The Amazing Benefits Of Growing Marigolds In Your Garden & Flowerbeds

Jim and Mary discuss the benefits of planting marigolds in your garden, flowerbeds and landscape. Listen in and see how marigolds can bring important pollinators to your yard, as well as keep pests such as aphids, hornworms and nematodes at bay. See how to grow better by planting the mighty marigold this year!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life Podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Jim Competti,along with my wonderful wife Mary Competti,
and I say wonderful today Mary,because we're talking about the mighty marigold.

(00:23):
Yeah, it's one of our favoriteplants in the world. Mary made a
little fun of me when I madethe sun name up for the podcast today,
but honestly, as you're gonna hear, the marigold is mighty. It's
it's an amazing flowering annual that cando so much more than just add big
color to your landscape. And we'regonna get into that in a little bit,
but I want to thank you forjoining Simple Garden Life. This is
episode two o eight or in oursecond season. Now hard to believe,

(00:47):
but we really enjoy it. Weget a lot of emails, keep them
coming. You can email us atanytime to the farm at owgarden dot com,
whether you have a garden question orwhether you have an idea for a
podcast. We love to hear fromyou, and we we answer everybody and
we enjoy doing it too, soit's always fun for us, especially in
the midst of garden season. Absolutely, you know, we do it every

(01:07):
morning. We open up our inboxand start answering garden questions first thing in
the morning, and I can't waitto hear what the comments are about the
mighty marigold. That's right. Well, if you haven't yet, make sure
you get to Simple garden Life dotcom and you can sign up there any
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(01:30):
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way to sign up and get notificationof the new podcast and also our other
articles. So with that being said, Mary, it is time to start
talking about the marigold. And youknow, for me, I grew up
my mom loved marigold. She alwayshad him outside and I think over the

(01:53):
last twenty years, it kind ofbecame that that's an older person's flower.
Absolutely. You know, I hada very different experience growing up with the
marigolds. You know, I couldn'tstand them because the smell of marigolds is
very pungent. Well, it's funnybecause that smell actually helps in a lot
of ways. But you're absolutely right. Whenever I would collect seeds from my
mom at the end of the year, I'd have that smell in my hand.

(02:13):
It doesn't matter that the smell comesthrough the foliage, it comes through
the bloom. And you're right,it's very distinct. But you know,
we grew up with those marigolds kindof fell by the wayside. Over the
last ten to twelve years. Youhad weight petunias that came out in the
nineties and all of these other excitingflowers. Yeah, and they just got
stronger. Well, now marigolds havemade this huge resurgence, and one of

(02:34):
the reasons, in fact, probablythe biggest reason, is how much they
bring in the way of help toother plants that you grow. And we'll
get into that. And I thinkthere's also so many different varieties now of
marigolds that you know, it's notGrandma's marigold anymore. That's that's exactly right.
I mean, you know, theyadd intense color and beauty. That's
the one thing about marigolds that peopledon't realize. You know, they can
be in yellows and oranges and alltypes of different hues of that, and

(02:58):
even cream. You'll get some creamcolored marigolds now, which are a little
bit more rare, but you know, they can go anywhere hanging baskets,
they can go in containers, obviously, in flower beds, and as we'll
talk about, we do it.We do it right in our garden because
of the benefits sabring. Absolutely.You know, you drive around and you'll
see gardens just full, fully linedwith marigolds, and you know there's a

(03:20):
reason for that absolutely. Well,when you talk about the benefits of growing,
it all really starts with what wejust talked about. The color um
just absolutely stunning, bright, vibrantcolor in a marigold. It's not a
dull color at all when that's inbloom. And I guess that's the first
part, but the second part isit really covers a plant. You're not
talking five or six blooms per plant. No, And you know, the
blooms last all summer long. Ifyou if you treat the marigold right,

(03:44):
you're gonna have color all all summerlong. It's right. And they can
come in any different size. Imean, it's not just that typical French
marigold that is so common. There'salso miniature marigolds. There's my favorite is
the pom pom pom poms. Imean, these these can literally, you
know, we say tennis ball,but I mean I've seen some that probably
come closer to a softball than atennis ball, depending on the variety.

