Everyone Should Grow Nasturtiums. Hear Me Out.
Everyone should grow Nasturtiums. Now before you roll your eyes and scroll right on by, hear me out.
Last month I ran a Grow Along and we sowed nasturtium together - a live Instagram ‘event’ (‘event’ is a bit of a grand title, but 'session' makes me feel like I'm about to crawl out of a bar after drinking all night in my 20s with the sun coming up, three stolen schooner glasses stuffed in my handbag and deep regret that my weekend shift at Grace Bros starts in under four hours).
I digress. 3,196 people have watched the re-run, so clearly not everyone hates nasturtiums. Catch it here.
Why Nasturtiums?
Nasturtiums are one of the easiest flowers you can grow, and they work almost anywhere around Australia - the main thing to avoid is extreme heat and extreme cold (more on that in a moment). Here in the Hunter Valley, I have nasturtiums self-seeding pretty much all year round. They're the garden equivalent of a reliable friend who just shows up.
And I know what you're thinking. Boring. Orange. Scrappy.
Not true.
The colour range is vast and beautiful: creamy whites with orange throats, deep reds, pinks, purples, and a pale straw yellow, to name a few. This year I'm growing Whirlybird Cherry Rose, Purple Emperor, and Peach Melba. If you like things a little more tidy - if you're what I might affectionately call a neat freak - there are also compact 'short' varieties perfect for pots and small spaces. Try Tom Thumb Black Velvet as a starting point.
What Nasturtiums Do for Your Garden
Beyond being beautiful, nasturtiums are also very useful.
Living mulch. Just like actual mulch, a carpet of nasturtiums suppresses weeds and retains moisture in the soil. They work hard while looking good.
Pollinator magnets. The big, open flower shape is an easy landing pad, and the flowers are loaded with nectar. Unlike double flowers (which we'll talk about another time) nasturtiums are completely accessible to bees and other pollinators. They are an absolute favourite.
Sacrificial plants. Many gardeners swear by nasturtiums as insect repellents or companion plants. My experience is slightly different: I find they work best as sacrificial plants. If there's a pest imbalance in my garden, they'll throw themselves at the nasturtiums and leave my vegetables alone. A fair trade.
A Note on Climate
Nasturtiums handle a wide range of conditions, but in extreme heat or cold the leaves will take a hit. If the plant is still alive underneath the damage, either remove the affected leaves and let it recover, or pull the whole plant out and compost it - or leave it in place, chop-and-drop style, to feed the soil and act as a mulch. Nothing wasted.
The Edible Bit
The whole nasturtium plant is edible. The flower petals make very pretty additions to salads - a no-effort way to make a bowl of leaves look like you tried. The leaves are spicy, and if you were a bit feral as a child (hello), you'll no doubt recall the sensation of trying to out-do friends by eating them straight off the plant. I suspect this might be one of the trauma points keeping many adults from trying them again.
I keep coming across recipes for pickling nasturtium seeds - known as poor man's capers - but am yet to try it. It's high on my list of things I’d like to experiment with, but when it comes to it I tend to balk at the thought of not allowing the seeds to stay in situ and self seed next season (see below). The tension is real.
The Lazy Gardener's Approach (My Approach)
The laziest and most satisfying method: let your nasturtiums go to seed at the end of the season and leave the seeds in place. They'll pop up when they feel the conditions and the time is right, covering bare soil, scrambling through fences, draping down retaining walls. I currently have a small forest of them helpfully covering a pile of building materials we need to sort/keep/throw/use. Perfect.
They're Not Daggy. They're Chic.
Don't believe me? Willow Crossley - surely the epitome of chic, effortless style -uses nasturtiums in her beautiful table arrangements. Both the whole vine, trailing out like a diva swanning onto a stage she already owns, and the flowers in tiny bud vases. Their abundance is the whole point: with so much material you can really play around with them, and nothing feels precious.
So, What Will You Grow?
If you're starting out, try a simple terracotta pot on a sunny balcony or corner of your garden - any variety will do. If you want a conversation piece, track down Whirlybird Cherry Rose or Purple Emperor. And if you missed the live Grow Along, the replay is still up and can be watched here.
And if you're ready to go deeper - one flower, one skill, one month at a time - that's exactly what we do inside The Flower Growing Year.
Simone Torpey is the founder of The Little Urban Flower Farm, based in Maitland, NSW. She grows flowers, teaches people how to do the same, and in her reckless youth may have occasionally stolen schooner glasses.