My First African Marigold Is Still Standing

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

A pretty garden isn't built overnight.  I really have a lot of respect for those of you who have a blooming and beautiful garden.  I can barely keep my couple of plants alive.  For weeks, I've gone out to my patio to obsessively check on my Marigolds, looking for leaves eating insects to squash!  Of course I never found any insect during my countless garden inspections.  One time, I did get 3 ugly snugs (yes, just 3) in a bowl of beer I put out overnight.  There are so many holes on the leaves of my Marigolds that I have no idea what creature is feeding on them.  As of now, I just give up.  Instead of obsessively checking the plant countless times on a daily basis, I'm now only spending a couple minutes every other day, on watering and inspection;  and for once every 4 days, I spray the 100% all natural insecticide on the soil.  I don't spray on the leaves anymore because I have been burning them.

I've stopped fussing over my Marigolds because my investment of time on them didn't generate the numerous flowers that I had been expecting.  Many of the buds just died without ever blooming.  It's not lacking of buds. There are always numerous buds forming, but they always die as the buds.  I have no idea if it was due to the all natural insecticide that I had been spraying on them, or it was due to some mysterious diseases or insects.  Whatever it is that's been killing the buds of my Marigolds, it's still able to maintain 3 flowers at all time, and never more than 3.  When one of the 3 flowers died, another bloomed to make up for the dead one I pinched off.  But 3 is where my single plant of African Marigold plateaus.  Compared to how the plant looked back in April, it's not looking much worse now.  I should be glad that this $1.00 Marigold plant is still standing.  As of now, I have given up my futile battles against nature (like insects or god knows what organisms that eat my plant)  to fight for the life all the flower buds.  As long as there are still 3 flowers, I am content.  I've learnt to chill now, through my lessons with gardening.

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Saving My French Marigolds From Leaves Eating Bugs

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Gardening teaches me a lesson in not trusting everything I read or see on the internet  or any media at face value.  I spent my $1.00 to buy a dainty little French Marigold plant after learning from the internet that French Marigolds are pest-resistant, heat tolerant and low-maintenance.  After buying my little pot, I dreamt of it growing big in the container and producing lots of bright orange flowers.   But like all dreams, dreams are always just dreams.  Dreaming to have a blooming Marigold plant doesn't actually make it happen.  My French Marigold was literally wilting under the sun.

After I solved the wilting-in-the-heat problem in my last post, I started to see holes on the leaves of my French Marigolds.  Some bugs, and I don't know what in particular, have been munching on my marigolds!  So I went on Amazon.com to look for something that can kill bugs organically. After reading a dozen ingredient lists, I bought Mantis MPP003 Botanical Insecticide/Miticide ($19.95 for 32 fl oz).  I bought this spray among all the brands because this one has 100% all natural listed ingredients, while others, even though branded as organic; have 30% of unlisted ingredients which I don't want to take a chance with.  I just don't want to expose myself to more chemical in addition to all the chemical lawn sprays and god knows what other sprays the landscaping company contracted by my landlord's HOA has been spraying all the time on a weekly basis.  

Eager to kill whatever bugs that have been chewing on my plant, I mistakenly sprayed this 100% organic insecticide in the strong afternoon sun without reading the product direction first, so I burnt the tips of some leaves.....

Aside from the burning mistakes I made, my French Marigold seems to be surviving as of now, with new flowers showing up.... 

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Garden Inspiration: Small Colorful Flower Bed

The small corner of a patio can make a big beautiful impact when  packed with heat tolerant plants.

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Garden Inspiration: Flower Garden Design For A Small Patio

This is a great example to show that a beautiful flower garden can happen even in small townhome patios.

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When One Plant Dies, Another Is Brought Home Alive

Content submitted by: Barbara Weiner

Growing flowers from seeds isn't as easy as I thought.  Many gardening websites and blogs just make it sound so easy; as if all I have to do is to just toss the seeds in my patio, pat them down in the soil and flowers will just grow.  It is under this fantasy that I planted Mexican sunflowers from seeds.  The seeds germinated well and they had a strong start in sprouting. Then for reasons I still don't know (probably due to my lack of gardening skills),  most of my Mexican sunflowers seedlings just died off.  As of now,  I have two Mexican sunflowers seedlings left that are barely alive.  I have no high hope for these two because they look so frail.   

It's kind of heart breaking to see the death of  something that I had been tenderly nurturing.  I can't imagine how  parents who lost their children to illness, murders, accidents, disasters cope, when I feel so sad just over the loss of one dozen plus of my seedlings.  To fill such void in my heart and to help myself recover from my loss, I just had to go to Trader Joe's to bring a pot of big bloom home.  I have no idea how to care for Godetia, I had never heard of these flowers before but I brought the plant home anyway because the bloom is cheap for its size at $5.99.

Notes from the editors: Do you want to share with us your experience in gardening?  If so, please click here to contact us for article submission guidelines. If we decide to publish your article, we will send you a beautiful shower curtain.