Companion planting

Companion planting is all about planting things near each other either to encourage better growth/flavour, to repel insects or to attract beneficial insects. There are millions of options out there but in a tiny basic veggie garden these are the ones I've found useful:

Plant marigolds and cordiander near any plants that attract aphids as they will attract ladybirds, the main natural predator of aphids. Sweet alyssum and dill are also meant to be a good one for this but I've not got any yet. My marigolds and coriander have only been out there for about 5 days now and I found my first ladybird yesterday!

Mint, basil, garlic and onions are all pungent and will all repel aphids to an extent and so are useful planted near stone fruit, potatoes, tomatoes and passionfruit in particular.

Basil grown within 2 feet of tomato plants will enhance the flavour of the fruit from those plants.

Because of this, a good tomato bed should include scattered basil, marigolds and garlic.

When it comes to first designing the layout of your veggie garden, this chart is useful as there are some plants that 'like' each other and others that 'hate' each other...

Companion Planting Chart for Vegetables

Vegetable	Really likes to be with…	Really dislikes to be with…
Asparagus	Basil, Tomato, Nasturtium, Parsley	Onion, garlic, potato
Beans	Carrot, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, marigold	Chives, leek, garlic
Broad Beans	Brassicas, carrot, celery, corn, lettuce, potato	Fennel
Beets	Brassicas, lettuce, onion, sage	Bean (pole)
Broccoli	Celery, chamomile, dill, rosemary	Oregano, Strawberry
Brussel Sprouts	Potato, Thyme	Strawberry
Cabbage	Beetroot, potato, oregano, sage	Strawberry, tomato
Carrot	Bush beans, pole beans, lettuce, onion, pea, radish, tomato	Chives, dill, parsnip, radish
Cauliflower	Beans, celery, oregano	Nasturtium, peas, potato, strawberry, tomato
Celery	Cabbage, leek, onion, spinach, tomato	Parsnip, potato
Corn	Bean, cucumber, melon, pea, pumpkin, potato, radish	Tomato
Cucumber	Bean, celery, lettuce, pea, radish	Cauliflower, potato, basil
Eggplant	Bean, capsicum, potato, spinach
Leek	Carrot, celery, strawberry
Lettuce	Carrots, radishes, strawberry	Beans, beetroot, parsley
Melon	Corn, radish	Potato
Onion	Bean sprout, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, strawberry tomato	Bean, pea
Pea	Beans, Carrot, corn, cucumber, radish	Onion family
Potato	Bean, corn, cabbage, pea, eggplant	Cucumber, pumpkin, squash, sunflower
Pumpkin	Corn	Potato
Spinach	Celery, cauliflower, eggplant
Tomato	Asparagus, celery, carrot, parsley, marigold	Corn, fennel, potato
Zucchini	Nasturtium

Thanks to http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com for this info.