What Plants Grow Well With Strawberries?

Several plants pair well with strawberries, but the best choices depend on what you want the companion to do. Borage, for instance, can boost strawberry yield by roughly a third by attracting more pollinators, while garlic planted between rows can cut spider mite populations in half. Other companions earn their place by fixing nitrogen, suppressing weeds, or luring pest insects away from your berries. The research on strawberry companion planting has grown considerably in recent years, and some of the results challenge long-held gardening advice.

Borage for Bigger Harvests

If you could pick only one companion plant for strawberries, borage would be a strong contender. A study combining researcher-led field experiments with citizen-scientist observations found that strawberry plants grown alongside borage produced about 35% more individual fruits and roughly 32% more yield by weight compared to strawberries grown alone. The companion-planted berries also scored higher on market-quality appearance standards, likely because more thorough pollination leads to better-shaped fruit with fewer deformed drupelets.¹

The mechanism is straightforward. Borage flowers produce abundant nectar and are highly attractive to bees. More bees visiting the general area means more visits to strawberry flowers, and strawberry flowers need thorough pollination across their many ovules to produce full, well-formed berries. Incomplete pollination is one of the most common reasons for misshapen or undersized strawberries, so anything that brings more pollinators to the patch has an outsized effect on both yield and fruit quality.

Borage is also easy to grow. It self-seeds readily, tolerates poor soil, and does not compete aggressively with strawberries for water or nutrients. The main drawback is that it can spread enthusiastically if you let it go to seed unchecked, so pulling some plants before they finish flowering keeps it from taking over a small bed.

Garlic and Other Alliums for Pest Control

Garlic is one of the most studied companion plants for strawberries, and the results are genuinely encouraging. In both greenhouse and field trials, intercropping garlic between strawberry rows reduced two-spotted spider mite populations substantially. A single row of garlic among the strawberry rows cut mobile mite forms by around 44–49%, while three rows of garlic brought the reduction up to 60–65%. Egg counts dropped in a similar pattern, with three rows of garlic reducing eggs by about 64%.²

The same study tested fennel and chives as companions and found they could also reduce spider mite numbers, with single-sample reductions of around 42% and 50% respectively, though these effects were observed only when mite populations were already high. Garlic was the most consistent performer across different population levels and planting densities.

Two-spotted spider mites are among the most damaging strawberry pests worldwide, feeding on leaf undersides and weakening plants during the fruiting season. A companion-planting approach that cuts their numbers by half or more is appealing because it reduces the need for miticide sprays, which can harm beneficial insects like the predatory mites that also feed on the pest. For home gardeners, garlic is especially practical since you get a secondary harvest of garlic bulbs while protecting your berries.

Onions are another allium worth considering. Intercropping trials found that onion did not significantly reduce strawberry fruit weight, marketable yield, or overall production compared to growing strawberries alone.³ So even if onions do not provide the same dramatic pest-repelling effect that garlic does, they at least coexist without competing for the resources your strawberries need.

Vegetables That Share Space Without Competing

One of the practical appeals of companion planting is making better use of limited garden space. Strawberry beds often have gaps between rows or between plants, and short-cycle vegetables can fill those gaps without hurting berry production. Trials testing cos lettuce, radish, and onion as intercrops found that none of them significantly affected strawberry fruit weight or marketable yield in either year of the study. The strawberry yields from these intercropped plots actually exceeded the local average for strawberry production.³

Lettuce and radish are particularly good candidates because they grow fast and stay small. A radish crop can be sown and harvested in three to four weeks, well before the strawberry canopy fills in and shades the ground. Lettuce appreciates the partial shade that mature strawberry plants provide in warmer months, making the two genuinely complementary. These quick-growing companions also help cover bare soil early in the season, which reduces moisture loss and can suppress weed germination without the kind of root competition that a more aggressive plant would create.

Legumes as Nitrogen-Fixing Partners

The idea behind planting legumes near strawberries is that beans, peas, and clovers host nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots, potentially enriching the soil for the strawberries growing alongside them. The reality is a bit more nuanced than the theory suggests. A study evaluating broad bean, two varieties of pea, and clover as intercrops with the Polka strawberry cultivar found no significant differences in marketable yield, unmarketable yield, or botrytis-damaged berries between the intercropped plots and the strawberries grown alone.⁴

That result cuts both ways. On the positive side, the legumes did not hurt strawberry production, so there is no penalty for growing them together. On the other hand, the hoped-for nitrogen boost did not translate into measurably better berries in the first year. Nitrogen fixation by legumes is a real biological process, but the fixed nitrogen is largely locked up in the legume’s own tissue. The soil benefits tend to show up later, after the legume residues decompose, which is why legumes are more commonly used as cover crops in rotation rather than as same-season companions.

