Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening

by Louise Riotte

Plant parsley and asparagus together and you’ll have more of each, but keep broccoli and tomato plants far apart if you want them to thrive. Utilize the natural properties of plants to nourish the soil, repel pests, and secure a greater harvest. With plenty of insightful advice and suggestions for planting schemes, Louise Riotte will inspire you to turn your garden into a naturally nurturing ecosystem.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Food, Nature, How To, Agriculture

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Beloved Storey author and life-long gardener Louise Riotte passed away in 1998 at the age of 89. She wrote 12 books on gardening, companion planting, and garden lore, among them the ever-popular Carrots Love Tomatoes, which has sold approximately 515,000 copies. Her father taught her to believe in and practice astrology, while her mother was a practicing herbalist. Together they inevitably influenced her life and her books, Roses Love Garlic, Astrological Gardening, Sleeping with a Sunflower, Catfish Ponds & Lily Pads, and her most recent book, Raising Animals by the Moon. Her own line drawings are included in all her books. Before authoring books, Riotte was a ghost writer for Simon & Schuster and for Jerry Baker's radio gardening show, and she also wrote a number of articles for Organic Gardening. Riotte took pride in her garden near her home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, which her son Eugene helped care for in her later years.

- from Amazon

Reviews

[Amy Yarrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the folksy tone of this book is kind of charming, I found it to be a frustrating read, particularly as a new and inexperienced gardener. I found myself LONGING for a table or chart that would summarize all the information together. The book seemed a bit riddled with inconsistencies - like for example mentioning carrots as good companions in the "tomatoes" section but then not mentioning tomatoes in the "carrots" section. I ended up trying to cobble together my own spreadsheet just to try to keep the stuff straight. I also would have appreciated a bit more detail about the basic ideas behind companion planting. How close to plants need to be together to share the effects? Why put two plants together as "companions" when they have completely different watering needs? That seems counter to other gardening advice I've read.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars ✨

Great book for beginner gardeners - full of tips and not just about carrots and tomatoes. I loved the section on herbs 🌿 for natural healing looking forward to experimenting in the garden with new plants/herbs this season.

[Executionereniak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dozvedel som sa napríklad aj to, že pehy sú jazvičky po bozkoch víl. Najviac feel-good kniha out there.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly a bit disappointed. I came in with high hopes of a well organized book focused specifically on companion planting. Instead, the book strays into other areas: pest control (aside from using companion plants), soil improvement, and for some reason lots of details about how plants might be used in the kitchen. Perhaps this would be a decent primer for a new gardener, but as a book dedicated to companion planting, it was quite disappointing.

[Andrea]

Because someday I will have a garden; Oh yes, it will be mine.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This handy reference gets pulled out and reviewed nearly every time I plant another batch of veggies in my gardens. For those of us who have never seen where a carrot would prefer to grow in the wilds, this book allows us to plant companion plants that help each other out.
I really don't like the idea of adding any sort of sprays or fertilizers to my gardens, especially the vegetable and herb beds. So, compost and companion planting are my personal solutions for most "problems" encountered in the suburban garden plot.
You can read this like a bed-time story (cover to cover), or just flip through,stopping at the illustrations. But the Index is the real place to start. Choose your desired herbs or veggies, then go to the Index to find out more about their preferred buddies. Then plan your garden.

[Dorcas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit higgeldy piggeldy organizationally but the information is excellent. I find myself opening it every spring to remind myself which plants like /dislike eachother. I agree with another reviewer who suggested that this book would be wonderful with a chart or two. It would save so much fumbling around.

The author is a woman in her twilight years with many decades of experience.*

*just found out she passed away in 1998 at age 89

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful resource for gardeners.

For example: beets grow fine next to bush beans, but not near pole beans. Who knew?

I read about intercropping too late for my vegetable garden but I'm going to give it a try with my flower beds in front. The deer think I grow zinnias for their dining pleasure. And won't stop munching even when I'm standing close shushing them away.

After I noticed that the only tulips that survive the deer are planted inside a ring of daffodils, I decided to try intercropping with zinnias and snapdragons. The deer wouldn't touch the snapdragons.

