Are you looking for the best companion plants for lovely lavenders in your garden? Then your search ends here.
In this detailed guide, I will share a list of the top companion plants for lavender to supercharge your garden. So without any further ado, let’s get started!
Tips for Choosing Companion Plants for Lavender
While looking for companion plants for lavenders, it is essential to check if both the plants are compatible with each other or not.
Here are the few requirements of lavenders:
- Full Sun
- Minimal to Negligible Fertilizers
- Minimal Watering
Apart from these, lavenders also like to be left alone. It’s best to grow companion plants that also generally like to be left alone and don’t need much maintenance.
Broccoli
If you’re growing broccoli, it can be a great idea to grow it close to lavender. Thanks to its strong scent, lavender will help to keep cabbage whites away from your broccoli. This means there will be less of a chance that their caterpillars will start devouring your broccoli plants.
Now, broccoli does like it a bit more moist than lavender does, so you want to grow it far enough away that you can give the lavender plants drier soil than the broccoli. This is a case where lavender can benefit the broccoli, but the broccoli definitely does not benefit the lavender.
Asters
Aster is another one of the plants that go well with lavenders. They may not benefit in the same way that broccoli does, but they do well in the same sort of conditions as lavender.
Asters are a beautiful little purple flower that looks great in gardens and makes a good companion plant for lavender.
Asters require full sun to part sun location. And they need well-drained loamy soil.
The aster flowers can add color to the autumn landscape and reach up to 3-4 feet.
Cauliflower
Like broccoli, cauliflower benefits from being grown around lavender. Cabbage white butterflies are also a pest that attacks cauliflower (being a member of the brassica family), and lavender helps keep it and other pests away from your cauliflower plants.
Grow it far enough away from your lavender that you can give it rich, moist soil while still giving your lavender dry, sandier soil.
Yarrow
Yarrow is another great companion plant that can be grown along with lavenders. These herbaceous flowering perennial need full sun and does good in well-drained soil. These plants can even grow in low-fertile soils, requiring little care.
You don’t need to fertilize yarrows, and you have to water them only in times of serious droughts.
If you are looking for a colorful combination in your garden, then yarrows are one of the best companion plants that go well with lavenders.
The yellow flowers of yarrow can add to the beauty of your garden, along with the purple colors of lavender.
Brussel Sprouts
Brussel sprouts are another vegetable that makes a good companion plant (at a distance) for lavender. Much for the same reason as the other vegetables so far on this list, lavender is an excellent way to keep pests away from your brussel sprouts and make sure they can survive to harvest time.
Also like the other vegetables, they need more water and fertilizer than lavender does, so make sure you keep them separated a bit. Having one grown in a raised bed may be a good solution to giving each of them their own space.
Pink Ruby Grass
While looking for companions plants for lavender, you can also choose the ornamental grasses that grow well alongside the lavenders. With the varying shades of green in the backdrop, you can offset the color of the purple blossoms of lavender and create a beautiful scenic beauty.
Just like lavenders, there are certain grasses that can grow well in the sunny areas of your garden. And one of the grass companions of lavenders includes the pink ruby grass.
The Pink Ruby grass is native to Africa, and it is a clumping grass that looks well when grown as borders.
The name of this plant, Ruby Grass “Pink Crystals,” mainly refers to the fact that it produces attractive pink flower panicles that look beautiful above the slender green foliage. This is a tropical tufting grass that requires minimal care.
Celery
While not a member of the cabbage family (unlike the other vegetables so far on this list), celery can also benefit from some of the same pest deterrence provided by lavender.
Celery can be set upon by multiple pests – including some of the same ones that bug brassica plants, and lavender is a great plant for keeping the bugs from being able to find your vegetables.
Now, to get this benefit, you may need to plant lavender around the area where you’re growing your crops rather than just in one spot at the edge, but it’s worth experimenting with.
Blue Fescue Grass
Another grass companion for lavender can be the blue fescue grass. This plant is characterized by slender, wiry blades of blue, and it is an evergreen ornamental grass. It is tolerant to different conditions, and caring for this grass is not that difficult.
You can plant this grass along the borders to give a nice blue accent to the landscape. This grass requires well-drained soil and full sun for optimal growth.
If you are looking for a ‘no fuss’ plant as a companion to your lavenders, then this plant is for you!
Shasta Daisy
If you choose the Shasta daisy as lavender’s companion, you will get the traditional daisy look and evergreen foliage.
These plants are low maintenance requiring perennials that can fill in the blank spots in your gardening landscape.
These plants give yellow, gold, or white flowers that can go well with the purple lavenders in your garden. If you like to have perennials in your garden rather than annuals, this plant is the right choice.
Sedum
Do you want an attractive pairing for your lavender in your flower garden? Then you can consider adding sedum, which is relatively easy to grow.
