there's a plant that a lot of us just
simply forget to put in our gardens and
it's a fantastic one
for a variety of reasons and that would
be nasturtium
kevin spiritu here from epic gardening
where it's my goal to help you grow a
greener thumb and grow this amazing
nasturtium here
i'll be honest i really undervalued this
crop when i was just starting out you
know i was focusing on the pure edible
crops like
much of what you see in front of you the
pak choys the broccolis the cauliflowers
but
this little guy or in fact big guy as it
gets pretty gnarly
it grows wild here in my climate in san
diego but it can be cultivated in a
garden and in my opinion really should
be
cultivated in a garden so in this video
we're going to go through exactly how to
care for it in the very end
i'll share with you just a couple extra
bonus use cases for nasturtium in your
garden that i think you'll really enjoy
so cultivate that like button and i will
personally guarantee that you'll have at
least an assertion as large as this
if not two to five times larger and
let's get into the video
the first thing to understand about any
plant when we're talking about its care
is
where did this plant come from right
where did it evolve well it evolved in
central and south america so we're going
to map
some of the care to that but all in all
it's actually quite a simple plant to
grow
and the coolest part about it is not
only do you get these honestly kind of
funky looking leaves
sort of like lily pads floating in the
air but you also get these absolutely
gorgeous
flowers i have a bloody mary nasturtium
right here but there are so many
different varieties
that provide either a variegated leaf or
a different colored flower for
just the raw beauty of growing
nasturtiums you can grow them
like i said for almost any purpose in
the garden if you're an ornamental
gardener and you just like the beauty of
them
then i've got some varieties for you so
the first one is
apricot apricot nasturtium that's just a
floral difference the flower is going to
have sort of a light
orangish cream look much like the
texture of an apricot
if you want a more moody look then go
with black velvet as the name implies
the flowers are dark red technically but
they can look black
but the throats of the flowers are
bright yellow so it's a nice little
contrast and it also puts out a ton of
flowers if you like that more showy look
one of the most popular varieties is
called jewel mix as the name implies it
is a mixed pack of seeds that you'll get
and you're going to have yellows you're
going to have pinks it's a really easy
germinator like most nasturtium it also
grows very vigorously and very quickly
so if you've got
kids and you want something kind of cool
with the pop of multiple colors then i
would go with jewel mix one of the most
striking ones as far as the color of the
flower is going to be orchid flame it's
got
red tips and then emanating from that
throat of the flower it's like bright
yellow so it kind of looks like a
fireball explosion so if you want
something kind of gnarly kind of rad
i would go with that one finally we've
talked a lot about the flowers if you
want one that has variegated
leaves cream and green then go with
alaska it's just a beautiful beautiful
variety because you've got these big
sort of lily pad leaves like i've said
but they're flecked with that cream
variegation that looks really really
nice
i've brought our nasturtium underneath
the awning here so you can really
appreciate it and ogle its beauty while
we talk about its care
starting from seed so here i have a pack
of bloody mary nasturtiums a really
fantastic
variety popular variety and if you're
just starting growing nasturtiums
i do think it's a fantastic crop to
experiment with growing from seed
because
i mean take a look at the seeds they're
very very large they're about the size
of a pea
and that tends to make them an easier
germinator
so you don't need to soak them you
certainly can but it's not required
and they'll do really well i popped mine
in these little epic 6-cell trays that
i've got
and they've done fantastic it's a great
plant to grow from seed because you get
access to all those varieties that we
talked about
now as far as soil as far as fertilizer
when you see a plant that natively or
naturally grows
in somewhat weedy fashion so if i go on
a walk here in san diego
i'll find it just dotting the hillside
in spring after a nice rain and as
temperatures start to slightly warm up a
little bit
what that means to me is that it's a
plant that really does not have a lot of
soil requirements i mean i've put it in
native clay i've put it in a relatively
sandy mix i put it in standard potting
mixes
it's hanging out in my epic grow bag mix
here
which is a slightly more water retaining
moisture mix type of thing
and it's done perfectly fine so soil
requirement whatever you have lying
around will generally be fine
and that also follows for fertilizers i
don't really fertilize my insertion
whatsoever and they do perfectly fine
so with these plants that grow more like
weeds there's a reason they grow that
way it's because they don't really
require a lot or they're very tolerant
as far as their care so you don't have
to worry too much let's now move on to
the sun
and water recommendations for caring for
nasturtium i found that it actually can
do quite well in dappled sunlight
however as you move more towards a full
sun placement for this plant you'll find
that the flowers
are more vibrant there's more flowers so
if you're growing it really for the
flowers
