Nasturtiums Gone Wild

Some plants thrive on neglect. Case in point, my nasturtiums.  They are blooming their little heads off this year. The only water they got was rainfall and dew. The brown eyed Susan vine is also thriving. I've tried planting nasturtiums in the front yard, but the gardeners think they are weeds and always rip them out. Maybe in Mexico they are weeds.

My rose bush was a riot of blooms as well. Every year I look forward to this one blooming. This year it outdid itself. Not bad for a $5 bargain from the local swap meet.

Nasturtiums Are Blooming

The weather can't decide if it wants to be hot or cold.  I let my nasturtiums go to seed and they are blooming like crazy now. I never know what color they will be so it's a nice surprise every time. I'm not sure if I will plant any veggies this year since we went to move out. But the succulents are doing well. My pansies in the front yard are hanging in there too. The rain keeps damaging the ones in the shade.  They aren't as happy as the ones that get more sun.

Originally I planted seeds & each year they come back.

The leaf behind this one is almost more stunning than the flower.

Planting flowers

I've been working on my garden every day. I had moved the hummingbird feeder and was happy to see a hummingbird drinking from it this morning.

I got marigold, cilantro and nasturtium seeds planted all around my tomatoes. The marigolds I planted last week have already come up as well. It's going to be nice to have more flowers in the garden as well as their benefits at repelling insects.


In my green planter the radishes have been getting chewed on by something.  I planted some nasturtiums and beets in the blank areas where the radishes either didn't sprout or got eaten by bugs.

Nettles, Nasturtiums and Snails.

Last night I took my neighbors a tomato, and they were so pleased they invited me out back to see their urban garden. They had made excellent use of every available spot. Their tomatoes are just starting to fruit so they were happy to get a ripe one from me. Their garden was so tidy and lovely, not at all like my jungle, even though our yard layouts are identical. When I mentioned my problems with snails, they told me in a rather confusing discussion in broken English and Romanian that they use nettle spray to repel the snails.  They get the nettles from a park, boil it in water to make a soup, then spray it on the plants.
While researching that on the Internet, I came across this site on companion planting. While it didn't say much on the nettle thing, the bit about nasturtiums has me inspired to plant nasturtiums all around my tomatoes. I had nasturtiums all around them before from volunteer seedlings, but they got dug up with the weeds and grass we had to discard to plant the new tomato sets. I have a few left in the other flower bed, and the hummingbirds have been feeding from them. I want to make some nasturtium salad too. I keep reading that you can eat them but I never remember to try it.