4/1/26 - Thinking About Flowers
It's hard to look through books and articles about growing veg in a garden or on an allotment without at some stage reading about companion planting and the benefits it can have on the health and wellbeing of your produce. Companion planting can be used to deter pests from certain areas of the allotment, attract pests away from your crops to other areas of your allotment and also the obvious benefits of providing a great food source for the pollinators. Of course, it can also add a great deal of interest to what could otherwise be a very uniformed and unimaginative growing space.
Over recent years, I've dabbled in companion planting, but never put too much thought or effort into things. This year, I'm going to try to bring it in line with everything else that I plant and grow. One of the first things that can be sown this time of year before the main sowing season for everything else kicks off are Sweet Peas. We grew a couple of trays of them last year, mostly for home, but we also had a couple on the allotment too. We saved some seed from last years plants and it is these seeds that I have used for this years sowing. I'm only going with the one tray for this year initially (that's still 40 plants!), but I still have seed left so if for some reason germination is poor, then I can always sow more in February/March.
In my more recent research and reading on companion planting, I come across a plethora of information that The Soil Association have helpfully put together in a series of tables that organise suggested companions. You can start with a herb, vegetable or flower, and see what they pair with best. One comment in their information stuck out for me...
Marigolds are a wonder-drug of the companion plant world, invoking the saying "plant them everywhere in your garden".
There are not many things that won't benefit by having Marigolds nearby, and virtually nothing that I can see that will be harmed. So, this year, I think the plot is going to turn into a bit of a Marigold haven. I still have French Marigold - Marionette Mixed left from last year that needed to be used by the end of 2025, but I'll give them a go this year too. But a 1/4 pack of seeds isn't going to bring the whole plot into bloom. It was time for a bit of seed shopping...
Our allotment society have a seed deal with Kings Seeds where society members can get 50% off most seeds in their catalogue, with exception of some of the special collections. That sounds like a great deal, and it kind of is. Many people from the allotment put large seed orders in at the end of each year to take advantage of it. But, I've said before that I think that there are better deals to be had out there. As an example, the current price of a packet of French Marigold - Durango seeds (100 count) currently on the Kings website is £2.95. A packet of Calendula - Mixed seeds (100 count) are currently priced at £2.30. My first port of call for buying seeds is usually Premier Seeds Direct. Unfortunately, Premier Seeds sell their seed packets advertising the weight, not quantity, but generally they always contain more seed that a typical seed packet from one of the main stream seed providers. Bearing this in mind, one packet of French Marigold - Durango seeds from Premier seeds cost £1.19 and a packet of mixed Calendula costs £1.24. Instantly, you can see you are paying about half the price and for what I'm quite sure will be more seed. So what about postage? Kings Seeds have a standard delivery fee, so for 3 packets of seeds, they charge £2.35. Sorry Kings, Premier Seeds have you there too. They have several options for delivery, but second class 3-5 days only costs £1.39.
In summary with the maths. My seed order with Premier Seeds cost me £5.01 including delivery. The same order with Kings (although I can't claim "identical" order until I see how many seeds are in the Premier Seeds packets, but confident that there will be more) would come in at £10.55. If you are an avid enthusiast and keen grower, you may buy a couple of dozen packets of seeds, or even more every year. The price difference soon mounts up, even if I did take advantage of our societies discount scheme. Plus, the other advantage is that our Kings discounted order only goes in once a year, so you have to buy everything at once. Not the case with Premier Seeds when buying online!
Back to the companion planting. In an earlier post, I shared my plan for 2026, and I have it all planned out on my VegPlotter app. I can visualise how much room things have taken from previous years and right now in my mind, I'm picturing single or double rows of Marigolds or Calendula on nearly every bed. We've also got Nasturtiums, Nigella, Cosmos, Dahlia and Sweet Sultans to throw into the mix too which I will try and fit in wherever I can. 2026 is going to be the year of a riot of colour on the plot!