I won't even pretend that I'd remember to come back to this review and let the readers know the outcome of my experiment. But I'm buoyed with hope.

[Nancy Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book but I love tables and charts for a quick summary, unfortunately there aren’t any

[Wes Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of disappointed in this book at first. I started out using it as a reference for companion planting in my garden, focusing only on the first few chapters about vegetables and herbs. And if that is all you plan to use it for, you may be disappointed as well. The information in some of the entries is lacking at times, and I had to search out a vegetable or herb in the index, only to find it did not have its own entry but was only mentioned in another plant's entry. However, I decided to read it cover-to-cover, and was more impressed with it after doing so. Riotte offers a lot of good traditional wisdom for gardening and growing in general, and talks about wild plants and trees a great deal, as well as gardening and companion planting techniques. Some of her passages on specific trees and how they can affect nearby crops are very insightful. While I wouldn't call this a must-read, it definitely has some good information on gardening and an array of plants.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of helpful tips and pieces of advice, but they are all buried throughout sometimes random articles in the encyclopedic format. The information is also sometimes confusing and seemingly contradictory. Watermelons do well with potatoes, but don't plant potatoes with any melons. (Inferring from a few vague comments and reading the Latin names, this might be because watermelons aren't in the same family as other melons, cukes and squashes? It's not explained well.) There are a few topic-specific chapters in the back which were helpful, including a sketch of the author's garden. There are also a lot of recipes for home remedies, pest control, etc. interspersed in the articles. The only big problem I had was that there is effectively zero mention of citrus of any kind. But all in all, I'm glad I read it and it's a useful reference for specific purposes. I'll most likely flip through it again each time I'm getting ready to change the garden.

[Wendee Radmall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library years ago and actually tried the principles of companion planting. Lots of them worked great! I now always plant marigolds by my potatoes because the scent keeps yucky bugs away.

Some other plant companions I enjoyed were carrots and tomatoes because carrots are a root plant and tomatoes grow above ground; pumpkins planted around the corn--to prevent racoons from wanting to traipse through the stickery vines to eat the corn; and peas, spinach, and onions, since they harvest at different times and can be planted quite close together.

There are some combinations to avoid as well, but I don't remember what. I guess I'll have to pick up the book again. =) Does that make it a classic???

[Toni Okamoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I checked this book out from the library and liked it so much that I plan on buying it as a reference guide in the garden. Although it is packed with a lot of good info, I'm knocking it down one star because I felt like the author tried to pack in so much information that it shortened the specifics in other areas.

[Rmslis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became aware of this book some years ago and the title intrigued me. But at the time I was planting only a certain few flowers specifically to attract hummingbirds and ascertained that the contents of the book really wouldn’t help me much on that project. Fast forward to the present - I am now interested in trying my hand at growing some vegetables so I decided to seek out this book to see if my yield could benefit from it in any way as space is at a premium in my yard and in the confined space in which I would be planting I did not want to waste time and that limited space by mistakenly trying to grow plants that would be detrimental to the growth of any adjacent plants.

I thought this was a good book for beginning vegetable gardeners. Not only did it include discussions of various types of plants - vegetables, herbs, weeds - and the vegetation best suited or not suited for planting alongside each other, but the author also included tips on pest management, gardening techniques, soil improvement and even provided some diagrams of successfully planted garden plots to aide the reader in planning their own garden.

I knocked off a star in my review as the book contained few illustrations of the various plants discussed and those few illustrations included were only pen and ink drawings. So the reader would have to consult other sources for a more definitive description of the plants referenced by the author. Thankfully, the author included the scientific names for all vegetation mentioned. Also, considering the date the book was last published - 1998 - I’m sure there are more current books on the topic of companion gardening that may provide more information. But for a handy, informative, concise, introduction containing valuable advice for one contemplating in starting a vegetable garden I would recommend it.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5💫

VERY useful information. Considering when this book was published, it could be considered ahead of its time. I use a lot of these practices in my garden today that can be easily researched with the click of a button. But when this text was published, accessing information simply wasn’t that easy and this book has everything you’d need to know.

