Growing and caring for marigolds is simple. They flourish with abundance of sun, not soil or location! The blooms blossom in early spring and last till frost.
Helping my parents construct and manage a central Texas hobby farm taught me about companion planting and biodiversity. I saw the necessity and genuine advantages of variety in a vegetable garden.
Every continent (including Antarctica) has nematodes, small roundworms. They live in deserts, marshes, seas, the tropics, even your garden. Nematodes are tiny and translucent, making them inconspicuous.
Pollinators are essential to your food garden, and marigolds attract them. Good news: once pollinators are in your garden, they'll be more likely to pollinate other plants.
French marigolds' yellow and orange colors attract butterflies. Since the flowers are large, they may sit comfortably and drink nectar from the numerous florets.
In my experience, natural predatory insects are the finest pest control. Ladybugs, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, lacewings, and dragonflies love to eat vegetable-eating bugs.
It's useful to realize that flowers have several uses when garden space is limited. Marigolds also trap bugs to protect your food.
Mature marigolds confuse pests well. Marigolds' strong aroma may disguise the scent of many vegetables, rendering them inconspicuous to tomato hornworms, cabbage moths, and beetles.
Mosquitoes are my only summer complaint. I get enormous itching welts from bites, therefore I've been clever in protecting myself. As an organic gardener, I was thrilled to learn that marigolds repel mosquitoes!