Calendula - English Marigold

DESCRIPTION

The calendula is a long lasting, self seeding, and flexible companion flower, great for attracting bees and other beneficial insects to your garden later in the summer. It's important to maintain at least some flowers and other habitat in the veggie garden all year round, so that the insects remember where you are! Your patch should never be cleared and left empty. Introducing calendula to your garden makes that job a breeze, because although it dies back the heat of summer, this flower is frost resistant and helps maintain a colourful garden during the cooler months.

POT CARE AND PLANTING

Calendulas are easy to care for in a pot - transplant into a larger pot or a garden bed within 7 days. Soil level should be up to 5mm below the start of the lowest leaves.

WATERING

Calendulas are average water consumers - water this one an average amount, once per day (early morning or late afternoon is best in summer). More water will cause insane growth, but too much water will cause the roots to rot away.

SUN EXPOSURE

Calendulas do well with half to a full day of sun - a good idea is to plant it under a deciduous tree, which would protect it from the summer heat, but allow it to get plenty of sun during the colder months.

COMPANION PLANTING

This plant can get pretty big - maybe 30cm wide, and up to 80cm tall. It will be most helpful to the pollination of cucurbits, solanums, and strawberries, and will also attract beneficial predatory insects when planted near brassicas. Make sure you leave some space for everything to expand.

HARVESTING AND EATING

Calendula leaves can be consumed as an iron-rich bitter green, added in small amounts to salads and soups. The brilliant orange flower petals are also edible - they taste delicately sweet and have a texture like lettuce. Each plant produces a myriad of palm sized, daisy-shaped flowers, with a honey-like fragrance. Calendula flowers are best when the petals are separated from the green “calyx” and used to garnish cold drinks and salads, and to decorate cakes and other sweets.

SEED SAVING AND PROPAGATION

Calendula can start to flower quickly when the weather is mild. It’s recommended to trim the majority of spent blooms to encourage more flowering, but leaving two or three of them on the plant will allow you to collect quite a bit of seed. Wait for the selected flowers to finish blooming and dry out on the plant - when the flowers look totally brown, cut them off and dry them in a paper bag. Shake and crunch the dried blooms in the bag to release the curly brown seeds, and discard any larger pieces of material. You can sow some again right away, or save your calendula seeds over the summer in something airtight - they will last for at least 3 years. They're easy to germinate - simply cover with about 1mm of soil and keep moist, when daytime temperatures are starting to cool down towards the end of summer.