Reflecting the latest research on how plants influence and communicate with each other, Jessica Walliser offers a research-based guide to companion planting - a gardening method that uses strategic plant partnerships to improve crop yields and outsmart pests. Companion planting has a long history of use by gardeners, but the explanation of why it works has been filled with folklore and conjecture. Plant Partners delivers a research-based rationale for this ever-popular growing technique, offering gardeners dozens of ways they can use scientifically tested plant partnerships to benefit the garden as a whole. Through an enhanced understanding of how plants interact with and influence each other, this guide suggests specific plant combinations that growers can use to improve soil health and weed control, decrease pest damage, and increase biodiversity, resulting in real and measurable impacts in the garden. AUTHOR: Jessica Walliser is a horticulturalist and the author of several gardening books, including Plant Partners and Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden. In addition to cohosting The Organic Gardeners, an award-winning radio program in Pennsylvania, she is the co-owner of the popular gardening website SavvyGardening.com and a regular contributor to Fine Gardening, Urban Farm, and Hobby Farms, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Walliser is the recipient of an American Horticultural Society Book Award.