This week’s podcast and corresponding article are all about the mighty marigold, and the amazing benefits growing marigolds can bring to your garden and flowerbeds.
It is not often that we dedicate an entire podcast or article to the benefits of a single plant. But when it comes to all that growing marigolds can do for your landscape, it is certainly a deserving topic. Not only can they add intense color and beauty anywhere you grow them, they can also help nearly every plant around them grow better too.
You can listen in below to our complete podcast on the mighty marigold, or read on for our full-length article. As always, we have included all of the podcast resource links at the end of this article as well.
The Mighty Marigold – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds In Your Garden & Flowerbeds
The Pure Flower Power of Marigolds
When you talk about the advantages of growing marigolds, it all starts with the amazing color and vibrant feel they bring to wherever they grow.
Marigolds are perfect for planting anywhere and everywhere. They grow well in flowerbeds, gardens, raised beds, containers, hanging baskets and more. And with over 50 varieties to select from in shades of yellow, orange and even creamy white, you can find the perfect marigold for any situation.
From miniature marigolds with tiny flowering heads, to massive pom-pom varieties with blooms the size of an orange, they bring intense color wherever they grow. And a lot of it!
Marigolds are known not just for the intense color of their blooms, but for the sheer number of them. When fully mature, the bloom sets can almost cover the entire surface area of the foliage. Even better, with a bit of deadheading, they will keep on doing so all summer long.
The Ease Of Planting & Growing Marigolds – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds
Adding to their allure as a wondrous flowering annual, marigolds also happen to be one of the easiest of all annuals to grow. Although they can be grown and planted as transplants, there is little need to do so.
Marigolds seeds are incredibly easy to sow directly into the ground or in pots and containers. Planting is as easy as sowing the seed, covering lightly with 1/8″ of soil, and watering in.
With warm soil and air temperatures, seeds can sprout in just a few days. Even better, they be starting to bloom in as little as six weeks after planting seed!
Perhaps best of all, marigolds will sprout and grow in nearly every soil condition possible. From rich, loamy potting soils, to hard clay soils, marigolds can adapt and grow. They also happen to have an incredibly high high tolerance to sunlight, drought and heat, making them one of the lowest maintenance annuals around.
Easy to Save Seeds – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds
If all of that wasn’t enough, marigolds also happen to be one of the least expensive of all flowering annuals to grow.
Not only are their seeds some of the most affordable, once you purchase them, you will never have to buy them again. That’s because saving marigold seed from year to year is a breeze.
Seeds can be taken from the spent blooms of marigolds. Simply pluck and old bloom from the plant, open up, and you will instantly have a massive supply of seed from a single bloom!
Attracting Pollinators – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds
Marigolds bright blooms are wonderful for attracting some of the best pollinators around. And once pollinators start coming around, it leads to better flowering in your flowerbeds, and more vegetable production for your garden plants.
Marigolds are one of the honey bees favorite flowers of all. But they also attract butterflies, moths and paper wasps as well. You might wonder if bringing wasps in is a good idea, but as it turns out, they are one of the most prolific tomato pollinators of all.
Beyond bringing in insects that can help to pollinate your blooms, marigolds also bring in a few incredibly valuable insects that can help protect your other plants from damaging pests.
Attract Beneficial Insects – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds
One of the best insects you can attract to your landscape is the lady bug. Not only do lady bugs take care of aphids in quick fashion, they also eat mites, scales, mealybugs and more. And guess what? Lady bugs love to roam on marigolds!
In addition to lady bugs, the wasps that marigolds attract not only help to pollinate, but also take care of the dreaded hornworm. Paper wasps lay their eggs on the back of hornworms. The larvae of the wasps then feed off of the hornworm, killing it in the process.
Pest Repellent / Deterrent – The Amazing Benefits of Growing Marigolds
Not only can marigolds help to bring in beneficial insects, their pungent scented foliage and blooms also help to deter pests that can cause serious issues to your flowerbeds and garden.
Marigolds can help to keep away everything from squash bugs, cabbage worms and hornworms, to rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and groundhogs. It’s just one more reason planting them in your vegetable garden can really help protect it from invasion.
Battling Nematodes
There is one pest that marigolds can be extremely effective in eradicating from your growing spaces – and that is the dreaded nematode.
Nematodes can be quite the destructive pest in the vegetable garden. And marigolds are a great first line of defense against these unwanted pests. These soil borne enemies feed on the roots of tomato, pepper and various other vegetable plants.
As they feed, they slowly drain and deplete energy from the plant. In the process, the roots decay, the plant weakens and then ultimately dies.
But the roots of marigolds produce a chemical that is toxic to nematodes. When marigolds are planted in the ground in the vegetable garden, they can clear the are of the killer pest in quick fashion. Just one more reason to plant those marigolds where your vegetables grow!
Here is to growing marigolds in your landscape this year, and to reaping the many benefits they can bring to your plants!
PODCAST RESOURCE LINKS:
Product Links:
Huge African Marigold (Pom Pom) Seeds
Article Links:
How To Grow Marigolds With Big Success!
How To Plant Marigolds With Tomatoes – And Why Tomato Plants Love It
Planting Basil With Tomato Plants – How To Grow Incredible Tomatoes!
How To Attract Pollinators – 7 Gorgeous Plants Bees And Butterflies Love!
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Simple Garden Life is a website dedicated to keeping gardening fun, simple and enjoyable! We publish two new articles each week along with a new garden podcast episode every two weeks. This article may contain affiliate links.