"tmtresh" wrote in message
m...
Last year, when I planted my tomatoes, I planted marigolds around
them. I was told that marigolds repelled some of the nastier
insects/bugs/creepy crawlies from the tomatoes. Well, my tomatoes did
ok in my poor soil (just moved in, didn't enrich the soil). Within a
couple weeks of planting, the marigolds were stripped of all their
leaves by something and were dead. I thought it was rather ironic that
the marigolds had problems where the tomatoes (although they were
undersized from the poor soil) survived. I didn't plant any marigolds
this year.


These marigold problems sound more bizarre with every telling of the story.
In almost 30 years of gardening, I've never had a single problem with
marigolds.

Try growing your own from seed. The seeds are large enough to handle easily,
and if you buy good seed, almost all will germinate. I've had nothing but
success growing the big marigold "Golden Climax", from Burpee. There are
other colors in the climax series, but that's what I've grown. I've
occasionally grown the smaller ones, but since they don't thrill me much, I
don't remember the specific names.

For nematode protection, Burpee has a variety which it found contained more
of whatever substance it is in marigolds that repels nasty creatures. It has
flowers, but not very showy ones. It was bred for its stench. I've grown it,
and it was also trouble free.

I'm going to sound like a shill for Burpee, but over many years, I've had
far better results from their products than from any other. In some years, I
was growing seedlings not just for myself, but also for a few family
members, and because I'd sometimes forget to buy enough Burpee seeds, I'd
end up trying Harris or other brands next to the Burpee-planted trays. The
differences were obvious and impressive.