My Experiment Was a Bust

When I was a kid, I used to plant flowers on the first day of school vacation. It was just a habit I got into and I enjoyed seeing them burst into bloom during the summer. One of my favorites was nasturtiums.

Then when we lived in Maryland, we had a deck built on our townhouse and I planted window boxes for the deck. Again one of my choices was nasturtiums. Bentley, my first Portie developed a taste for the flowers and each morning would check the boxes for new blooms. I didn't get to enjoy much color from the nasturtiums, but I continued to plant them for Bentley's pleasure.

Then we moved here and I tried them, but it's just too hot here for nasturtiums. I tried a couple times, then gave up.

This year I was determined to try again. I planted them in two pots on the deck.

 The packet says they like full sun, but it's just too hot here and even watering them twice a day, the little plants cooked.

 I moved them out of the direct sun to a spot where they would only get morning sun, but they continued to die off.

 Then I moved them to a spot on the porch behind the hedge, so they got no direct sun at all. They were in shade all day. I continued to water twice a day and the leaves started growing back. But one morning I glanced out the window and saw a squirrel sitting in the pot. I ran outside to chase him away, but he had already eaten 90% of the leaves and all I had left were bare stalks.

I decided the experiment was over and gave up. But then the temps cooled off and we got some nice gentle rains and the leaves started growing back. I had a few small flowers, too, but only one at a time.

 Now a couple weeks later the plants don't look too bad, if you don't look closely. There are even several flowers in bloom at the same time. I offered one to Fudge a couple days ago and he agreed that they are indeed tasty.

 It wasn't my most successful experiment, but at least I saw a few pretty nasturtiums this year.