I’m really happy I purchased a used copy because whoever owned this prior really took their time making notes in the margins and underlining important material. It made me feel a deeper connection not only with this particular text but with gardening in general - to know that we are all apart of something bigger and still learning to understand the same practices being passed on through generations.

If there’s one main message from this book, it’s that life will thrive and bloom to its fullest potential when surrounded by positive companions. I love this book. I love what it teaches people. I love my gardening community. 🫶🏻

[Literature and Leaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful guide so you don’t hinder yourself by planting things that don’t do well together. I’ve found it most useful planning where to pop my herbs here and there. A lot of random little tidbits of useful info! A lot of the things I was already doing, but it was really cool to learn the science/reason it helps!! Recommend having your own garden planning notebook to jot down groups and ideas while you flip through so when you go to plan it’s less of a headache and not overwhelming.

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, excellent, excellent book! Wish I had it at the beginning of planting season instead of at harvest. Next year…

[Cara Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of folksy knowledge and wisdom, with little bits of old lady humor thrown in just for the fun of it.

[Syl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this one for years!

Upon completing - this book is definitely finding a spot on my gardening reference shelf. Lots of great suggestions, several of which I'm trying in this year's garden. One idea is planting radishes around cukes and squash to repel cucumber beetles. Fingers crossed!

[Mark Alexander · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea why this book is so popular

This book does not go into detail or the reason behind any of the companion planting suggestions. It is also organized in a very haphazard manner. There are various gardening topics throughout , like composting, insecticides, mulching, compost, etc, but they are very basic and only a paragraph or two at most
on each topic. Nothing insightful or instructive.
Then there is an entire chapter devoted to poisonous plants, and their effects. It’s nothing more than a long list of plants which I’ve never even heard of about 70% of them, and there is no description or illustrations or pictures so the information is useless. Oh and it lists things like strawberries in the poisonous chapter because it can cause ‘dermatitis’.

I read through the book in about an hour and will probably never reference it again because there is nothing that really provides instructive information, and if it did, I wouldn’t be able to locate it because the book is so poorly organized.

Save your money and get a real gardening book.

[Kristal · Rating 5 out of 5]

After years of wanting to have a garden, I finally dove in and attempted to do some container gardening since I didn't officially have a backyard. And I made it one of my goals for the year to read more gardening books to learn the Do's and Don'ts. Well, this little book is certainly a must-have to learn the good and the bad. It is packed full of useful information on companion planing, an ancient technique where you plant certain plants together that are beneficial to each other. The author does state that this is an extensive subject and that much more information can be obtained but she does an outstanding job of covering the basics of vegetables, fruit trees, grasses and even wild plants. A must have for anyone wanting to start learning about companion planting.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was in such high demand at the library, I had to wait six weeks to check out a copy. It is an interesting philosophy of which plants do well together, and which plants you should plant far away from everything else (fennel does not love anything, apparently). It is hard to give the book a rating without having tested out its advice, but I plan to put dill where I harvested radishes, and next year will try some of their suggestions to keep cabbages healthy. A lot of things love tomatoes, it seems, including basil and carrots.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will probably want to have this book nearby when planning the plot layout. A little less useful than I had hoped because while it says what to plant nearby and avoid planting together, there's not a ton of explanation of why. So I can follow the directions, but I won't really understand why it works.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would use this mainly as a reference book. I has information for vegetables, flowers, shrubs, trees, fruit, and herbs. I like that it seems to have quite a bit of information on natural pest control.

[Ladislav Hrbacek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obsahově velmi zajímavá kniha, které by slušela lepší typografická úprava. Takto jsem si dělal tabulky a přehledy sám. Je to rozhodně knížka, která patří do knihovničky každého zahrádkáře nebo pěstitele.

[Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books available on this subject, with a few caveats:

1. companion planting is more anthropology than science. Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening does not reference any scientific studies. That's because there are very few available. Robert Pavlis offers a good discussion of the subject on his blog here. We do not know why or even if some planting combinations work, and we have little data to suggest they work reliably in all settings.
2. pests, plant names and plant choices are all US-centric. International readers will need to do some translating. Luckily, Riotte provides binomial names for all plants, which helps.
3. unfortunately, pests are NOT listed by their binomial names. This makes any discussion of plant remedies and pests very hard to parse for international readers, scientific evidence notwithstanding.
4. the layout is frustrating. This book needs a glossary with tables/plant but Riotte does not include it. She will mention off-hand that tomatoes and basil go together while discussing asparagus. Or she'll mention that vetch should be sown before celeriac, then never bring it up again. I felt a lot of FOMO reading her plant summaries, always worrying that she'd hidden a relevant nugget about said plant in a completely different part of the book.

Parts I appreciated: Louise takes painstaking effort to update old beliefs. For example, in the section on comfrey, she highlights its historical reputation as a bone-setting herb, incl. its nutritional value. She then very clearly states that comfrey is no longer considered safe to drink, and shouldn't be ingested. This is fantastic attention to detail, and highlights the love that went into writing this book. That said, it also creates a false sense of security. In Louise's section on Aloe vera, there is no mention of risks or adverse reactions, though both are very real . If you are going to plant something medicinal based on this book, always do your own research.

Other things I loved: Louise goes wide with her work. In reality, this is less a book on companion planting and more one on plant uses. For example, she'll include a random section on herbal salt and sugar substitutes - something I haven't seen other authors do. Similarly, she includes a discussion of fruit trees, nuts, gardening techniques, green manure and soil improvement. Readers who enjoyed this section should also look at Plants For A Future and Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops. There's even a set of garden plans (postage stamp gardens incl.) towards the end of the book.

Overall, a very interesting starting point for further reflection and study.

[Dani]

This book was... interesting.  At first, I felt it was easy enough to reference-- just look up the particular plant you want to know about!  But not all relevant information is exactly there; sometimes the information is spread about, or is in another section.  For example, you can look up a particular veggie and find its companion plants, but not necessarily *all* of them; sometimes the information is listed only with the other plant-- Plant A lists C, D, E, but only if you look under Plant B do you read that it goes well with A.

In line with that, there's loose info scattered throughout.  For example, there is a guide to different kinds of chiles, which is handy enough, if a bit out of place.  Sure, it's in the chile section, but this follows, "plant this with that, plant this that but *not* that, etc.  Oh!  Chiles have vitamins! Let's me tell you how good they are.  Here are the kinds of chiles.  Plant this with that, this with that..."
  
Some details are sprinkled in like "fun facts", and this *can* make for cool additions, like the section on plants to use as additives in your coffee.  It was unexpected and unique!  I also had never heard that if you smoke or chew tobacco, you need to be sure and wash your hands before touching your tomato plants since a disease on tobacco plants can greatly affect tomatoes.  But then there are other sections that are severely lacking in details, especially in the "how" and "why" and "how close or far".  It's definitely not what I would call "beginner-friendly."

Regrettably, some of the more generalized information is stuffed in at weird places.  If you wanted to know about basic information on disease-resistant vegetables, you wouldn't necessarily think to look between "cucumbers" and "eggplant" (which is exactly where it is in this book!)

This book has a very folksy tone and style.  On one hand, I understand the author has done plenty of gardening and has years of personal experience, but as a reader, how am I supposed to sort facts from "old wives' tales"?  The folksy-ness is charming enough, but I would like more sources and proof.  It feels charming when it sounds like an older relative telling you a story, sprinkling in some history, recipes, and tips.  And then it can be frustrating when it starts listing things like "freckle remedies" or sounding dated when talking about how "Chinese celery cabbage... deserve(es) to be better known in America..."  (I had to look up this vegetable, and found that now we call it "Napa cabbage".  I wish the late author could have been around to see this vegetable become more widely known!  Even mainstream recipe creators like America's Test Kitchen have a handful of recipes for Napa cabbage.)

