In article
"David Hare-Scott" writes:

The tables of friend and foe that are commonly found are wildly over the top
and just create more constraints in a business that is already complicated
enough. Those tables are traditional and much like other traditional
practices (eg moonplanting) have very little or no evidence that they work
and less evidence for how they work.

They are also often contradictory. I've seen pairings listed as
good on one site and bad on another.

The problem I have with these is that there are almost never any
supporting explanations. And when you get an explanation, it is
often clear that the recommendation is not based on actual interactions
between plants.

The lamest example I can bring to mind is suggestions to plant basil
with tomatoes. Why? Because they taste good together.

Several years ago I briefly worried when, after setting out all the
plants, I found lists saying not to plant dill and tomatoes together.
It took a while before I found that the reasoning was that dill
attracts hawkmoths, which is what tomato hornworms grow up to be.
For market gardeners, this may be good advice. I had 4 tomato
plants, and picking off caterpillars is no problem at that scale.
Not that I've ever seen a hornworm in my area.


I wish the warnings about walnut trees were fiction, but that is
another topic (and the neighbor's tree).

--
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the
last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened
but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
-- Ambrose Bierce