35 Companion Plants For Chard: Your Complete Guide For 2023! -

Are you looking for good companion plants for chard to plant in your garden?

Companion planting for Swiss chard is an enjoyable and rewarding activity and I can’t encourage you to try it out!

Chard is a nutrient-rich leafy green that is packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. When grown with companion plants, chard can benefit from its pest-repelling properties and its ability to improve soil health.

If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, then you’ll know already that I’m a bit of a foodie, but have I ever told you that I love to eat chard?

It all started when I lived in New Zealand. I was visiting a friend’s house and his mom cooked lunch of chard frittata for us. This was the first time I had ever tried chard (well, they call it silverbeet in New Zealand, but it’s the same thing), and I was hooked!

Lucky for me, chard grows well in New Zealand and it seems to be in abundance in everyone’s gardens, so there were plenty of friends willing to give me some when I wanted to try a new recipe.

So then I tried sauteed chard, kumara (sweet potato) with chard and mozzarella, chard and cheese pies, chard with bacon, rosemary, and pumpkin… I’m getting hungry just thinking about all the great chard recipes!

Anyway, enough about the food, you’re here to find out what companion plants you can plant next to chard, right? Read on to find out which plants are best, which ones are no-nos, and a couple of helpful tips on how to grow the best chard crop in your backyard!

Best Companion Plants For Chard

1. Shallots

2. Leeks

3. Chives

4. Cabbages

5. Brussel Sprouts

6. Turnips

7. Kohlrabi

8. Collard Greens

9. Peppermint

10. Cilantro

11. Bush Beans

12. Peas

13. Sweet Alyssum

14. Nasturtiums

15. Marigolds

16. Lettuce

17. Garlic

18. Onions

19. Broccoli

20. Kale

21. Radishes

22. Celery

23. Dill

24. Marjoram

25. Lovage

26. Lavender

27. Mint

28. Fava Beans

29. Garbanzo Beans

30. Rosemary

31. Thyme

32. Basil

33. Arugula

34. Bok Choy

35. Carrots

companion plants for chard — *Chard growing in my garden*

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35 Chard Companion Plants

1. Shallots

Benefits: Keeps away pests.

Spacing Requirements: 6-8 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 100-120 days

Popular Varieties: Zebrune, Red, Holland Red

2. Leeks

Benefits: Keeps away pests.

Spacing Requirements: 6 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 100-140 days

Popular Varieties: American Flag, Giant Leek

3. Chives

Benefits: Keeps away pests.

Spacing Requirements: 6 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Any time 60 days after sowing seed

Popular Varieties: Garden Chives, Garlic Chives

4. Cabbages

Benefits: Loosens the soil.

Spacing Requirements: 15-20 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 60-100 days

Popular Varieties: Copenhagen Market, Late Flat Dutch, Golden Acre

5. Brussel Sprouts

Benefits: Has a shallow root system, keeps away pests

Spacing Requirements: 6 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 80-100 days

Popular Varieties: Long Island Improved, Catskill, Churchill

6. Turnips

Benefits: Take up minimal space and repels pests

Spacing Requirements: 1-2 inches apart in rows 18-30 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 40-55 days

Popular Varieties: Purple Top, Snowball, Seven Top

7. Kohlrabi

Benefits: Loosens the soil.

Spacing Requirements: 9-12 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Approximately 55 days

Popular Varieties: Purple Vienna, Early White Vienna

8. Collard Greens

Benefits: Described as a trap plant – attracts bugs themselves, drawing them away from the chard

Spacing Requirements: 12 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 55-75 days

Popular Varieties: Champion, Georgia Southern

9. Peppermint

Benefits: If allowed to bloom, will attract beneficial insects with its masses of flowers. Mint also repels flea beetles, a common pest for chard

Spacing Requirements: 18-24 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Reaches full maturity at about 90 days, and 1-2 feet tall. At this point, you can cut it down to 1 inch above the soil and it will regrow to the pre-cut height in 6-8 weeks

Popular Varieties: Menthe Piperita

10. Cilantro

Benefits: Improves general soil health, attracts good insects, and repels bad ones

Spacing Requirements: 2 inches apart in rows 15 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Cilantro leaves can be harvested any time after the plant is 6-8 inches tall, however plants mature 60-75 days after sowing

Popular Varieties: Coriandrum Sativum

11. Bush Beans

Benefits: Will fix nitrogen in the soil.

Spacing Requirements: 2 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: About 40-60 days after planting

Popular Varieties: Blue Lake, Slenderette, Provider, Contender

12. Peas

Benefits: Will fix nitrogen in the soil.

Spacing Requirements: 2-3 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Approximately 10-14 weeks after planting, depending on the variety.

Popular Varieties: Sugar Snap, Green Arrow, Dwarf Sugar Grey, Purple Hull

13. Sweet Alyssum

Benefits: Acts as a ground cover which reduces the number of weeds, and also stops soil erosion.

Spacing Requirements: 3-4 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: These take about 9-10 weeks to flower from the time you planted the seeds.

Popular Varieties: Royal Carpet, Carpet Of Snow, Oriental Nights

14. Nasturtiums

Benefits: Good as a marker plant in between rows and also acts as a trap plant – attracting bugs themselves and drawing them away from the chard

Spacing Requirements: 3 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: These flowers are some of the quickest growing plants, with flowers being produced around 6 weeks after planting, between 35-50 days after germination.

Popular Varieties: Dwarf Jewel Mix, Jewel Mix, Black Velvet, Peach Melba, Cherry Rose

15. Marigolds

Benefits: Repels nematodes.

Spacing Requirements: 10-12 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Depending on the variety, marigold plants will flower anywhere between 50-100 days after planting the seeds.

Popular Varieties: Petite Mix, Crackerjack Mix, French

16. Lettuce

Benefits: Has a shallow root system, so won’t compete for space with your chard. Also covers the soil, preventing weeds from popping up and slowing erosion.

Spacing Requirements: 8-12 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Depending on the variety, anywhere from 30-70 days from planting to harvesting

Popular Varieties: Romaine, Buttercrunch, Little Gem, Red Romaine, Cos, Iceberg, Collection

17. Garlic

Benefits: Will keep away pests.

Spacing Requirements: 6 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: Garlic is a long maturing crop and takes 8-9 months to grow from plantable cloves to harvest. Timing is also very important with garlic, where we are, we only grow garlic planted in fall and harvested at the start of summer, however, lots of climates will support a spring-planting season as well.

Popular Varieties: California, Siberian Hardneck, Elephant (a personal favorite of mine!) Chesnok Red, Dichondra Black

18. Onions

Benefits: Can make chard taste better, will also keep away bugs, also handy markers and dividers as well

Spacing Requirements: 2 inches apart for smaller bulbs, 4 inches apart for bigger bulbs

Time From Seed To Harvest: Onions are a very long crop, taking 100-120 days to grow from seed to a full bulb

Popular Varieties: Texas Grano, Walla Walla, Yellow Sweet Spanish, Red Creole, Gladstone White, Utah Yellow Sweet

19. Broccoli

Benefits: Improves soil health, attracts good bugs, and repels bad ones

Spacing Requirements: 18 inches apart

Time From Seed To Harvest: 100-150 days from seed, however seedlings speed things up a lot and take 55-80 to harvest from the planting of the seedling.