(04:06):
And they can really I mean,people look at them and they're like,
what is that. They don't evenrealize it's it's a marigold. So obviously
the color, the sheer amount ofblooms, and I mean it's really incredible
when you talk about how much theycan bring just on their own, without
all the other things we're going toget into. But then you have the
second part of it, which isthe ease of planning and growing. They're

(04:27):
a very inexpensive annual to grow forseveral reasons, but they're also extremely easy.
Yeah, they actually grow in alltypes of soil, Yeah, they
do. I mean, you canhave poor soil, rich soil, they're
going to grow. Obviously, witha little more nutrients, they're going to
be a little bit more powered up. But they're going to survive. I
mean, they're really going to thrivewhen you give them a little bit of
that extra. But they also youknow, sewing them. We talk about

(04:50):
this, you know, I seethem all the time in stores as transplants,
and we've grown a few when wewant to put them in pots in
our own seed, you know,from home. But it's just a pla
you don't need to buy as atransplant because it grows so quickly from seed.
Right, you can just sprinkle theseeds down in the soil, lightly
covered water man, and within justa few weeks you're going to have full

(05:11):
sized marigolds. Yeah, an eighthinch of soil does the trick and you're
right within from seed to flower.Marigolds can flower in as little as six
weeks. I've seen them flower before. You'll get the first blooms and buy
eight weeks they're in full bloom.Well, you know that's what you're doing
outside anyway, when you're trying tobring a transplant in and they catch up
so quickly. And the other thingabout marigles is they grow better in place.

(05:31):
We talk about this with a lotof plants. Sometimes plants don't handle
transplant in as well. Marigolds justdo so well directly from seed, and
they catch up so quick. It'salmost, you know, smarter to plant
that way because it's an easier wayto take care of them. And when
you start planning seeds, everybody alwaysasks us, you know, should they
be in full sun, full shade? Well, marigolds are really great because
they can tolerate a little beach,they can tolerate full sun. Be super

(05:56):
hot, but they can have upto two to three hours of shade a
day two that's right. And they'reextremely drought tolerant. This is a plant
that's not You're not going to comehome on a hot day. You've been
there with impatients, you've been therewith pegunia's way, petunias. They're all
fantastic, but you know the droop, we call it the droop. You
come home, they're like, oh, I gotta get some water on the
right And in the middle of summersometimes you have to water those plants twice
a day, where marigolds are alittle bit more forgiving. They really are.

(06:19):
You can go to sometimes a coupleof days without hitting the marigolds and
they might start to look a littledry, but they're not going to have
that big droop so quickly, sothey just really are, you know,
give them a chance again. Imean, look at all the varieties.
The other part of transplants versus seedare when you go in We talk about
this all the time, but you'reonly going to get the common varieties.
You know you're gonna get. Hairis an orange marigold, right here is

(06:41):
the yellow French marit. Yeah,and that's all you're gonna get. And
I get it. Stores have tomake you know their money and they can't
grow all kinds of exotic types ofmarigold because they don't know if they're gonna
But boy, when you go tolook for seed packets, and we'll have
some links for seed packets on theSimple garden Life dot com article for this,
Oh skies the limit there are,like you said, to palm palm
varieties. There's all kinds of marigoldsfrom giant too small to firecracker. Right,

(07:08):
you can buy almost anything, andit really does open up on a
whole new set of color. Buthere's the deal, though, Jim as
like all of our plants, makesure you get your seeds early because they
go quickly when the word starts gettingout about them. Yeah, you really
do. I mean you find yourseats. A lot of times. You'll
find marigold seeds even on the seedracks, and they'll have some more rare
types there. But you can goonline and find others. But here's the
final thing, and then we'll getinto the real benefits of why you want

(07:30):
to grow. So it's when Isaid an expensive, it's inexpensive because this
is one seed that you're gonna buyone time and one time only because you
can save them so so easily.Right at the end of the seasons.
As during the season comes, youknow, you start deadheading off the plants
and you'll have a whole handful ofseeds ready to go, and all you
need to do is saving for nowhundreds hundreds of seeds per you know,

(07:53):
each of those blooms and you justroll your finger and they come out,
and you know it's funny, miraclesare a plant that you could actually take
those seeds right there, put themright back in the ground and they're going
to actually come up again if youwanted to plant more. It's it's that
kind of thing, but you cansave so many. Yeah, remember the
time I actually dropped the seeds inthe flower bed and we had marigolds growing
all here. Long I do,but you know that always works out for
a reason. We laugh about that, but then that became one of my