If you want the nitrogen benefit for your strawberries, the practical approach is to grow a legume cover crop in the bed the season before you plant strawberries, or to chop and leave legume residues in the soil between renovation cycles. Growing legumes alongside strawberries in the same season is fine for space efficiency but should not be counted on for an immediate fertility boost.

Alfalfa as a Trap Crop for Lygus Bugs

Lygus bugs, sometimes called tarnished plant bugs, are one of the more frustrating strawberry pests. They feed on developing fruit and cause a defect known as “cat-facing,” where parts of the berry fail to develop, leaving hard, seedy patches. In California’s organic strawberry industry, alfalfa has been tested extensively as a trap crop, and the results show a clear benefit with an important caveat.

In one set of experiments, alfalfa trap crops planted alongside organic strawberry fields attracted significantly more Lygus adults and nymphs than the adjacent strawberry rows.⁵ A follow-up study using protein-marking techniques to track insect movement confirmed that about 79% of adult Lygus emigrating from surrounding weeds ended up in the alfalfa rather than the strawberries. However, the same study found that all marked Lygus nymphs moved into the strawberry rows instead of the alfalfa.⁶

There was also a silver lining for biological control: most of the predatory insects tracked in the study moved into the strawberry rows rather than the alfalfa, creating a favorable predator-to-pest ratio of about 5 to 1 in the berries. So the trap crop serves a dual purpose. It intercepts adult Lygus before they settle in the strawberry canopy and lay eggs, and it may indirectly concentrate beneficial predators where they are needed most.⁶

In commercial operations, alfalfa trap crops are often managed with periodic vacuum harvesting to physically remove the Lygus bugs that accumulate there. For home gardeners, this is less practical. But if you have the space to plant a strip of alfalfa near your strawberry patch, it can at least reduce the number of adult plant bugs settling in your berries, even without the vacuuming step.

Living Mulches and Ground Covers

Using a low-growing plant as a living mulch between strawberry rows sounds ideal in theory. It suppresses weeds, protects soil from erosion, and keeps berries off bare ground. In practice, the results depend heavily on which plant you use and how aggressively it grows.

White clover is one of the most commonly recommended living mulches, and it does suppress weeds effectively. But a study comparing different mulch systems in organic strawberry production found that clover reduced strawberry yield by more than 50% due to competition for water and nutrients.⁷ That is a steep price for weed control, and it underscores a point that companion-planting guides often gloss over: plants growing right next to your strawberries are not just companions, they are competitors.

Buckwheat, tested in the same study, had the opposite problem. It decomposed so rapidly that it provided little weed suppression later in the season. The finding highlights a tricky balance with living mulches: if the plant is vigorous enough to outcompete weeds, it may also outcompete your berries, but if it is too short-lived, it does not stick around long enough to help.⁷

If you still want a living ground cover, consider placing it in pathways or along the edges of your strawberry bed rather than directly between plants. That way the cover crop handles weed suppression and soil protection in the walking areas without its roots intruding into the root zone of your berries.

Marigolds and Nematode Suppression

Marigolds are perhaps the most widely recommended companion plant in gardening lore, and they appear in nearly every list of strawberry companions. Their reputation rests mainly on their ability to suppress root-knot nematodes, the tiny soil-dwelling worms that damage roots and reduce yields in many crops. Research has identified compounds in marigold roots, particularly alpha-terthienyl, that are toxic to nematodes, and computational modeling has confirmed that these compounds interact with nematode receptors in ways consistent with a suppressive effect.⁸

For strawberry growers, the practical question is whether planting a few marigolds in a garden bed actually delivers meaningful nematode control. The honest answer is that it depends on the situation. Marigolds work best as a rotation or cover crop, where a dense planting is grown for a full season and then incorporated into the soil before planting the next crop. A handful of marigolds scattered among strawberry plants probably will not suppress nematode populations enough to make a real difference in a heavily infested bed. But in a garden where nematodes are not yet a major problem, marigold companion plants may help keep populations from building up, and they contribute to pollinator habitat at the same time.