i would say that full sun or as close to
full sun as possible would be my
recommendation
it'll even handle shade but it'll be a
little bit smaller
the leaves will be maybe a little bit
more stretched out and also
there will just be more leaves and less
flour so if you're growing it for
just like a salad green something
peppery to spice up a salad that might
actually be the way that you want to do
it
but full sun would be my personal
recommendation when it comes to watering
i would say
maybe an inch inch and a half a week
seems to like a little bit more moist
than average i haven't really been able
to over water nasturtium
granted i also haven't really been able
to underwater it so
again tolerant but these plants i mean a
pro tip on any sort of large-leaved
plant
because it's a large relatively thin
leaf it will give you a signal as to
when it needs water
a lot of the times you get questions
like how often should i water this plant
or that plant
well just let the plant tell you when
you see these leaves start to you know
shrivel a little bit or
lose a little bit of their rigor and
just sort of drop down
that's a sign that either you've over
watered or underwatered most likely
underwatered or heat stress sometimes
over watering also shows up that way
but again it's hard to it's hard to mess
with this plant it's really really easy
which is why i think it's a very
underrated gardening plant to add as
promised we've got the first
special use case for growing nasturtium
what if you don't care about how it
looks and what if you actually don't
care about the taste i myself am not
super crazy about the taste of
nasturtium it's a little too peppery for
my taste so
what's another way that i could use it
in the garden well you're looking at it
right here this little baby boy right
down here it's behind my
ginger it's behind my potatoes and my
garlic over here
i'm using nasturtium as a way to kind of
dress up this area but also
as its function as a trap crop so a trap
crop is a plant that's going to
attract pests to it rather than the
plants that you've got in the garden
that you don't want the pests on so with
nasturtium
i would say the primary thing people use
it for is as an aphid attractant
and so the aphids will go onto this
dershum instead of some of the stuff
that you've got
growing on in the background like maybe
your cauliflower
your kale your cabbage things like that
now i will caution you
it does work but it's a little more
complex than that it's not just like you
put a nasturtium in
and everything goes there and it doesn't
go anywhere else there's different
species of aphids guys there's different
species of pests that target specific
plant families even
and so you do have to be a little bit
more delicate than that but
honestly if it beautifies the space and
you can eat it and it might attract some
pests to it
then it can be a great thing to just
kind of pepper in to little corners in
your garden
so if you have a good eye you'll notice
i put a seed in right here i also put
one in back there this is just next to
my herb garden
another way to go outside the border in
a somewhat natural way
kind of breaks up these hard edges of
the raised bed
nasturtium is a fantastic trap crop but
if you like to eat the plants that you
grow then the nutrition might be the
power punch for you personally i will
admit i find it a little bit too peppery
a little bit too
spicy for my tastes so i do not eat it
there's one application i do eat it in
and i will share that with you but
the leaves you can just take the leaf
off a big fan leaf like this
and use it as a wrap in fact my friend
bren what she does is she'll just make
little sandwiches out of it so i'll show
you her little recipe right here
i use these peppery edible nasturtium
leaves to make a quick garden snack
cream cheese capsicum and some preserved
lemon from our tree
the lemon pieces add a salty citrus hit
a delicious quick meal with ingredients
from our cottage garden
next up the flowers beautiful as they
may be you actually can't eat them
as well so you can throw them on top of
a salad or as a garnish that someone
might
actually opt to eat when you grow these
fancy colorful varieties
adds a really nice little color on the
plate but the application
of nutritions that i personally number
one can tolerate number two actually
really like
would be nasturtium capers where you
take
the unripe seed pod so not one that's
dried and ready
to be saved and replanted but one that
is still a little bit tender
you pluck those off and you can actually
pickle them and they really have a
similar taste
to capers which is a completely
different plant i found out about this
from my friend
anne i was at her house we were doing a
potluck during my survival challenge in
2019 where i was trying to live off of
my garden
and this was like the best treat i could
have ever had that weekend
because i had been eating like potatoes
for two weeks straight
and like maybe some eggs and some
kumquats or something
and these nasturtium capers were
absolutely fantastic so if you want to
get a little crazy and pickle
you can even do that with nasturtium
which is why it's such a versatile plant
as you're picking things out to grow
this spring or any spring thereafter
i highly recommend nasturtium for all
the reasons that i mentioned just have
fun with it
do something a little bit weird you know
try it as a trap crop try it as a
pollinator attractant
eat it whatever you want sky's unlimited
with nasturtium
hope you enjoyed the video good luck in
the garden and keep on growing