Every spring I love planting marigold seeds around my patio and garden.

Marigolds are easy to grow and add a lot of vibrant colors to your garden or yard. They attract beneficial insects such as bees, ladybugs, and butterflies to your yard. And my favorite reason of all is marigolds repel mosquitoes! That is why I plant them around my patio.

Where I live, we usually have our first hard freeze mid to late fall. That means my marigolds die and look like the picture above. Sometime in the winter I go out to my garden and pull out all my dead plants. This year I did something new. When I pulled out my dead marigolds, I started collecting all the seeds.

Step 1: Wait for a hard frost and your marigolds to die.

It does not have to be immediately after the frost. You can do this anytime in the winter, but you might collect fewer seeds the longer you wait.

Step 2: Pick off the dried flower heads.

My kids loved helping me gather the dried flowers and busting them open. Make sure the flowers are dry. Don’t do this after it rains.

Step 3: Holding the dried bulb in between your fingers, rub your fingers back and forth until the bulb breaks open and splits apart.

This breaks apart the pod of seeds. When all the seeds are loose store them in a dry place. You don’t want any moisture or your seeds could grow mold.

The left picture shows what a single marigold seed looks like. Store your seeds until spring and then plant your marigold seeds everywhere!

There is also a good chance that if you leave your dead marigolds and don’t touch them, they will self-seed and grow back the next year. I have done it that way the past few years, but this year I collected the seeds, so I can plant them in more places (plus it was oddly satisfying and fun busting open those dried flower bulbs).

I think I harvested enough seeds to plant my entire yard with marigolds! HA!

How easy is that? Check out more garden-related posts from our blog.

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