All in all, this book had interesting tidbits and a folksy tone that was at best charming but at worst unhelpful.  I would definitely say this book is *not* for beginners or those looking for a straightforward or concise resource.  It's also not for those who need more pictures, guides, or even scientific sources.  But, if you're looking for a folksy garden book with tidbits, fun facts, and home remedies, I think you'd enjoy this book.

[Patrice Doten · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this in the late 90s. After moving in the early 2000s and spending many years without my own garden, we’re finally buying another house. I reread this book as a refresher in preparation for transforming the yard into gardens. It has quite a bit of useful information. However, because of the disorganized way in which it’s presented, you won’t necessarily find all the pertinent material where you expect it. The section on “Tomatoes” lists carrots as a good companion, and you might see them both listed together under a different vegetable as well, but you won’t see tomatoes listed in the “Carrots” section. This is the case for several different plants. To ensure getting all the information, you’d really need to read the entire book and take notes (or make them in the margins for future reference).

The book was also published in 1975 so much of the information is out-of-date. There are a number of recommended plants that have since been identified as invasive species and should under no circumstances be planted. There is also some misleading advice, e.g. Rhubarb listed as a desirable companion for columbine. However, one prefers full sun and the other shade (the book doesn’t mention that), so only a small percentage of gardens would have the right conditions to make such a combination work well. There is also faulty medicinal advice, and a number of toxic plants recommended - some of them include mention of the toxicity, while others don’t (Comfrey has many beneficial uses, but should NOT be ingested, as it’s known to cause liver damage).

Overall, I found this a helpful refresher and might recommend it to experienced gardeners as a starting point for additional research. I would not recommend it to new gardeners, however. There are no doubt more recent companion planting guides that are better organized and contain more comprehensive, up-to-date information.

[Susan Faloon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you know that onions will help protect your spring planted squash plants from invading squash bugs? Onions can also help peas and beans? Some garden plants can retard the growth of others? The late gardener and author Louise Riotte shared her vast knowledge and experience of companion gardening 50 years ago in the book, Carrots Love Tomatoes. Over 500,00 copies of this little treasure have been sold over the years.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who gardens or a newbie who wants to garden. I borrowed the original paperback from a Books by Mail program in the late 1970's. The content is as valuable today as it was then. My mother and I used the knowledge shared in its pages in our garden from that time forward.
I received a downloadable copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and ordered a paperback copy for a Christmas gift for a family member. In my own unsolicited opinion, I know this book is a treasure trove of information. It details the vegetable plants that will boost or protect the growth of plants that grow well together. Just as some plants protect, enhance the soil and can enable growth of neighboring plants this book also focuses on plants that can be harmful to others.
The gardener can read the book cover to cover or when planning your garden, you may want to start with the index and search the specific plants that you want to plant. (Mom and I took notes, starting with the plants we typically planted and made our own chart of what went well together and what plants could cause damage to the success of growth in other plants.) The book also includes helpful information such as a drawing of a garden featuring companion planting, soil improvement with "green manure crops" and companion flowering plants that protect and enhance certain vegetables. Hint: bee balm helps enhance the taste of tomatoes!

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, a few things.

1. Factual issues, here milkweed is listed as poisonous; however consulting Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie we find the flowers, young shoots and seed pods are edible when cooked and that author has eaten them repeatedly cooked with no issues, but reports stomach cramps when uncooked (Well someone had to for science). But given in spring Mikweed looks very nearly like dogbane which IS poisonous we can see how this happened and even I can't tell the two apart except when they're in flower. This is just one small example their are several other little things like this.
2. In my experience any plant is a good companion plant assuming both plants can get adequate sun, water and nutrition, I don't find that knowing particular combinations is very helpful since spacing can make such a huge difference, it's better to think about shape, size, root profile, etc to see what can be thrown together and still grow.
3. This is more specific to me, but in general I find if you have a lot of something, anything then pests will find it regardless of any defense plants you have nearby. Now, for a small backyard garden you can probably hide a few plants but that doesn't scale up in my experience. Now you absolutely should have host plants for beneficial insects and as much plant diversity as you can manage but it's not a magic solution.
4. If you're going to give medical advice please at least attempt citing sources.