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Letter: Companion planting success, but in reverse

Published 18 June 2025

From Will Kemp, Wagait Beach, Northern Territory, Australia

James Wong suggests tomatoes may do better when grown near basil. I found something similar, but different. When creating a veg garden, I thought I would test the companion-planting theory by growing basil and tomatoes – some near each other, some not. It wasn’t a scientific study, but I found basil grew bigger when next to a tomato plant. Proximity to basil, meanwhile, made no noticeable difference to the tomatoes(31 May, p 43).

Issue no. 3548 published 21 June 2025

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