The Marigold packaging features artwork by Karen Kimmel, setting the tone for the beauty held within.

Open the glue- and tape-free envelope to find a delicate glassine pouch of borage seeds—bright orange blossoms waiting to unfold.

The packaging is very special: the artwork is ready to be framed, creating a zero-waste piece of art to enhance your home, office or greenhouse.

The seeds produce tall Marigolds (4 feet high) with strong stems and large orange blooms, attracting bees and butterflies. While some vegetables like tomatoes and peppers are self pollinating, other vegetables like squash, cucumbers and eggplant are not, and require pollinators to move pollen between the male and female flowers.

These marigold seeds are single-blooms, which bees prefer over the double-bloom varieties.

Marigolds attract predatory insects that love to eat the pests. Natural pest control! Also, marigolds can keep mosquitoes out of the garden, because they give off volatile insecticides, which is used in many organic insect repellents.

Karen Kimmel is a multi-disciplinary artist working in Upstate New York.

The Borage seeds were harvested from River’s Edge Farm, a climate resilient, carbon neutral, zero waste, pollinator supporting regenerative organic mini farm in the Hudson Valley, in upstate New York. More information available on its page on Instagram.