The Popular Vegetable You Should Be Planting Next To Cilantro
Cilantro is a staple in Asian and Latin American cuisine. It's a cool-season crop that quickly bolts once temperatures hit 80 degrees Fahrenheit, making it difficult to grow in the summer months. If you can't get enough and want to prolong your harvest season, try to grow asparagus next to cilantro. These two plants make for agreeable companions that you'll want to keep together for several seasons.
Cilantro is grown annually, but asparagus can last for up to 15 years if properly maintained. Even though your asparagus will have to commit to the same spot for several years, your cilantro can come and go with the seasons, allowing you to keep plenty of space for the herb you love. These two plants offer benefits to each other that will make keeping them together a no-brainer.
Asparagus and cilantro have similar needs
The (unofficial) first rule of companion planting is to place similar plants together to make caring for them easier. Growing cilantro and asparagus near each other is easy because they have nearly identical requirements. Cilantro likes full sun exposure and well-draining soil with a pH of 6.2-6.8. Asparagus likes the same sun and soil situation but wants a bit more alkalinity with a pH of 6.5-7.0.
The only thing these two plants don't see eye-to-eye on is how much water to receive. Asparagus has a deep root system that does well with a lot of water at once. To encourage those deep roots to stay deep, watering so the top 3-4 feet of soil is wet is ideal to prevent the roots from staying shallow to receive the most water. Cilantro, however, has a shallow root system and needs water a little more often since the roots can't reach as far down for water. While this may seem like a conflict of interest, it actually works out quite well. Established cilantro doesn't need water very often since it's drought-tolerant. So, if you're only watering your asparagus every other week, your mature cilantro should be happy waiting until the next drink. Young cilantro, however, will likely need supplemental hydration during the asparagus' off weeks.
These two plants look out for each other
If plants could have friendships, asparagus and cilantro would be considered besties. They coexist beautifully and offer benefits to each other that will help each other thrive. Cilantro will vanish once spring temperatures warm up to summer temperatures, so once it gets hot enough, it needs to be fully shaded to prolong the harvest window. Asparagus should have enough height and foliage to shade the cilantro by the time the temperatures warm up, which will help you grow cilantro a little longer.
Once cilantro disappears, leave it be. You'll get the joy of harvesting coriander seeds, but before that, there will be tons of tiny white flowers that will attract pollinators and beneficial insects. Asparagus can sometimes deal with aphids, but those can be combatted by ladybugs and lacewings that are drawn to the cilantro flowers. You can use cilantro as a companion plant throughout the garden to help increase the presence of pollinators and aphid eaters.