You can plant sedum in the garden areas where too much sunlight is received but gets little water. These plants require very little attention and need no additional fertilizer or water.
Did you know? Sedum is commonly called stonecrop because, as a joke, many gardeners consider that only stones require less care and live longer.
Bee Balm
Lavender is a deer-resistant plant, and it can attract beneficial insects like butterflies.
Now, if you are interested in creating a beautiful butterfly garden, you can also grow other plants that can attract butterflies.
Bee Balm is one of those plants that are attractive for butterflies, bees as well as hummingbirds. The flower of a beebalm is of an open, daisy-like shape, and you can find shades of pink, purple, red, and white in its tubular petals.
This plant likes to be in the sunny location of your garden, and it prefers moist, rich soil. This is a perennial and can add nice colors to your garden, along with the lavender.
Queen Anne’s Lace
Another companion plant you can choose for your lavender is the Queen Anne’s Lace, also termed wild carrot.
This is a wildflower herb that can reach up to the height of about 1 to 4 feet. Growing this plant, you can enjoy the beauty of attractive fern-like foliage along with tiny white flowers on the hairy stems.
Growing this plant is easy, but it would be a nice idea to plant it in a spacious location so that it can spread. (Otherwise, you will have to keep some barrier to keep this plant in bounds.)
This plant can adapt to different soil conditions, and it likes to be in the sun to partial shade conditions. Along with that, this plant likes to have well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil.
Hyssop
Do you want to grow an attractive flowering herb that can attract important pollinators to the garden? Then growing the hyssop plant as the companion of the lavender plant is the right choice for you!
This plant produces spikes of blue, red, or pink flowers and can be a lovely addition to your home garden. The flowers of hyssop grow on spikes just like lavender.
And you can also grow hyssops near beehives so that the collected nectar can flavor the honey. This plant is also known to increase the yield of grapevines.
Oregano
Oregano is a delicious herb used in the kitchen, and you can use it as a companion plant for many different plants, including lavender.
If you are looking for a bee-attracting plant, then Oregano is the right choice for you. Lavender and Oregano can make a great pair with each other.
And the great thing is this plant is an easy-care herb that you can grow indoors as well as out in the garden.
You can place Oregano in places with full sun and well-drained soil. Then, once the plants become established, they don’t require much attention.
Thyme
Would you like a cute, ground-covering plant that can look great alongside your lavender plants? Then you should grow the thyme plants.
This plant actually grows better in poor soil with little water, and hence this plant is good if you’re looking for plants in low-water landscapes.
Growing the thyme plant isn’t that tough, and with proper knowledge, you can easily grow this plant as a companion for your lavender.
Sage
Another plant that thrives well in the conditions that lavender prefers is the sage plant. Planting the sage plant is easy, and this plant’s preferable place is in the full sun. This plant likes to be in well-drained soil, and it can thrive in hot climates.
The seeds of this plant are slow to germinate, so be prepared to have patience while planting the seeds of this plant.
Basil
Basil can repel aphids and other garden pests, and so it makes a great companion plant for the lavender. But it is important to note that basil prefers a bit wetter soil than lavenders.
Basil is known as the ‘King of herbs’ and has been used for medicinal and food purposes for thousands of years. It has a unique aroma and flavor. There are different varieties of basil, so choose the one that best suits your location and goes well with your lavender.
Zinnia
Are you looking for a colorful, long-lasting addition to your flower garden that looks great alongside your lavender? Then the zinnia flowers are the right choice for you.
Zinnias are popular annuals that you can add to the sunny areas and enjoy the benefit from their perky blooms.
In terms of caring, you need to water this plant at its base. You may have to water this plant in the morning hours so that the foliage and the flowers of this plant can get enough time to dry off before nightfall.
For young plants, try to keep the soil moist but not soggy. In the case of mature plants, you will have to give less watering because the grown flowers are somewhat tolerant to drought.
If you can adequately plant zinnia and give them the required watering, these plants can give you beautiful long-term colors in the summer flower beds.
Gaillardia
Another companion plant for lavender is Gaillardia. It is also called the Blanket flower, and it is a member of the daisy family. In terms of caring for this plant, you need to plant it in a location that receives full sun.
And since these plants are native to the Central United States and Mexico, the blanket flower loves heat. The flowers are also capable of attracting butterflies. Once this plant is established, this plant will only need occasional watering during dry seasons.
Conclusion
So, I hope you found some good inspiration of what to plant next to your lavenders as their companions. Do note that apart from the grasses and flowering plants, you can also plant a few vegetable plants such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflowers.
The key is to choose the right plant as the companion plant for your lavenders. Ensure that whatever lavender companion plant you choose, it should grow appropriately in the well-drained soil and full sun. That’s it! Thanks 🙂