(08:15):
favorite spots to visit in the garden. So, okay, so we've covered
all the reasons that you want togrow them from an aesthetic standpoint. You
know, they're they're beautiful, they'rehardy, they last long. They're hardy
in the sense that they're going tohandle weather. They're not gonna they're not
gonna handle winter, but they're gonnahandle a hard you know, summer,
heat, dry, you name it. They can handle it. So we're
gonna take a break and when wecome back, we're gonna get into the

(08:35):
other side of why you really needto be growing marigolds, and you're gonna
be surprised. I mean, theyhave made a huge difference in everything from
pest control to helping bring in morepollinators, which is great for you know,
your balloons and your vegetable garden oryour flowers. So we'll get into
all that when we come back fromthis break. This is why it's called
the Mighty marigold. That's right,the Mighty marigolds. So we'll take a

(08:56):
break right now and we'll be backin just a second with why the Mighty
marigold is the plant you should beplanning this year. Okay, and we
are back with the Mighty marigold,and we're going to get into some of
the reasons now why you want togrow marigolds. We have to talk about
this real quick. You know,we do have a we have to have
a couple ads at the beginning,in the middle of our show and end.
But that is what allows us tobring the podcast and make it free

(09:20):
for everyone, and we're always happyto to do that. So that is
why. And we try to keepas short as we possibly can and so
we can get to the real meatand the heart of the thing. And
Mary, let's start off with themarigolds. And I mean you really talk
about pest control. Yeah, youknow, they've taught by many people to
be natural repelling. It's all kindof pest in the garden. Oh yeah,
everything from tomato, hornworms, squashbugs, cabbage worms too. You

(09:41):
know, those are the insect pastbright up to rabbits, deer, squirrels
and you name it. And here'swhy you said something that started this show.
That is really the reason. Andyou kind of have to understand it.
That pungent smell of a marigold isas annoying to those pests as it
was to you growing up as achild, right and it you know,
it's really not horrible smell. It'snot like an awful smell, but it's

(10:03):
just a different type of strong odorthat a lot of pests don't prefer.
No, and so everything, youknow, we talk about the tomato plants
and when we plant them a lotat in fact, we use them all
through our tomato garden and all throughour garden. But with tomatoes it's really
nice because you know, hornworms theycan't they just don't like the marigold.
And hornworms are one of the worstthings that you can have to attack tomatoes.

(10:24):
But it's a double edged sword forthat. So not only did they
you know, do they keep themfrom coming in, but they also the
marigolds I'm speaking about attract paper waspsbecause wasps love to have their pollen and
come in to visit and they helppollinate. So they're helping to pollinate tomatoes
because they're visiting the marigolds. Butthen wasps have another a big, big

(10:46):
thing for hornworms. Right. Theyactually will lay their eggs on the back
of hornworms and which will eventually killthem. So, you know, are
also the ones that pollinate tomato plants. People don't always realize that, but
they're much more than a honeybee.Ever, touches wasp are the real things.
So that's where we talk about,you know, pestiterrent repellent by growing
these it's amazing. So I thinkthat leads us really well into our question

(11:09):
of the week right now, Mary, Right, we got this question from
Rose, and Rose I believe livesinto luth Minnesota, and she asked,
how close should I plant marigolds inthe garden next to my tomato and pepper
plants to get the benefit of repellingpests. It's a great question. We
get this one a lot, andthen it really is and you know,
we've written some articles and talked aboutit. But okay, so here's what

(11:31):
we say. In our tomato plants. We have an article on this,
and we'll included on the link aboutgrowing tomato plants with marigolds. But you
know, you want to plant acouple of plants around your tomatoes. How
close we like to go about eighteeninches out. I don't like getting so
close that you're going to interrupt theroot structure of the tomato or take any
nutrients. But again, marigolds aren'thuge feeders. They're not going to take

(11:52):
a tremendous amount from the soil.But if you plant a plant eighteen inches
or so around, we like toplant a couple, one either side down
our rows in between each one.That's gonna be enough. It's gonna bring
them in. Can they be threefeet away? Absolutely, they're gonna bring
them. But obviously the closer theyare to the tomato plant, the better
it's going to be. So Andactually, you marigolds, you can plant
one inch apart from each other.Oh you can. You can plant a

