331 books
—
144 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening” as Want to Read:
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
by
If you want to know whether it is kosher to plant onions between cabbage plants, this is the place to look.
-- Oklahoma Today
First published in 1975, this classic companion planting guide has taught a generation of gardeners how to use plants' natural partnerships to produce bigger and better harvests.
Over 500,000 in Print! ...more
-- Oklahoma Today
First published in 1975, this classic companion planting guide has taught a generation of gardeners how to use plants' natural partnerships to produce bigger and better harvests.
Over 500,000 in Print! ...more
Get A Copy
Paperback, 2nd ed., 224 pages
Published
January 2nd 1998
by Storey Publishing, LLC
(first published 1975)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Carrots Love Tomatoes,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Carrots Love Tomatoes
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
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 t
...more
Jan 17, 2009
Andrea
marked it as to-read
Because someday I will have a garden; Oh yes, it will be mine.
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
...more
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 fe
...more
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.
...more
I never tire of this book. I read it most days, all year, every year since I've owned it.
...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 the ...more
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 the ...more
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 doe
...more
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
...more
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
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
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.
...more
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.
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 ...more
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 ...more
Though not completely applicable to my region, there are tons of great tips for using companion planting. I read another book focused on what thrives in my region and then this one to help plan out what I should plant together. I think that even gardeners who are way more experienced than I am will be able to find helpful information. I'll keep this in my library as a resource to refer back to when necessary.
...more
I only wish this book had come into My life sooner ... This is the kind of book that any Gardner interested in learning, or tweaking, their plantings can come back to again and again .. so why not 5stars? Because like most reference material there is always some things "missing" (though this is by far the most thorough on the subject that I have found), a turn to time and again for Me, and a wonderful way to escape a frozen NH Winter
...more
I actually ended up purchasing this book after borrowing it from the library. While it is a wealth of information on companion planting and what plants are mutualistic/commensalist with each other, it also has some good general gardening tips. There are various section that even include wild and poisonous plants, and it serves as a nice reference.
I use this book every time I plan my vegetable garden for the year. I do wish it were just a little bigger, with information about a few more herbs and vegetables, but it has been so helpful. I recommend this to any gardener!
Very comprehensive. Better as a reference guide than to read. A little difficult to use in regards to some of the more unique herbs and plants because it is difficult to learn to identify them without pictures.
Chock full of great ideas for gardens both large and small. Also very helpful in identifying wild plants as well as weeds and listing the benefits of both (yes, benefits of weeds, whaaaat?!). Great reference guide for beginners, highly recommend.
"Is it terrible that I just wanted this to be an Excel spreadsheet instead of a book?" - Tamara, Marketing
Reserve a library copy ...more
Reserve a library copy ...more
It reads like an encyclopedia. Short paragraphs on everything. But each chapter has at least one thing I didn't know or a scientific explanation for common gardening habits I knew to do but didn't know why. I enjoyed it, talked about it, and would read again.
...more
Several entries didn't explicitly state good companions or plants to avoid and was bit disappointing for this novice. However these instances are few and far between and this will be fantastic help planning my square foot gardens for spring.
...more
Mar 04, 2021
Dan Laubach
added it
Skimmed thru it stopping at all the segments that really applied to me. Well organized so that you can easily find things that benefit what you're trying to grow without having to read in detail the full book.
...more
Really enjoyed this and will use it as a reference book for all my gardening questions.
Extremely helpful - I planted my garden, for the first time, based off the information from this book. Informative and very well organized.
Very good guide to companion planting for growing vegetables.
Lena loves allopathy. Allopathy loves plants. Plants love allopathy. And so on.
I liked why planting this near that was helpful. I took notes in my gardening journal. Even some critter help.
This is an excellent book with great advice and explanations.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
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 influen
...more
Related Articles
If you follow the world of food, chances are you’ve heard of David Chang. The founder of the Momofuku restaurant group, Chang is a chef, TV...
52 likes · 8 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Planted in apple orchards they are of benefit in preventing apple scab,”
—
0 likes
“A camomile rinse is excellent for blond hair. Use three or four tablespoons of dried flowers to a pint of water. Boil twenty to thirty minutes, straining when cool. Shampoo the hair before using, since it must be free of oil. Pour rinse over the hair several times and do not rinse with clear water after using. It will leave the hair smelling like sweet clover.”
—
0 likes
More quotes…
