Seed GROW Project- Nasturtium!

Around our house our daughter Alex is in charge of planting the Nasturtium. The seeds are large enough for her little fingers to handle- plus they look like little brains! Some people start these seeds indoors, but Alex prefers to start them directly in the garden using her favorite tool- a stick. The rule of thumb around our house is when we start seeing Nasturtium popping up in the garden (from last year’s seeds), it’s warm enough for us to plant the seeds. Since Alex is too young to play with knives or nail clippers, she uses a large finger nail file for scarification. She takes each seed and just drags it one way along the file one time, then moves on to the next one. We then put all of the seeds in a bowl of warm water and wait until the next day to go plant them in the garden. If you're looking for other scarification methods, you should check out Fern's website since she's doing a little nifty experiment right now!
Having a toddler has required me to really chill out in the garden. She’s going to plant things where she wants to plant them- in the crack of a sidewalk, in random pots, or in the middle of an existing shrub. If I give her too much direction, she’ll get frustrated and not want to participate. I don’t mind nasturtium everywhere in the yard because they’re fun, colorful AND edible- so they’re the perfect seed for her to have freedom with!

Last weekend we had way too much rain to be out in the garden, but we will finally get to plant our seeds this weekend! In addition to the various seeds we harvested last year, Alex and I are participating in the GROW project, sponsored by Renee’s Garden. We are very excited to add Nasturtium ‘Spitfire’ to our garden this year- as we’re both little spitfires ourselves! If you've never tried growing nasturtium before- I highly recommend it! They add a nice nutty flavor to summer salads!

I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.