(12:15):
couple right there and put them,put them around the edges. And again,
don't go spend a lot of moneyon transplants. As you plant your
tomato plants, or you know,when you're doing just throw some seeds in
the ground. The tomato plants aresmall. They don't need a lot of
help at that point or protection.There's not a lot of pest out those
first three or four weeks. Withina couple of weeks, here comes the
you know, the marigold plants upand they're going to catch up quickly and
they're going to grow, and they'regonna have a little bit of shade from

(12:37):
the tomato plants early on, andit's going to help them. It's it's
gonna help the tomatoes though, oncethey start blooming and bringing in those wasps
and repelling pasts. Yeah. Anotherquestion we might get too, Jim,
is we talk about planting basil withtomato plants. You know, can basil
and marigolds be planted with tomato plantsthe same thing? You can plant them
boat together with it. And basilis great to plant with your tomatoes because

(12:58):
it can actually you know, itbrings, it repels other things. But
it also is said to improve theplate flavor of your tomatoes. So great
call there, and a good thingand a great question from rose. Um.
Okay, I want to go onemore step. If you can't plant
in your garden, let's say,well, I grow in bucket containers,
or I grow in a raised bed. Well, you can still plant in
the raised bed if you want to, but you can also plant some marigolds

(13:20):
in a pot. We've done thisbefore, right around and set it right
near the plant, and it's agreat way to not even touch the soil
strength of the of the plant,but you're gaining those benefits. Yeah.
You know when people are using marigoldsto try to deter rabbits or deer,
you know you really have to linethe perimeter of your garden all the way
around with solid marigolds. You know, is not a guarantee that they're going

(13:41):
to stay away all the time whenthere's some smart deer and rabbits out there.
Yeah, but you know you reallydo have to line them up across
the perimeter of the garden. Yeah, it's not like a single marigold plant.
Deer's like, whoa, I can'tgo in there, But no,
it does. And if you know, I always used to love We live
very close in Ohio here to theAmish community, whose are big gardeners.
Obviously gardeners. Boy, you can'tgo up there without seeing the gardens encircle

(14:03):
with either cosmos marigolds or a combinationof both, and it's exactly that reason.
So trust me, it works.Yeah, And I know we'll get
an email saying, you know,it's false information that marigolds work. And
you know what I say, whynot give it a try. It's inexpensive,
it's easy to do. It can'thurt, no, and it really
does. I mean, there arecertain pasts that just don't like them,
and so it's going to help thelarger animals, like you said, a
deer it can, and rabbits itwill. But yes, you said,

(14:26):
you're right, you have to plana little bit more. So we talked
about, you know, how theycan repel those pasts, and you're right.
I mean you're talking squash bugs,horn worms, cabbage worms, and
the rabbits and the deer and squirrels. But they also attract some of the
best insects that you want in yourgarden, and those are the pollinators.
And without pollinators, nothing's gonna nothing'sgonna happen on your vegetable plants or your

(14:48):
flowers for that matter, because theyneed pollination in order to bloom, right,
And the pollinators that they attract arethe honey bees. Butterflies, moss,
wasp, all of them. They'reall tried to to marigolds. You
just stamed off four of the bestpollinators around. And you know we talked
about the big bloom set of amarigold, Well that is going to bring
them in. Honey bees love thenectar. They're going to visit. You

(15:09):
know, you're talking hundreds of flowersper plant they're in there. Well,
guess what's right there, there's yourother plants, your other flowers. They're
going to visit them all. Andremember, bees don't just come one at
a time. They go back totheir high and they do a little dance
and they explain to everybody, Hey, this is the motherload. We're going
to go out there and find this. So it really does. I mean,
it's amazing. If you don't prescribeto the theory that it can detract

(15:33):
from pasts, there's no denying thatmarigolds are going to bring in a tremendous
amount of pollinators, including those waspsthat can take care of your hormone pros.
So basically, in summary, moremarigolds goes, more pollinators, even
more fruit and vegetables in the longrun. Yeah, I mean there's no
doubt about it. And go tothat next step that we're going to talk
about real quick, which is theyalso attract other beneficial insects, not just

