The colorful florets of marigold cupped by the green calyx add spark to your garden and attract the eyes of any beholder.
If you want to add beauty to your garden and benefit other plants side by side, I suggest you try companion planting with Marigold. I’m sure you won’t regret it!
Generally, there are several good marigold companion plants that represent herbs, including basil, mint, rosemary, and pepper. Besides, Tomato, squash, and cauliflower are vegetables for marigolds, whereas zinnia, lavender, and cosmos are ornamental flowers that also grow well with marigolds.
Marigold companion planting is the best practice if you wish to keep your garden or mini jungle pesticide-free.
If you want to continue this companion planting instantly or in the future, this article will be your perfect guide.
Table of Contents Show
What are the Benefits of Marigold Companion Planting?
Marigold (Tagetes sp.) is a member of the family Asteraceae.
These natives of Mexico have three popular varieties, including African Marigold (Tagetes erecta), French Marigold (Tagetes patula), and Signet Marigold(Tagetes tenuifolia).
Marigolds are annual flowers except for Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida), Lemmon’s marigold (Tagetes lemmonii), and mountain marigold (Tagetes palmeri), which are perennial species of marigold.
They grow in a slightly acidic to neutral (pH-6.0 to 7.0) well-drained soil and require full sun exposure to bloom.
If you want to plant marigolds with their companions, you should choose the ones with similar growing conditions as marigolds. This way, the two plants can grow together and share a beneficial relationship.
It is a common myth that you must not plant two plants next to each other. However, gardeners’ long experiments support the reasons for planting two plants together.
Natural Pesticide
Marigold is a well-known plant for pest control. As a companion plant, marigold produces chemicals that act as pest repellants.
They can also be used as trap crops to trap and kill the pests and insects that harm the garden. In addition, marigolds secrete alpha-terthienyl from their roots, preventing the development of nematodes in the leaves.
By controlling the pests, marigolds promote the growth of other plants.
Attracts Pollinators and Beneficial Insects
As a companion plant, marigold attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies to your garden. The cherry on top, it doesn’t compete with its good companions for nutrients and space.
Moreover, the diversity of different plants and flowers help to attract other beneficial insects like ladybugs and ground beetles to the garden.
Provide Necessary Shade
Marigold can tolerate bright sunlight and full sun exposure. You can utilize this feature of marigold to offer shade to shade-loving herbs like thyme and oregano.
Besides, Microbiological Research shows that methanol extracted from French marigolds works as an antifungal.
What are Good Companions Of Marigolds?
Various herbs, vegetables, and ornamental flowers flourish well when planted with marigold. Sometimes, the companions function together to benefit the garden.
See in detail how marigold benefits these plants when planted together.
1. Herb Plants
Some aromatic herbs serve as best marigold companion plants because the fragrance of these herbs is unappealing to some pests. Therefore, they act as pest repellants and prevent your garden from pest infestation.
In addition to preventing unwanted pests, companion herbs attract beneficial insects to the garden.
Let’s talk about some herbs that pair well with marigolds in your garden.
Basil
The first pair for better companion planting is the marigold-Basil pair.
Like marigold, basil requires bright sun,well-drained soil, and a neutral pH to grow.
Thus, a combination of marigold and basil acts as an excellent natural insect repellent. Since they both produce fragrances that repel insects, pairing them builds up a robust aromatic shield that repels harmful insects.
Mint
The growing condition of mint is similar to that of marigold. It prefers full sun exposure and well-drained acidic to neutral soil.
The combination of mint and marigold creates a fragrant forcefield and attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies to the garden. They also minimize the pests in your garden because of the strong aroma.
Rosemary
Rosemary is another herb in the list of marigold companion plants. It is a perennial herb that prefers well-drained acidic soil. Like marigold, it requires full sun exposure to flourish.
Rosemary and marigold are known for their natural insect repelling properties.
Pepper
Marigold acts as an excellent companion to pepper aesthetically. The beautiful flowers of marigold attract pollinators and repel pests that ruin a pepper crop.
As pepper plants are highly susceptible to soil nematodes, marigold act as excellent companions by removing the soil nematodes.
2. Vegetables
Not only do marigolds look lovely in the flowering garden, but they also make an excellent addition to your vegetable garden.
Though most gardeners do not add flowers to the vegetable garden, you can try adding marigolds to your vegetable garden.
Tomatoes
Did you know that marigolds and tomatoes are best friends?
