Nasturtiums: Super Garden Champions

So I left town for a short, spur of the moment, mid-week adventure, and spent today at the coast with this cutie.



When I got home I was happy to see that after a few days, the spider mites are finally losing strength. They're still there, but many of them have died.  My pressure washing and soap spray is working. Hooray! 

I plan to do another round of spraying tomorrow, but I need to borrow a ladder so I can get to the ones on the top. Any Portlanders with a ladder I can use??  

I've read mixed things about whether or not soap hurts beneficial bugs, so I was also happy to see that the beetles are still alive and well and eating their share of the remaining mites. 

So much happened in the two days I was away from the garden. The first tomatoes of the season arrived while I was gone. This is a new heirloom variety I'm trying out this year called Austin Red Pear. It has a pretty funny shape, which I like, and they're already much bigger than your average cherry/pear tomato.  The broccoli has doubled in size, and some of the beans I planted last week sprouted.

I also saw that the nasturtium seeds I planted sprouted, too. Nasturtiums are great plants for any gardener. They're especially easy to grow for beginners because they actually like crappy soil and prefer that you ignore them and don't fertilize them. They also require little water. The seeds can take a while to germinate, so I recommend soaking them in water overnight before you plant them.

You can eat your nasturtium flowers, leaves, and seeds if you want. They have a similar peppery taste to arugula.

nasturtium sprout near marigold 

Or you can keep them around as super garden champions which is how I'm using mine this year. They are great at attracting aphids away from other plants. Slugs and white cabbage moths seem to love them as well. So they're great companions for cabbage, broccoli, and other brassicas, beans, tomatoes and peppers. They also attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies! Basically they are super awesome.

This year I built a perimeter bed around my raised bed and lined it with these guys as well as marigolds which are also good bug deterrents and are usually planted near tomatoes or used for nematode control. During my initial spider mite freak-out I also learned that nasturtiums are good at attracting spider mites away from other plants, so I'll be relocating some of my older/more established plants near the hops as soon as possible.

full grown nasturtium plant started earlier this year