(15:54):
pollinators ladybugs. Ladybugs absolutely love marigolds. Well, what does a ladybug do.
It eats a tremendous amount of aphidsand the afid larva. So there's
there's again. I mean, marigoldsare just the top of the line for
the parasitic lost. They're going tobring them in. They love coming in,
they have lace wings. All ofthese prey on harmful insects in your

(16:15):
garden. So again, even ifyou say, well, I don't know
if it deters them, it's bringingin ones that don't deter them. They
like to eat them, right.And I know a lot of people that
actually buy ladybugs and put them intheir garden. You know, marigolds are
a great way to track them naturally. Yeah, that's a whole other story.
It's so hard because you can putthem in there and do they really
stay you know, no, theygo to the neighbors that has more marigles

(16:37):
than you do. But it's it'sa great way you have ladybugs, you
have good things going on in yourgarden. So it really works like those
mighty marigolds. That's right, that'sright. So one final thing before we
end our podcast today that they bring. I know you're probably already amazed at
how many good things they bring,but I'm going to pay for this mighty
marigold in common, I can tell. But anyway, I'm going to prove
that they're mighty because they also handleone more issue that is big and it

(17:00):
can really cause a lot of gardenproblems, and that's nematodes. People don't
really always know what nematodes do,but you know they it's hard. They
feed on the soil underneath. Okay, so they're going to feed on the
roots, and sometimes you don't knowthings are happening until it's too late and
they just kill the plant. Youcan't see them, no, you can't.
Well it's so you know, theydon't just feed on tomatoes, but

(17:21):
peppers and a lot of other vegetableplants. And you know, they feed
and they slowly drain and deplete thatenergy from the plant, and then the
process those roots decay, the plantweakens and at the end it ultimately dies.
And so nematodes can stay in thatsoil for a long long time.
But here's the funny thing. Theroots of a marigold actually produce a chemical.
This isn't this isn't the smell oftheir foliage or anything else, and

(17:44):
it's extremely toxic to nematodes to thepoint where it's going to kill them and
clear the ground. And it's amazingwhen you plant them near or in a
vegetable garden, they will clear thatdevastating pest in a heartbeat. And if
you've had nematode problems in the past, I will tell you right now,
plant marigolds in that soil all overthe place and you will end that problem.
That chemical that is produced kills themand it's gone. And a lot

(18:07):
of times people think it's a lackof water or it's something else, and
when it's really these nematodes underneath thesoil, feeding on the roots killing their
plants. Right, it's so easyto plant the marigolds right there, and
you know they're so beneficial and gettingrid of the nematodes. It's really the
great thing to do. I know, so I'm done, I know I've
espoused all of the things I cantalk about for the marigold, but you
know, give them a try.They are beautiful everywhere. They're easy to

(18:30):
save, they're easy to grow,and at the end of the year Mary
said it earlier, take you know, a handful. You don't need a
lot. Take a handful of yourbest bloom flowers, you know, scrape
the seeds off or just roll yourhands. They'll fall into a paper baggy.
I would go through all the rigamaruof telling you how important it is
to save seeds at the right temperature, because you do with a lot.

(18:51):
Marigolds don't really matter. You probablythrow them and you're covered in the garage
and they're going to be fine nextyear. And the great thing about marigolds
seeds, who is are large.They're not tiny little like lettuces are large,
and you can find them, andyou can easily find large. Then
they almost look like paper. Imean really, they're just kind of along
with that little furbid. You're right, you can get hundreds of them per
plants. So try out the marigolds, and you know, you know,

(19:11):
write us an email at the endof the year and you tell us they're
mighty too. How's that, Maria. We'll get lots of those. I'm
sure all right, finish this up. I'll stop now and remember whatever you
do, find the fun and gardeningand grow something beautiful. Until next week,
everybody, happy gardening. We hopeyou've enjoyed this episode. Subscribe to
the Simple Garden podcast on iTunes,Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or most of
your favorite podcast apps. You canalso head over to Simple gardenlife dot com

(19:33):
where you can listen and read allof the show notes to every episode and
if you have any questions, anyideas for show topics, or if you
want to share your favorite garden tip, email us at the farm at owgarden
dot com. Until next time,Thanks everyone,