Companions That Do Not Live Up to the Hype

Not every companion plant does what gardening blogs claim. Sweet alyssum is frequently recommended as a companion for strawberries and other fruit crops because its small flowers attract parasitic wasps, which attack pest insects. The theory makes ecological sense, but a study testing sweet alyssum as a border plant in early-season berry fields found no significant effect on either the infestation rate of spotted wing drosophila (a major fruit fly pest) or the level of parasitism of that pest.⁹

Sweet alyssum is still a pretty plant that supports beneficial insects in a general sense, and it may help with other pest species not tested in that study. But if your primary concern is spotted wing drosophila, which is one of the most damaging pests of ripe strawberries worldwide, planting sweet alyssum is not a solution backed by evidence. This is a good example of why it is worth looking past the usual recommendation lists and checking what the research actually found.

Herb companions like basil, thyme, and sage are also commonly suggested, and while they can attract pollinators and are pleasant to grow near strawberries, controlled evidence for specific pest-reduction benefits on strawberry crops is thin. There is nothing wrong with planting them nearby, but treating them as a pest-management strategy rather than a pleasant garden design choice is probably expecting too much.

Relay Cropping for Commercial Growers

In larger-scale strawberry production, the companion planting question shifts from “what helps my berries” to “what can I grow alongside or after my berries to make the whole system more profitable.” Relay cropping, where a second crop is planted into an existing strawberry field as the berry season winds down, is one approach that has been studied in some detail.

Trials evaluating jalapeño peppers and cantaloupe relay-cropped with strawberries showed that the economics can work, but the added costs are real. For peppers, transplant costs and picking costs added nearly $8,700 per hectare combined. Cantaloupe added substantial fungicide, picking, and packing costs. The key finding was that relay cropping spreads total production costs across two crops, which can improve overall returns per unit of land if the timing is right.¹⁰

For backyard growers, the relay-cropping concept translates into a simpler idea: once your June-bearing strawberries are done for the season, the space between rows can support a warm-season crop like peppers, beans, or summer squash. You get more food from the same square footage, and the second crop’s canopy shades the soil during the hottest months, reducing water stress on the strawberry crowns as they set next year’s flower buds.

Choosing Based on Your Actual Problems

The most useful way to think about strawberry companions is to match the plant to the problem you are trying to solve rather than planting everything that appears on a companion-planting chart. If your biggest issue is poor fruit set and misshapen berries, borage or other pollinator-attracting flowers will give you the most noticeable improvement. If spider mites are your perennial headache, garlic planted between the rows has strong evidence behind it. If you are an organic grower dealing with Lygus bugs, a strip of alfalfa along the field edge is worth the space it takes. And if you just want to squeeze more food out of a small bed, lettuce and radish can fill the gaps without costing you any berries.

What the research consistently shows is that the companions least likely to cause harm are those with shallow root systems that do not directly compete for the same soil volume as strawberry roots. Strawberries are relatively shallow-rooted, with most of their feeding roots in the top 15 centimeters or so. Companions that root deeper or that grow in adjacent rows rather than right next to the strawberry crown tend to coexist better than those planted cheek-by-jowl in the same raised bed. The clover living-mulch failure is a cautionary tale: even a plant with genuine benefits can sabotage your strawberry harvest if it competes for the same narrow band of soil and moisture your berries need.

1
Ecological Entomology. Companion planting to attract pollinators increases the yield and quality of strawberry fruit in gardens and allotments
2
PubMed. Intercropping garlic plants reduces Tetranychus urticae in strawberry crop
3
Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. Strawberry Intercropping with Vegetables for Proper Utilization of Space and Resources
4
ISHS Acta Horticulturae. Strawberry yield and quality in intercrop with legumes
5
Environmental Entomology. Control of Western Tarnished Plant Bug Lygus hesperus Knight (Hemiptera: Miridae) in California Organic Strawberries Using Alfalfa Trap Crops and Tractor-Mounted Vacuums
6
Environmental Entomology. Immigration of Lygus spp. (Hemiptera: Miridae) and predaceous natural enemies to trap-cropped organic strawberry
7
PubMed Central. Living Mulches, Rolled Cover Crops, and Plastic Mulch: Effects on Soil Properties, Weed Suppression, and Yield in Organic Strawberry Systems
8
SpringerLink. A Study on Natural Control against Nematodes and Whiteflies with Marigold, Known as an Antagonist Plant
9
PubMed. Aromatic border plants in early season berries do not increase parasitism of spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii
10
PLOS ONE. Optimization of planting dates of Jalapeno pepper (Capsicum annuum ‘Jalapeño’ L.) and cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis Ser.) relay cropped with strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne)