Row Companion Planting by Gertrud Franck

×

On this page I want to give you an overview of row companion planting by Gertrud Franck. Even though this page already looks like a lot of content, the details hold so much more. My goal is to give you an overview and a starting point.

Much more information is available in the book Gesunder Garten durch Mischkultur (* Affiliate) by Gertrud Franck, which is again available in the revised new edition by Brunhilde Bross-Burkhardt.

Gertrud Franck

She was probably one of the most important pioneers of ecological and organic horticulture. And that at a time when ecological and organic were not yet as valued as today – in the lean post-war years it was simply about healthy food.

Through her marriage to Hannfried Franck in 1935, she came to a farm near Schwäbisch Hall – about 20 kilometres from where we live. There she laid out a vegetable and fruit garden of roughly one hectare, which she worked together with several employees.

Over decades she studied the interactions between plants and soil and in this way developed her own companion planting system.

She shared her knowledge through articles and booklets. Later she published books and gave lectures well into old age.

Classic Beds?

Most gardens are divided into individual small beds. Either through fixed borders and fixed paths, or – as it used to be at home for us – simply through planks that let you step onto the bed. This creates small, manageable units.

Crop rotation in this classic bed layout normally happens through rotating beds – the planting simply moves one bed further along. Keeping track of good and bad neighbourships on a bed is not hard if you already have enough experience, good reading material or garden planning software. But multi-year crop rotation is a challenge that is hard to master with companion planting on beds.

This is precisely one of the points that Gertrud Franck’s system revolutionises. No more puzzling over the next year.

One Large Bed

In row companion planting by Gertrud Franck, instead of several small beds, one large bed is created as the main bed. There can be additional smaller beds alongside it, for example in a greenhouse or in raised beds.

This bed is divided into rows that normally have a uniform spacing of about 50 centimetres. These rows are split into three types (A, B, C) that determine what can be grown on them. More on that shortly.

Between the rows, spinach grows first, which is chopped down in the course of the year and left as mulch on the bed. Throughout the year, further mulch material is spread and a surface compost builds up. The bed can be walked on via this ground cover.

The rows shift year by year by half a row. Where the spinach was in the previous year, the rows are now laid out again. It takes years before the same plant or one from the same family stands in the same spot again. This means crop rotation largely takes care of itself.

With this system, the soil stays planted for the most part – almost never bare. As soon as possible, a green manure of yellow mustard or field beans is sown. Later in the year, mulching takes over. Before winter, once a row has been harvested and time permits, yellow mustard is sown again as a green manure.

A, B and C Rows

The rows are divided into three types that determine what can be planted in them. This classification simplifies crop rotation throughout the year and optimises the use of space in the bed.

A Rows (red)

These rows are for wide and tall crops that need almost the entire year. There are therefore no pre- or successive crops. Examples include tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, courgettes and late cabbage varieties such as red and white cabbage.

B Rows (green)

B rows grow crops that are ready to harvest somewhat sooner. This means two or sometimes even three harvests per year in the B rows. These include onions, chard, celeriac and also some cabbage varieties such as cauliflower and broccoli.

C Rows (blue)

There are twice as many of these rows, as they are placed between each A and B row. Low-growing crops with a short growing period are planted here. These can usually be harvested within the year. Examples are lettuces, carrots, mooli and radishes.

Row Arrangement

Now comes the part that initially seems a little complicated. The rows have a fixed sequence, in which A and B rows always alternate, but with a C row always between them. The row rhythm is therefore A–C–B–C. Then you start again from the beginning.

Which row you start with is not so important for understanding the system. It could equally be B–C–A–C or C–A–C–B. Whether you start with an A/B or C row can be used later to optimise the bed, but more on that later.

The rows always have a fixed spacing of about 40 to 50 centimetres, regardless of which plants are grown in them. Gertrud Franck is said to have recommended 40 centimetres in earlier years and 50 centimetres later. I am not entirely certain of the source for this. She did, however, point out that the 50 centimetres can be reduced when space is tight.

Especially when the dimensions of the bed are already fixed, the row spacing can be juggled a little to arrive at a sensible number of rows. Our bed planner helps with this.

A small footnote: I have read several times that it is possible to assign individual spacings per row – based on the row spacings of the crop planted there. But I have never seen a bed plan that does this, not even from Gertrud Franck herself. Fixed spacings make the bed more manageable and easier to adapt in subsequent years. Imagine you have a narrow A row with broad beans and want to replace them with cucumbers or courgettes later – it simply won’t fit.

Companion Planting Within the Row

Companion planting – combining good neighbours – is not only possible row by row. Within a single row, two or more partners can also be planted alternately, promoting each other. A good example is planting celeriac between cabbage varieties to deter cabbage white butterflies.

Many annual herbs, such as dill, are excellent in companion planting. They often need little space and promote the plants around them. Here too I recommend Gertrud Franck’s book, in which two chapters cover the topic of herbs.

Spinach and Mulch

As soon as spinach can be sown – roughly from the beginning of April – spinach is planted between every A, B and C row. Not just a narrow strip, but about 20 centimetres wide. Around May, before it bolts, it is chopped down and left as mulch on the bed. A hoe (* Affiliate) is ideal for this. Of course, some of the good spinach can also be harvested.

New material is constantly spread on top of this first mulch layer – grass clippings and plant material from harvesting, for example. Gertrud Franck describes in her book many plants for mulch such as comfrey and elder, sometimes processed into chopped mixtures.

With the right mixtures it is said to be possible to keep slugs under control too. We are still learning on that front ourselves.

Over the year, a good layer of surface compost builds up between the crop rows. In addition to the nutrients for the next year, this has further advantages:

• The soil is constantly covered, making it hard for unwanted weeds to grow.
• The soil is always shaded, so less water evaporates. The mulch collects dew and releases it to the soil.
• Soil organisms and earthworms have food.
• Slugs are deterred depending on the material.
• Even after rain, the mulch layer can be walked on without any paths at all.

Loosen, Don’t Dig

As soon as the last harvest of the year has been taken from a row, the soil is simply loosened. A digging fork is pushed in and moved slightly back and forth.

The soil is not turned over. The structure of the soil remains intact.

Green Manures

Alongside the surface compost, the soil receives further care: green manures are used whenever possible.

As soon as a row is harvested and there is still enough time for the green manure to germinate and grow a little, yellow mustard is broadcast sown. This happens directly after loosening the soil. The bed goes into winter with this green manure. After winter, only a few remains are left, which barely interfere with further work.

In some cases a pre-sowing with field beans or yellow mustard is possible, provided the crop for that row will not be sown or planted until later. Nitrogen collects on the roots of the field beans with the help of nodule bacteria, making them a good pre-crop for heavy feeders. Before the actual crop, the field beans are chopped off – usually long before they could be harvested. If yellow mustard is used, it can be removed only for the planting row or the planting holes, leaving the soil covered otherwise. It is then pulled up and becomes mulch once the actual crop needs the space and light. The mustard roots loosen the soil and remain in it.

But mustard is a crucifer…! According to Gertrud Franck, there are no problems with yellow mustard as a green manure before another crucifer. Mustard and most other crucifers are apparently so distantly related that they do not negatively affect each other. Mustard is also apparently not a driver of clubroot. I stay very much in the conditional here, as I lack the knowledge myself. I trust in Gertrud Franck’s decades of experience.

Year Change and Crop Rotation

This is where the magic of this companion planting system really becomes visible. The rows shift by half a row – 25 centimetres with a row spacing of 50 centimetres. The row that falls off the back in the third year is simply reinserted at the front of the bed. This means each crop stands in the following year on soil that was enriched with surface compost in the previous year.

It takes years before a plant returns to its original position. Just for an A row to fall back on an earlier A row takes 8 years. And for an A row to meet an earlier B row takes 4 years. Between the A/B rows and the C rows there are hardly any long-term negative influences.

Anyone who finds the roughly 25-centimetre spacing too tight can look at the adaptations of the Langerhorst family. Here the rows are normally shifted by three-quarters of the spacing, with a row spacing of 40 centimetres.

Once the bed plan has been worked out, it can be carried on for years. Without any headache about predecessors from years past – although our bed planner helps with that too.

Recommended Books

I can only wholeheartedly recommend the book Gesunder Garten durch Mischkultur (* Affiliate) by Gertrud Franck. It contains all the details of row companion planting by Gertrud Franck, along with a great deal of additional knowledge, for example on composting, herbs in the garden and slug control.