Plant of the Month - Nasturtium

I love nasturtium plants. They come up in the middle of winter to give us a little reminder of the colours of spring. Not only do I love them but so do the bees (and my daughters!). Nasturtium plants are part of the brassica family (yep the same as brocoli). They are edible and can be used for many different purposes including additives to salads.

They don’t require much attention or special soils, in actual fact, if they have too much fertiliser they can flower less and produce more leafy growth. They are a great ground cover and also can be grown on a trellis structure if trained.

The produce a lot of seed, which will come up each year. So its worth collecting the seed for preserving, or other uses if you wish to plant something different the following year.

Seed is best planted late autumn (can be slightly diffferent depending on the area of the coast you live in) It is a very hardy plant and will germinate with little management.