Tomatoes are susceptible to root-knot-nematodes, whereas marigolds resist these nematodes under the soil. Being resistant, marigold helps to minimize the effect of these nematodes in tomatoes.
Similarly, when planted near tomatoes, marigold adds a defense layer and repels nematodes, worms, and other pests that attack tomatoes.
French marigold produces a chemical, limonene, that attracts whiteflies and prevents tomatoes from whiteflies when planted near tomatoes.
What’s amazing to know is some marigolds also produce chemicals in their roots that kill nematodes and protect the tomatoes.
That is what a best friend does!
Squash
Though squash is easy to grow, it can attract certain difficult-to-control pests when you grow it organically. For such situations, companion planting is a great tool for keeping your vegetables healthy.
Cucumber beetles are pests that feed on leaves, flowers, and fruits of squash.
When planted alongside squash, marigold repels cucumber beetles and other beetles and protects the squash plants.
Therefore, marigold acts as a trap crop and repels insects away from the squash plant.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower and marigold have similar growing conditions, i.e., both prefer slightly acidic or neutral soil and enjoy full exposure to sunlight.
Marigolds are valuable to cauliflower gardens because they repel pests like aphids and nematodes away from the cauliflower. Thus, cauliflower is a favorite crop of these pests to munch.
Marigold attracts the rape blossom beetle away from cauliflower.
Further, marigold does not pull moisture from the soil.
Onion
Marigold acts as an attractive plant to the parasitoids, which kill the insects that are the enemies of the onion field. Furthermore, marigold provides a good food source for aphid parasitoids, indirectly helping to enhance onion growth.
Parasitoids are the insects whose larvae kill the insects that harm the plants.
But your pretty marigold has now turned into a defender of your garden. Keep reading because, in the end, you will continue to know various versions of marigold!
3. Ornamental Flowers
The vibrant colors of marigold flowers can pair beautifully with other flowers in your garden.
If you wish to enhance the beauty of your marigold garden by pairing it with other flowers together, here are the suitable options of flowers for you!
Zinnia
Being members of the same family, Asteraceae, Zinnia has the same growing conditions as marigold and thus is its excellent companion.
Marigold and zinnia are warm-season bloomers and prefer a location under the sun. Likewise, they also prefer well-drained and slightly acidic soil.
As the multiple colors of zinnia look stunning when paired with marigolds, zinnia and marigold make a perfect combination for flower gardens, landscapes, or pots.
As both flowers are easy to grow and do not compete for each nutrient, they can be perfect companions.
Though many gardeners consider beans and cabbage as bad companions for marigolds, there is no evidence for it.
Lavender
Margold and lavender are both easy to care for. Both being attractive plants, they also attract a large number of pollinators and other beneficial insects.
The leaves of lavender have a peculiar scent, and when grown as borders around marigolds, lavender creates a barrier to insects and pests that attack other surrounding plants.
Cosmos
As cousins from the same family, cosmos and marigolds have the same native habitat.
Both flowers have similar sizes, whereas their different bloom shapes and contrasting colors add to the visual attraction of the garden.
The bloom shape of the marigold is round, whereas the cosmos has flat and more open in shape.
In addition, the variation in foliage texture of cosmos and marigold offers a nice contrast. The cosmos leaves are threadlike, whereas the leaves of marigold are lanceolate.
Along with adding contrasting beauty to the garden, the attractive flowers of Cosmos and marigold attract pollinators to the garden.
If you have already grown cosmos, you may become happy knowing cosmos flower symbolism.
Bachelor’s Button (Corn Flower)
The bright yellow or orange flowers of marigold can pair beautifully with the blue or purple blooms of the Bachelor’s Button.
In addition, the bachelor’s button is an annual flower that shares the same growing requirements and blooming period as a marigold.
The bachelor’s button with 1-3 feet in height is suitable to plant with the dwarf varieties of marigolds.
After getting the shades of blue and orange decorating your garden, I’m sure you can be impatient to plant the bachelor’s button and marigold together.
Creeping thyme, allium,roses, geranium,broccoli, lettuce, pumpkins, cucumbers, asparagus, eggplants, gourds, kale, potatoes, onion, and melon are other good companions of marigold.
Conclusion
There is a myth that you cannot plant two plants together. However, growing two plants together can promote each other’s growth and add diversity to your garden.
The same goes for marigolds and their companion plants, but it is essential to identify the good and bad companions for your marigold plant.
I hope my experience with marigold companion planting may help you beautify your garden.
If you own other houseplants, you may also need to know the companions of blueberry and raspberry.
