Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi everyone,
I have about 20 3" pots with nasturtium black velvet and nasturtium mahogany. I choose the colours for courtyard garden at home (aiming for lime green red and burgundy) but now I am wondering if they woud be good companion plants on allotment? But for which plants?
I know they attract black fly but would I get even more if I used them??
Thanks in advance Penny

I'd put the posh ones in the garden to match your colour scheme and leave a note on the allotment gate asking for nasturtiam seed. They are very prolific once they get going and I'm sure someone will be happy to give you a handful of seeds left from last year.

You then have no dilemma,put them in any spare space.

If i'm not going to use a bit of ground for a while I let them come up and sprawl and then chuck them in the compost when I need the space - a rather informal and pretty green manure. They do get decimated by caterpillars and blackfly, but are very hard to kill.

If you left them infested they might create a problem with pests, but if you have lots then its easy to pull up ones that have bugs and drown them in a bin or chuck them on a bonfire...or dance on them ... choose your own method of revenge!

And they are good in salads too.

I believe you should keep them away from beans - the blackfly problem and also they can apparently inhibit the beans from flowering, not sure how or why but I read that somewhere (I think it was Joy Larcome).

Bung them under your brassicas....they act as good companion plants and help suppress weeds too. I've just sown some direct under mine, peach melba and mahogany.