Growing Marigolds for the Garden and Table

Marigolds help control insects in a garden plot, look pretty in a centerpiece, and make a bright and nutritious addition to your dinner plate.

By Nancy Pierson Farris
Updated on October 1, 2024
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by Adobestock/scullery
Orange marigolds aka tagetes erecta flower closeup on the flowerbed in the garden

Explore the many marigold uses including a guide to growing marigolds, cooking with edible marigolds, and valuable companion planting.

The bright marigolds flanking my doorway and alternating with the vegetables in my garden provide much more than a cheerful bit of color. Indeed, marigold uses are so wide-ranging that their function as décor is almost surpassed by their other services!

Most gardeners are aware that marigolds’ pungent flowers and foliage discourage many insects from feasting on nearby crops. But even the odorless varieties are effective: Planted as a border around the garden or in rows next to the vegetables, they act as a trap crop for Japanese beetles. Since those noxious insects like to congregate on the flowers, the gardener simply can shake the collected pests into a can of kerosene, where they’ll expire.

Meanwhile, the marigolds are just as hard at work underground, controlling nematodes (those tiny, eel-like worms that attack the roots of plants). While scientists can’t explain how the plants affect the subterranean spoilers, they do admit that marigolds are effective! In comparing the soil of two plots, one with marigolds and one without, researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (and at other agricultural labs as well) discovered 75 percent to 85 percent fewer nematodes in the flowered plot. Apparently, a substance is exuded from the little plants that deters these almost invisible crop-destroyers.

Edible Marigolds

Toward the end of the growing season, I often pull up most of my marigolds and feed both them and their collection of beetles to the chickens and the pigs. However, the blooms are edible not only for livestock, but for humans, too! Dried and crumbled petals can pinch-hit for oh-so-expensive saffron in casseroles, breads, and omelets, adding a unique, subtle flavor to these dishes. Stir-fried–alone or with vegetables–the petals add zip to any meal. They’re also colorful and tasty in rice, soups, or stews, or when sprinkled on salads. Furthermore, the flowers are nutritious! They contain carotene, which can be converted in humans to vitamin A.

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