This last section on companion planting (CP) sums up practical
ways to cultivate a healthy garden with some “built-in” natural
protection. Intercropping vs. monoculture By this time, you
should be convinced that intercropping to create a diverse
vegetable garden “habitat” is most effective to naturally
protect your garden from pests, and can potentially enhance the
yield of your favorite crops. Monoculture not only makes your
valuable veggies more susceptible to pests in one season;
sometimes, despite your efforts to work in rich, organic
fertilizers, the same family of plants grown in the same area
will fail in later seasons. We learned this the hard way as we
were initially concerned about having too many different veggies
with too little yields. As it turned out, yields started falling
in later years as our broccoli became more susceptible to pests
(BTW – brassica family, unlike tomato plants, generally like to
be moved around). So be daring, be bold, and experiment with
different veggies – even those you