Gardening glossary
Intercropping
Intercropping and companion planting overlap, but they are not the same. Companion planting focuses on *which* species help each other. Intercropping focuses on *how* you arrange them in space and time to extract more yield from one square metre.
Common intercropping patterns:
**Fast between slow.** Sow quick-maturing radishes or salad leaves between rows of slow-growing brassicas, parsnips, or sweetcorn. The fast crop is harvested before the slow one needs the space.
**Tall above short.** Run pole beans or staked tomatoes down the middle of a bed and tuck low, shade-tolerant crops like lettuce, chard, or bush basil at their feet. The tall crop uses the vertical space; the short crop uses the floor.
**Deep with shallow.** Pair a deep-rooted crop (carrots, parsnips, tomatoes) with a shallow-rooted one (lettuce, spring onions, radishes). They draw water and nutrients from different soil layers and rarely compete.
**Legume with non-legume.** Beans and peas fix atmospheric nitrogen via root nodules. Interplanting them with a hungry feeder like sweetcorn or brassicas gives the heavy feeder a small but real nitrogen boost.
Why bother:
- More yield per square metre — sometimes 30–50% more than the same crops grown separately. - Less bare soil, which means fewer weeds and less evaporation. - Greater diversity, which spreads pest pressure across multiple species. - Continuous harvest from a single bed.
Things to watch for. Crowded beds need more water and more food, so plan a side dressing mid-season. Make sure no plant casts so much shade that its neighbour can’t produce. And keep good notes — intercropping is a planning exercise more than a planting one.