Marigolds

Tiger Eye French Marigold

Marigolds are one of my favorite plants and I find myself often defending them. They have a reputation for being stodgy and boring, and while they are certainly ubiquitous, there are plenty of interesting varieties out there that no one needs to get bored with them.  Discoveries of unusual marigolds continue to delight me as I peruse catalogs and put the finishing touches on our seeding plans.

he first European discovery of them was by the Portuguese in Central America. I am not sure if they were cultivated by Native Americans, or just growing wild, but they were no doubt appreciated. The Portuguese brought them to Europe and India. Now they are used widely throughout the world for ornamental, medicinal, ritual, and culinary purposes. All marigolds are edible, but the small flowere tagetes type, like the gem series are best used for this purpose.

I am working out the timing of all our marigold varieties. Doing the timing means figuring out when to plant them, how often to plant them and what kind of pot they should end up in. When you buy marigolds, they usually come in 4 packs or 6 packs, and have often by treated with a hormone that induces them to bloom on short stems so that you know what they will look like once planted.

We don't use any kind of hormone sprays or growth regulators. So sometimes, we sell marigolds and other annuals while they are still green, without blooms. It involves a little more work because we have to have pictures of the marigolds around the greenhouse and we have to explain why we do it, but really it much better than using  a bunch of chemicals.

Here are some of the new varieties we are doing this year.

I really love marigolds. I know that they are not unusual or rare, but they fire up some sort of ofalctory memory center for me. Maybe my grandmother had them, or my parents planted them. I have no visual memory of them that is as strong as the scent memory. Their pungent, almost citrus-like aroma is a deterent to some and appealing to others. How do you feel about marigolds?

Anyhow, here are a few that I am excited about.

crackerjack Mix Marigold

Creamy Vanilla African Marigold

French Bonanza Flame Marigold

Jolly Jester Marigold

This last one is, Jolly Jester, is one of my favorites. It is about 4 feet tall, and not at all a typical marigold. The striped blooms are a contrasting play of lively yellow and deep orange, and they sway gently in the breeze. They do not at all have the stiff appearance of many marigolds and kids just love them. This is an old-fashioned variety - we find the seeds at Seed Savers Exchange which specializes in heirloom seeds of harder to find plants. 97 of our 679 varieties come from them.

Plants for Honey Bees

Calendula

Cleome

Cosmos

Heliotrope

Hyacinth Bean Vine

Salvia

Mints

Scarlet Runner Bean

Sorghum

Basils

Borage

Catnip

Chamomile

Chives

Cilantro

Dill

Germander

Lavender

marjoram

Oregano

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Savory

Clematis

Dicentra (Bleeding Heart)

Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed)

Verbena bonariensis

Lemon Balm

Asclepias

Liatris

Ajuga

Allysum

Echinacea

Perovskia (Russian Sage)

Nepeta

Salix (Willows)

Sambucus (Elderberry)

Physocarpus (Nine Bark)

Lyng's Giant Grey Stripe Sunflower

Fennel, Bronze Leaf

In general, bees like plants whose colors have alot of contrast and they go out to feed off one type of plant at a time, so it is a good idea to plant multiple plants of one type in an area. Creating a pollinator friendly garden will not only help the bees, but will also help your yields in the vegetable and fruit garden. The more pollinators come visiting the better your results...you will see it in the fruit set of squashes, cucumbers, melons, etc. Pollinator gardens help the bees, help our food supply and add beauty to our worlds.

Please visit the resources section of our garden journal for a growing list of resources pertaining to bees and pollination.

Salix nana or the Willow Wonder

Certain plants look just right in the snow, and since I am home so much more in the winter than in the summer, I like to make sure there is some winter appeal to our gardens. We have a hedgerow of Salix nana, or Arctic Blue Willow. They are a fast growing plant, perfect for privacy screens, bird habitat and bee forage.

Here is the same shrub in winter. I love how the snow just hangs in the branches. Birds perch here and get out of the wind. And the twiggy nature of these willows keeps them well employed as a privacy screen all year long.

A Time of Acceptance

I love garlic planting time.  You can really learn a lot about your soil when it is fall and the garden has spent a summer being tended (or not).  This is the second burst of good intentions, the first one being the entire month of May when ideas run ecstatically through the garden plan .  Garden cleanup is a confessional time in the gardening calendar. It is a time to look at mistakes, assess and swear to never make them again, renew your commitment to gardening, and prepare to let the passage of a long winter slowly rekindle your optimism for that spring burst.   Or you can  just learn to live with your shortcomings and realize that the garden is a very forgiving place, where perfection, motivation, and execution don't have to be the priorities.  In other words, it's time to take the pressure off.  There is so much of it in our lives, why not let the garden be a place where we accept and embrace imperfection. Garlic planting is a perfect way to mark the impending doom of winter and the shortening days.  Tucking those fat cloves deep into the earth, I feel unbounded optimism, a deep sense of satisfaction that I am punctuating the calendar with an earthy tradition, full of meaning and metaphor.  The garden is a great place to create your own traditions that are in step with changing seasons; it's a place of rituals that are private and intimate,  between you and your dirt. When I plant garlic, I imagine winter as a time to prepare for spring, as a passage in the circular cycle.  The thought of those cloves, tucked into their bed and nestled in straw, remind me that it is alright to take time to just rest and renew come those cold and bleak days.

I always start by selecting a site for the garlic that will benefit both the garden, the garlic and future crops.  Garlic brings a full  9 months of cultivation to the garden, much more than other vegetable plantings.  With it also comes a deep soil work up, a thick layer of composted manure, and another thick layer of straw.  These are all great ways to treat your soil and whatever is planted in that spot, in your garden's future, will feel the love.  As part of my garden rotation, I spend the winter imagining what will be planted where the garlic once stood, which crop will benefit from the extra organic matter and nutrients and care that the garlic received.  Many people think that garlic is a healing food with all sorts of immune boosting properties....I think it does the same type of work in the garden.  Once again, I am reminded of the way gardening is a microcosm of life and of the body, following the cycle not just of the seasons, but also, of growth and acceptance.