This week at Harlow Carr has been another busy one, the weather has been rather good, and with all children getting in free this month the garden has been very busy. Even so all teams across the garden seem to be managing well and are all on top of their work making sure that everything is looking tip top for the beginning of Family Fortnight which kicks off this Sunday with Carnival Day. The garden is looking really good at the moment, all the late summer vibrant colours are beginning to do their thing and all the containers across the site are at their summer best. This year for two of my containers in Gardens through Time I wanted bold, bright, vibrant colour combinations that would burst from the large original 1950’s pots, in the Festival of Britain inspired garden. To achieve this I knew from the beginning I would be planting some Dahlias to get the height in the centre of the pots, but was unsure what to use to trail down the sides and then I thought about using Nasturtiums. 
It’s been almost 25 years since I have grown them! When I was just four my uncle brought me my first packet of nasturtium seeds for me to grow in a little corner of the garden. I had until this summer forgotten how much I enjoyed, as a small boy watching them grow bigger and bigger every day sprawling out from their undersized bed. 
Growing these simple annual trailing/ climbing plants has brought back memories from years back and I can defiantly say I have really enjoyed growing them again watching them change on a daily basis.The containers have been amazing so far, bigger and better than I could possibly have imagined, although they have had a few minor problems with leaf miner, and in the last week cabbage white caterpillars. However this has not been too bad, and the vigorousness of the plants has allowed me to remedy this is by removing the affected leaves every few days. I will defiantly be growing these lovely plants again and much more often.
In fact I myself am now a uncle and I think that maybe next summer my lovely niece might just be old enough to grow her first packet of fantastic Nasturtiums, and I hope one day she will be able to look back at fond memories of growing these brilliant plants with her uncle as I do.
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