Dill reigns supreme when it comes to companion benefits. So, which dill companion plants should you choose for your veggie garden? Let’s find out together.
With its delicate feathery foliage, cheerful yellow flowers, and delightful aroma, dill is an absolute must-have for any herb garden. But what makes it even more special is its superpower of repelling pests and attracting beneficial insects. This makes it one of the best buddies for pest-sensitive vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce.
This dill companion planting guide will help you choose the right friends and avoid any potential foes for this versatile herb.
What Will I Learn?
Introduction to Dill Companion Planting
Dill, or Anethum graveolens, is an easy-to-grow annual herb in the same family as carrots and parsley. This beauty can reach up to 3 feet in height and have deep taproots to reach water deep in the soil. For optimum growth, dill needs at least 6 hours of sunlight daily and moderate to regular watering. Once it’s all grown up, you can start snipping its leaves and collecting its seeds for flavoring your pickles, soups, and sauces.
Remember, dill isn’t a fan of having its root disturbed, so it’s best to sow the seeds directly into the ground in spring once the soil has warmed up.
Here are a few benefits of growing dill as a companion plant in your garden:
- Its bright yellow flowers attract pollinators like bees and butterflies to your vegetable patch.
- Its strong scent repels pesky pests like aphids and spider mites from surrounding plants.
- It’s a dynamic accumulator, meaning it absorbs nutrients from deep in the soil and releases them for other plants to use.
- It’s a great trap crop for cabbage worms, keeping them away from your brassicas.
- Its flower heads are edible and make a tasty addition to salads or garnish.
What Are the Best Dill Companion Plants?
Now that we’ve extolled the virtues of dill, let’s explore some of the best plants to grow with it.
• Vegetables:
1. Brassicas
Brassicas like Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and their coetaneous cousins love the company of dill for several reasons. First, the intense scent of dill throws off the cabbage loopers and diamondback moths, making it way harder for them to find your brassicas. And even if they manage to sneak in, parasitic wasps and beetles that are attracted to dill swoop in and take care of them.
Second, brassicas are known to be big eaters, gobbling up loads of nutrients from the soil. Luckily, dill is a lighter feeder and doesn’t compete for the same resources. Moreover, it provides some nice shade to young brassicas before the weather starts cooling down in fall.
2. Asparagus
Asparagus is a slow-growing perennial that only stays around for about 6-8 weeks each season. That leaves plenty of space unoccupied for the rest of the year. You can fill up that space with a late-season dill crop and create a beneficial microclimate for your asparagus spears when they go dormant.
Dill will shade the soil, help conserve moisture, and suppress weeds that try to compete with your asparagus for nutrients. Plus, it’s a magnet for predatory wasps and ladybugs that love to snack on asparagus beetles, keeping them off your precious asparagus.
3. Cucumber
Cucumbers have a reputation for attracting pests like aphids, spider mites, cucumber beetles, and whiteflies. These troublemakers can ruin a whole crop. Luckily, dill is pretty efficient against all of these pests. Interestingly, cucumber flowers aren’t the best at attracting pollinators either, so dill also helps here by bringing more of them around.
Moreover, dill has an airy growth habit that adds humidity and provides the perfect trellis for young cucumbers to climb on. Once they’re big enough, you can easily train them on the trellis, leaving plenty of space for dill to grow freely. You can also plant bushy varieties of cucumbers, like pickling cukes, between rows of dill.
4. Zucchini
Zucchini is known to have a hearty appetite, so it appreciates dill’s company as a light feeder. It also tends to quickly sprawl out and finish within a few weeks, which can be challenging for delicate plants nearby to adapt to.
But dill is a tough one and handles it pretty well. It stays low during zucchini’s prime time while acting as a friendly pest repellent, keeping squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and aphids at bay. And once your zucchini is done, dill springs back up and fills the void like a fall crop.
5. Beans
Beans and peas, like most legumes, are fantastic nitrogen fixers. They pull gaseous nitrogen out of the air and convert it into usable form for plants through tiny nodules on their roots. This makes them great a companion for any plant.
With dill, the partnership largely benefits from pest control and space utilization. Dill’s strong scent protects the bean vines from aphids, spider mites, and other tiny opportunists. It also provides shade for their shallow roots while staying compact enough not to hog all the space.
6. Onions
Onions usually don’t have a problem with pests, except for the onion fly. These pesky flies lay their eggs on the base of onion leaves, and when they hatch, the larvae burrow into the onions and ruin your harvest from the inside out. Dill not only keeps those onion flies away, but it also attracts hoverflies that love to snack on the larvae.
Onions and dill have compatible root habits—dill’s deep taproots leave plenty of room in the topsoil for your onion bulbs to grow big and strong. Just remember not to plant them too close together, or the dill might overshadow your onion rows.
7. Lettuce
Dill’s tall and lacy foliage provides just the right amount of shade for your lettuce to grow without getting scorched in the hot summer sun. It also doubles as a pest barrier—lettuce is a magnet for slugs and snails, but they would need to crawl over a lot of dill leaves to get there.
And to top it off, lettuce has shallow roots, so there’s hardly any competition for nutrients and water. You can happily plant dill close to your lettuce patch or even interplant them without worry.
• Herbs:
8. Basil
Basil and dill go together like peas in a pod—both prefer the same warm weather, well-drained soil, and at least six hours of sunlight each day. They’re also both aromatic herbs with pest-repellent properties. Together, they make a formidable team against pests like aphids, spider mites, and whiteflies.
9. Chervil
This dainty herb thrives in cooler temperatures and appreciates the dappled shade offered by dill plants in the warmer months. It also grows close to the ground, making a perfect understory for the tall dill.
What Are Some Bad Dill Companion Plants?
While dill has plenty of good companions, some plants don’t play well with it. Here are a few you should avoid planting nearby:
Tomato: While tomatoes take advantage of dill’s pest-repelling properties when they’re young, the relationship turns sour as they grow. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and thirsty for sun and space. Dill can interfere with their growth by hogging up the resources and casting too much shade.
Carrot: Carrots tend to cross-pollinate with their family members, like dill, fennel, and celery. This can result in deformed or bitter-tasting vegetables. Keep them at least 50 feet apart to avoid any issues.
Cilantro: Again, cilantro and dill belong to the same family and compete for the same resources. If you plant them too close, one will outgrow the other and limit its growth potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What plants can I grow near dill?
Plants that appreciate the light shade, pest control, and space-saving benefits of dill can be good companions. These include vegetables like asparagus, cucumber, zucchini, beans, onion, and lettuce. Herb-wise, basil and chervil make great partners for dill.
What plants should not be grown near dill?
Plants that are heavy feeders, require full sun, or have similar deep roots as dill should be avoided. Also, avoid plants in the same family as dill, such as tomatoes, carrots, and cilantro.
Can I plant dill plants near my vegetable garden?
Yes, dill is a great addition to any vegetable garden, thanks to its pest-repelling properties and space-saving abilities. Just make sure to avoid planting it too close to heavy feeders or other members of the same family.
Final Thoughts
Dill companion planting is a clever and practical way to boost the growth potential of your plants while creating a balanced ecosystem in your garden. With its versatility, dill can be paired with a variety of vegetables and herbs, offering benefits like pest control, shade, and space utilization.
Overall, adding dill to your garden can result in a more productive and harmonious growing experience.
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Last update on 2025-03-24 / Affiliate links / Some images and data from Amazon Product Advertising API
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