what plant combinations work.
- If you notice anything wrong with your celery, you should note which plants are growing with it. Sometimes you can give celery all it needs in terms of nutrients, soil quality and water, but another plant is giving it trouble. Keep a notebook if you’re interested in companion planting so you don’t repeat mistakes.
- Plant varieties together make a much more balanced garden, so practice companion planting.
- Take note of the number of celery pests when using a companion plant versus a monoculture system and see which works best for you.
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