Marigolds and their Benefits

Most people don’t think to plant flowers in their vegetable gardens but do you know how beneficial they can be, especially marigolds?!

Marigolds are great to add to your veggie garden for so many different reasons. Not only do they look pretty and smell yummy but they bring in pollinators that your veggies need. They bloom over a long period of time brining in bees and other pollinators over the entirety of your growing season.

They are also great pest control. Their roots produce nematicides which help repel nematodes. Nematodes can be harmful to a variety of things you might be growing. Noone wants root rot or fungus growing on their plants.

If you like to go the “as natural as possible” route, marigolds can be used to make yellow dyes for fabrics and they are even edible as a pretty salad topping or for making food coloring. You can also reduce them down for their fragrance for soaps and lotions, scenting homemade cleaning products and they just look pretty in a vase too!

We love surrounding our garden with marigolds and scattering them throughout the rows of all our veggies. Their smell is always distinct and whenever I smell it, I always, no matter where I am, think of my garden and the feel of the sun of my back and my hands in the warm soil.