Will it work?

This week while I was deadheading marigolds, my mind came up with an interesting idea.    Not everyone bothers to deadhead, but seeing the brown, shriveled heads annoys me, plus the plant will spend more energy forming seeds than making new flowers.  I’d rather have new flowers continue throughout the summer, so I deadhead.  It’s relaxing “work” and results in a fresh-looking edge along my potager’s paths.  Doesn’t it look much, much better?  And when I finished that section, there was a box of this:    It just so happened that the row ended at a melon vine climbing the trellis.  I was staring at an exposed cucurbit stem and thought, “I wonder if piling these marigolds around squash stems would prevent squash borers?”  And so, I’m giving it a try.   One of four plants on each trellis will get marigolds around its base.  Will it make a difference?  Only time will tell, but I’m very interested to see if there is.  Regardless, I love the concept because it’s one of my favorite things…that is to accomplish two things by doing one task.  To date, my all-time favorite is that digging up dahlias and cannas automatically provides a hole for planting tulips.  If the marigolds work, this little hack may move up to Number One!

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