How to grow them
Push the big seeds 2cm into poor soil after the frosts. Rich soil gives all leaf and no flower. Let it trail around the brassica bed and the bean canes.
Flowers for the plot
Nasturtiums
A sacrificial plant. Cabbage white butterflies and blackfly go for it and leave your crops alone.
- Buy as
- Seed
- Space
- 30cm between plants, 30cm between rows
- Position
- Full sun
- Rotation
- Fits anywhere
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Frost
- Tender: killed by frost. Nothing outside until the last one has passed.
The year
Sow indoors
Sow outdoors
Flowers
Flowers and picking
Leaves, flowers and green seed pods are all edible, with a peppery taste.
What goes wrong
Problems, and what to do
Caterpillars and blackfly
That is the point. Pull up the worst-affected plants and compost them.
Good neighbours: Cabbages, Runner beans, Courgettes.
Same family
More from flowers for the plot
Pot marigoldsOrange flowers from June to the frosts. Hoverflies come for them and stay to eat your aphids.
Sweet peasGrow them on the bean canes. They pull in the bees that set your beans, and fill the house with scent.
SunflowersBees in summer, and seed heads for the finches in autumn. Every plot needs a few.