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Earth Day: If Nasturtiums Ruled the World

Nasturtiums have taken over the garden this spring. They bloom exotic oranges, sunny yellows, and a few brilliant reds. Leaves shaped like small lily pads are often as big as saucers. Leaf size varies, each slightly ruffled around the edges with a stem supporting the leaf like a delicate umbrella, filtering the sun yet inviting the light.

Nasturtiums are happy in the sun and the shade. They return year after year, asking for little in the way of watering and pruning. A gentle rearranging of the meandering vines keeps the walkways safe from trips. They play well with others, happy to twine themselves up nearby shrubs or carry on down the path.

Depictions of nasturtiums appear in botanical art and paintings, much like geraniums. They’re a flower for the people. These garden gems stand tall, faces lifted toward the sun, gently bending with the breeze that moves across the garden late in the day.

The flower and the nasturtium leaves are edible, containing various minerals and antioxidant compounds. They could feed the masses if we could replicate all that goodness.

If nasturtiums ruled the world, they would remind us daily how nice it is when we all get along. They would stand for justice, fairness, honesty, and respect, leaning on each other for support in all their beautiful shades.

Thank you, planet Earth, for all your gifts.

On this Earth Day, we will all try to do better.

A bit about Earth Day from Wikipedia:

“In 1970, the seeds that grew into the first Earth Day were planted by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. An ardent conservationist and former two-term governor of Wisconsin, Nelson had long sought ways to increase the potency of the environment as a political issue. The extraordinary attention garnered by Rachel Carson‘s 1962 book, Silent Spring, the famous 1968 EarthriseNASA photograph of the Earth from the Moon, the saturation news coverage given to the Santa Barbara oil spill[18] and the Cuyahoga River catching fire in early 1969[19] led Nelson to think the time was ripe for an environmental initiative. As a result of interactions with his staff and with Fred Dutton,[20] a prominent Democratic operative who had been Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign manager, Nelson became convinced that environmental teach-ins on college campuses could serve as such a vehicle.[21“

22 thoughts on “Earth Day: If Nasturtiums Ruled the World”

  4. I must find myself some nasturtium seeds. I don’t recall seeing them here at all, which makes me wonder if I’m going blind, because they’re freely available in plant nurseries. Such cheerful little faces 😊

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  7. Beautifully written with lovely photos Alys. And a great reminder of what Earth Day means. I am hoping to have some climbing nasturtiums this summer, but if we get a wet summer the slugs will have other ideas! Fingers crossed….

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  8. Beautiful gardens. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I drove into Boston to the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum to see their displays of hanging nasturtiums. Unbelievable. This past weekend I put some seeds in a seed snail for the garden. Fingers crossed they sprout and survive the planting.

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  11. Another beautiful post, Alys. My nasturtiums behave just like yours, and now I will adore them more for reminding me of what a nasturtium ruled world would look like.

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