Wondering what to plant beside your spinach in the vegetable garden? Fortunately, there are some perfect companion plants for spinach to plant nearby.
Good companion plants for spinach include strawberries, peas, radish, lettuce, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and eggplant. These plants each have characteristics that tend to repel pests, attract beneficial insects, and/or provide other benefits in the garden. Avoid planting potatoes near your spinach plants.
Read on to learn all about the best companion plants for spinach!
Spinach companion planting basics
Spinach, also known as Spinacia oleracea, is a member of the Amaranthaceae family. The Amaranthaceae are flowering plants, including beets, quinoa, and of course, spinach. These plants are highly compatible with members of the brassica family: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and others.
1. Peas
Planting the spinach in the shade of a pea trellis structure in your vegetable garden can help delay bolting in warm, sunny conditions. Pea plants also draw nitrogen out of the air and make it available in the soil which is particularly helpful to green leafy plants like spinach.
2. Eggplant
Eggplants are ideal because they don’t compete heavily for nutrients with Spinach—allowing them both to grow as they need without issue. Eggplants can also offer shade to spinach plants in the heat of summer, delaying bolting.
3. Lettuce
Spinach planted with lettuce can prevent common diseases from spreading. They tend to attract different kinds of bugs that have no interest in spinach which is ideal for its optimal health.
4. Radish
Radishes are a good companion plant for spinach because of their unique leaves that attract bugs like leaf miners that usually love feasting on spinach. Radish is used as a “trap” companion plant to distract leaf miners away from the spinach.
5. Kale
Like lettuce, kale, and spinach planted near one another can prevent common plant diseases from spreading.
6. Broccoli
Broccoli is a part of the brassica family, a genus of plants that includes cabbage and mustard. They work well with spinach because they don’t compete for the same nutrients.
7. Cauliflower
Like broccoli, cauliflower is a part of the brassica family as well. Spinach and cauliflower will not be fighting for the same nutrients, allowing them both to grow to their full potential.
8. Cabbage
Cabbage is another brassica that pairs well with spinach in the garden.
9. Strawberries
Various berries tend to work well with Spinach nearby, but the ultimate berry to pair it with is the strawberry plant. They take nutrients from a different level of soil than Spinach—leaving the nutrients Spinach needs. Strawberries also provide groundcover for the strawberries, keeping weeds down and trapping in soil moisture to help the Spinach to grow even more. They also work well together to prevent common plant diseases.
10. Oats
Oats don’t need as much nitrogen as spinach, leaving the spinach to soak in all of the nitrogen it needs without issue. You can grow oats in the summertime, where the tall plants can be used in a row beside spinach to shade the plants and keep them from bolting too soon.
11. Cilantro
Cilantro flowers attract beneficial insects like parasitic wasps, lacewings, ladybugs, and others. These beneficial bugs eat aphids which often attack salad greens in the gardens. They also pair together well because they prevent leaf damage and common plant diseases from spreading.
12. Sweet Alyssum
Sweet alyssum is also in the brassica family so the spinach doesn’t need to fight for the same nutrients as spinach making it an ideal environment to thrive. This ornamental is also highly attractive to beneficial pollinators.
13. Carrots
Carrots, as with cilantro, attract aphid predators and away from the spinach leaves. Carrot plants have a strong scent that can camouflage the spinach and act as a trap crop.
14. Crimson clovers
Crimson clovers tend to improve soil because the roots hold the soil in a steady place, diminishing chances for erosion while also allowing natural openings to improve drainage. Crimson clover is also a nitrogen-fixing plant, drawing nitrogen down into the soil for the spinach plants.
15. Sunflower
Sunflowers attract native bees which is important if you’re seed-saving from your spinach plants. The bees will be drawn to the sunflowers and then also pollinate the spinach flowers around them. Sunflowers also attract birds in the fall as the birds eat the seeds. These birds may eat some of the pest insects that potentially damage or infect spinach.
Bad companions to avoid planting nearby
Potatoes tend to attract unwanted guests such as flea beetles that will eat holes into your spinach. Major damage done by flea beetles can cause wilting or stunting in your plants. Even a few holes from these beetles can make spinach leaves look unappetizing.