Calendulas and Companion Planting

I grew lots of calendulas from seed last year as companion plants for my tomatoes. The photo on the right shows my tomato plant row with their pals the calendulars last July.

Companion planting involves growing specific plants next to each other so they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increase crop yield. Calendula is a good plant to use with tomato plants as a positive host (attracting beneficial insects that control pests like hover flies) and as a trap host because it attracts pests from the tomato crop. I also love them because they  make great cut flowers, the petals are delicious in salads and they seed themselves readily. 

When we had the mad cold snap a few weeks ago I thought I’d lost the all self seeded ones that had sprung up on the paths of my allotment garden. When the snow melted all the leaves were black and several stems had shrivelled to nothing (a fate that also befell my autumn planted broad beans)  I checked them today and there are new leaves at the base of most of the plants. Hoorah!  The original plants from the seed packet were a wonderful mixture of colours from pale yellow through to hot orange. I’m very interested to see what colours the self seeded ones produce. I hope my broad bean plants will take note and resurrect themselves in a similar fashion!

As well as adding the petals to salads (you can eat the centre of the flower but it's bitter) you can also use them as a cheap alternative to saffron.  The petals have a peppery taste, but not as strong as nasturtiums.  I think the taste and the colour of the petals goes really well with orange salad.  Peel and remove the membrane from each segment of an orange. Thinly slice a red onion, and mix the orange and onion with some mixed salad greens, any type you like. Toast some sliced almonds and toss into the salad, add some washed calendular petals and dress with some olive oil and red wine vinegar. Delicious, colourful and very healthy!