Veggie Garden Tip!

lous22

You may already know this, but I thought I'd post it for anyone who is new to growing vegetables.  Be sure to plant a few marigolds in your vegetable garden!  Many harmful bugs (especially aphids) HATE the roots of marigold plants.  It will keep your garden bug free without the use of pesticides!  Ladybugs can also do wonders- I buy them at the nursery down the street.  Just thought I'd share! 

krys2729

thanks!  i am planting my first veggie garden, and this is very helpful!  we are putting up a fence and using raised beds, but insects are a whole other problem.  i do have some leftover marigold seeds from last year, too.

Laughing At You

Sweet!  Thanks for the tip.  I haven't even started to think about bugs and stuff.  I will pick up a few marigolds when we transplant!

ShandaB

I didn't know that!  Thanks for sharing.

cnthrdlywt2bwZ

I've been planning on doing this, but I'm not sure how many I need, and where to put them. Do I intersperse them throughout the garden? Do I surround it? What is most effective?

joeysgirl2008

I love the idea of companion plants. We have a bunch of marigolds near our tomatoes for that very reason. We're also going to do cosmos, salvias and sunflowers once my seedlings are a little bigger in a week!

Here's a great article about companion plants!

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html

curlydoglover

Geraniums and nasturtiums are also good plants.  Aromatic herbs are also good companions (think basil with tomatoes) and onions and garlic.

To the person who asked where to plant them, last year we interspersed geraniums and marigolds in rows between rows.  This year it's going to be slightly more free-form.  If you SFG, just include one to two companion plants per square.

Here's a pic (you can click on it to enlarge it)

cme25

I've also had rabbit problems in the past, but have found that rabbits will not TOUCH marigolds and will stay away from the rest of the bed once encountering a few marigolds!! They get in under my neighbor's fence, so I seed a whole row of them there, and then put random areas of seeds around the perimeter, and it seems to help!

sugardumpling

curlydoglover:

Geraniums and nasturtiums are also good plants.  Aromatic herbs are also good companions (think basil with tomatoes) and onions and garlic.

To the person who asked where to plant them, last year we interspersed geraniums and marigolds in rows between rows.  This year it's going to be slightly more free-form.  If you SFG, just include one to two companion plants per square.

Here's a pic (you can click on it to enlarge it)

did you make your own flowerbeds?  what is the fabric on top?

Knot Annie

Very helpful! This is my first attempt at anything other than a tomato plant, so that's a great tip (Nest Anni sent this to me)!

Thank you.

curlydoglover

sugardumpling:

curlydoglover:

Geraniums and nasturtiums are also good plants.  Aromatic herbs are also good companions (think basil with tomatoes) and onions and garlic.

To the person who asked where to plant them, last year we interspersed geraniums and marigolds in rows between rows.  This year it's going to be slightly more free-form.  If you SFG, just include one to two companion plants per square.

Here's a pic (you can click on it to enlarge it)

did you make your own flowerbeds?  what is the fabric on top?

The beds were there when we purchased the house.  They're 25'x5'.

The black fabric is landscape fabric.  Previous years we just did transplants from our local garden center, so we'd cover the beds with the fabric and cut holes where we planted items.  It actually works great in this sort of setting.