Click on the link below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Nasturtium – the hat trick of annuals
While I’m not a hockey player, living in Minnesota, a person comes to know a few terms anyway. What’s that got to do with gardening, you ask, well, this plant I’m highlighting today would be the Hat Trick of Annuals. Nasturtiums.
They are beautiful, edible and pollinators love them. Oh and they’re super easy to grow. They come in shades of yellow, orange, red and pink.
There is the trailing type and the bush type. I generally plant these all around my vegetable garden. The trailing type is lovely tumbling over containers and window boxes. They could also be trained up a trellis. The bush type makes a great filler in containers.
At this point, you can plant seeds directly into the garden, this is my method. I plant them about half an inch deep and a foot or so apart, depending on how close I want them to be. Full sun is their favorite growing environment.
Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds are attracted to those wonderful flowers. Aphids are too. While that sounds like a problem, you can turn it into a plus as the nasturtiums can protect your other plants.
The flowers are really tasty in salads. They add a peppery flavor and a pretty look! You can also add the flowers to soups.
Deadheading also produces more flowers, so you don’t have to feel bad when removing those flowers as you’ll get more.
Nasturtiums are considered old-fashioned flowers, they have been used to flavor vinegar, butter and ice-cream too.
