For example, one avid grower in Australia determined through trial, error, and referring to a lot of books that all sorts of different things went well together in her challenging, arid climate. Next to apple trees, the good matches include wallflowers, Roman wormwood, chives, nasturtiums, yarrow, and calendulas.

Harsh Climates

In fact, Australia is a veritable fountain of information about the so-called phenomenon of fruit tree "companion planting", because this is needed so much more than in some other more temperate and drought-free regions of the world, where it is less challenging to grow fruit trees. However, the lessons learned Down Under can still generally be helpful to green thumbs in the United States and elsewhere. Sometimes, it's simply a matter of putting trees more sensitive to the sun under the helpful shadow of trees than can better handle the sun's daily glare.

In this age of social media, gardeners have taken to Facebook to share their companion planting lessons learned. It's a marriage made in gardening heaven, because some of the best gardening advice comes not from the nursery but from other grubby handed growers.

When it comes to peach trees for example, planting basil at the base will help keep the fruit flies away. Similarly, if onions and-or garlic are planted around peach trees, it can discourage other vermin from trying to get at the succulent peaches. Tansy is another one that works this way, although it is toxic to animals. Even asparagus or strawberry plants can do the keep-away trick for peach trees.