All about Nasturtiums

[veggiechicken]

Do you grow nasturtiums?
They're supposed to be easy for children to grow (though not for me), make good companion plants and edible - flowers, leaves and seed pods. What more can you ask?

I have a jam jar full of seeds and my plan is to grow them as ground cover, a living mulch, to keep down weeds and attract aphids.
I'm hoping that the chickens will like eating the leaves and leave me some to eat myself.

Any advice please?

[Chrissyteacup]

I just poked my seeds in the ground last year where I’d had calendula last year they came up no special care they grew mixed in with self seeded calendula slugs got some of the seedlings but they still looked pretty and I like the flowers in a salad for beautifying plus love that pepperyness

[Chestnut]

I love nasturtiums! They make great ground cover and compete hard against weeds on my plot, look good, bees love them, and are edible which means I don’t have to limit them to the 25% of my plot which is allowed to grow flowers!

I tend to get better results from starting them in pots/modules, keeping them out of reach of slugs until they are 2-3” high, then plant out with a protective ring of eggshells. Once they’re going they’re just fine by themselves!

[bramble]

I started a few in a container about two or three years ago.
They self seed and come up every year.
I love the red ones they look so bright.
Dont think you will have any problems with them.
Once they're established they grow like weeds.

[SarrissUK]

I love them! When I grow them in the greenhouse along with my tomatoes, I have no issues with pests. That might be a coincidence - I've only done it last year, but it's definitely promising enough that I will carry on doing it. They can be pretty, but I don't grow them for their looks

[happyhumph]

I find they do self seed, but get better germination and/or slug survival rates starting off in a pot. No special treatment, I just put them in pots in MPC on a table outside so harder for slimeys to reach and make sure they don't dry out.

One thing I've noticed is they don't seem to like competition when they're young - had a weedy area outside front of the house which had nasturtiums in the previous year. Once I'd weeded it babies popped up within about a week/ten days.

[quanglewangle]

Borderline invasive in our garden. We started with a few a year or two back in one corner and now they pop up up all over the place. It's a good thing we like them!
In the summer we tear up a wheelbarrow full or two of the more rampant climbing ones to protect bushes from being overwhelmed.
Pests - they laugh in the face of pests.

[edit] They may not be as invasive as I thought. When I mentioned this thread to mrs quanglewangle, who loves nasturtiums, I got a kind of coy, "nothing to do with me guv" look.

[Bren In Pots]

I love nasturtiums especially the seed pods when they're pickled. They selfseed all over the garden I usually leave them to it only re-homing those in the way of my veg.
I do sow them as well just to fill in any gaps, in newspaper pots using a mix of MPC and leaf mould.

[Mamzie]

We just have a few poked in around the pond for us. The slugs enjoy them and the frogs enjoy the slugs, unfortunately does mean the nasturtiums don't make huge progress. The alysumm has taken over and self seeds madly along with marigolds and cosmos.

[nickdub]

I notice no one has mentioned caterpillars on their nasturtiums, but I think I remember that as a boy I used to like the yellow and black striped caterpillars which ate the leaves on some of our plants. However, this "memory" is now of a time nearly 60 years ago, so I'm wondering if I've concocted it. Perhaps chickweed was the host plant for the caterpillars and was growing next to the nasturtiums or something like that ?

Certainly when I've grown nasturtiums myself of recent years they have had no caterpillars on them, but then there are many fewer moths and butterflies about these days.

[toomanytommytoes]

I have seen eggs of the small and large cabbage whites on nasturtiums but never gone looking for the resulting caterpillars.

Last year the one nasturtium in a fairly shady spot did much better than those in full sun...it rambled about 5 metres from its planting spot and almost reached the compost bins. They do tend to swamp other plants.

[ESBkevin]

I too love nasturtiums, we scatter half a dozen plants about the plot. At the end of the season they are left in situe as living root/ground cover. the soft tissue remains are easy to plant through come the next spring. Just be ready for them to spread - a lot, they make excellent ground cover as well as attraction aphids and bees.

[Mr Bones]

Love nasturtiums, they seem to like it best in unfertilised ground and if they ramble too much make a nice juicy addition to the compost heap.

[happyhumph]

I get those caterpillars! If you want flowers treat them mean - poor soil etc. If you want leaves for eating moist lovely soil.

[Vegi potager]

I tend to put in 1 or 2 with each lot of climbing beans and have dwarf types in pots around the garden. Yet to pickle them for "British capers" tho'