By Zo Nicholas

Nasturtiums

Its just like a spring day here and yet its autumn.
The last of the summer flowers stretch out in the warm sunshine, like the beautiful nasturtiums, with their showy bright yellow flower heads adding a splash of colour to a decaying border.

Nasturtium

There’s not a lot to be said about Nasturtiums, except that even if you don’t have green fingers you can grow them. They will grow most anywhere.

Nasturtiums, native to South America, will grow practically anywhere I have found. A fertile soil will produce more leaves and fewer flowers. A rather infertile soil, will produce an abundance of yellow, orange, red flower heads. They are pretty hardy and tolerate reasonably cold weather here in the U.K. Once you have them in the garden, they do tend to seed themselves. Its fun growing them in pots or on a windowsill too.

There are many varieties of nasturiums, some are low growing and produce ground cover like wildfire, other varities are climbers and can be used to cover ugly walls etc. 

Culinary uses

Both Nasturtium flowers and leaves can be used in the kitchen. The simplest use is to add them to a salad adding both colour and a ‘peppery’ like taste. There are also many recipes around using nasturtiums, from deep fried flower heads to blossom vinegar. Nasturtiums have been used by herbalists for many centuries as they are high in Vit C and ‘antibiotic’ properties.

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