Garden Journal

CROP COMPANIONS

WHAT: Rhubarb and alliums

Autumn is one of the best times to plant rhubarb crowns, when the soil is moist and warm. To ensure your young plant produces a crop in its first harvest, protect it from pests. Alliums, the architectural members of the onion family with their large heads of purple, blue and white flowers, have a strong aroma to keep harmful pests, such as aphids and weevils, away from your young rhubarb plants and stop them destroying the leaves and stalks. In autumn, plant allium bulbs at a depth of about four times the diameter of the bulb, in a sunny, sheltered site, in free-draining soil. Low maintenance and drought tolerant, most flower in May and June, with a few later bloomers, while the seedheads are loved by wildlife.