If you like the fresh crunchy taste, you may be asking how to grow watercress in the home garden. It is fairly simple, its fast growing and you can grow watercress in containers.
As the name suggests, Watercress is an aquatic plant. It is grown for the leaves which are used in salads, sandwiches, stews, stir fries and soups. The leaves have a crunchy texture and a slightly peppery flavour. You can also use watercress to make a soup.
How to Grow Watercress in the home garden.
Naturally watercress would be found growing at the sides of a stream, constant moisture and clean water. However you may not be lucky enough to have a stream, you can still grow watercress at home.
You can grow watercress from seed or from root division. It is a plant that requires constant moisture so you will need to have a container, pond or water feature to grow it successfully.
A simple trough that will hold 10cm of water is enough to get you started.
You can plant the seedlings or root divisions in pots and then sit the pots in the container. This allows for constant moisture, and also it makes it easy to refresh the water every week or so.
Best grown in a position where the plants will get some good morning sun, however with protection from the hot afternoon sun.
You can also grow watercress in a container in potting soil, however you will need to water every day, maybe twice a day in summer.
Watercress Summary Information.
- Watercress is best grown in cooler seasons, or in a cool position.
- Plant it in the shady area in the margins of a pond, or in a container.
- Grow Watercress from seed or from root division of established plants.
- Harvest as required by cutting the leaves.
- The young leaves are the best.
Harvesting Watercress.
You can pick the leaves as needed, use a sharp pair of scissors to snip them off.
Try to not let the plants go to flower, once this happens the leaves become bitter.