Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 2, Issue 13
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Welcome to the thirteenth issue of
Blog
my newsletter Anita’s Garden for
Newsletter back issues 2019.
Facebook I hope you have all had a good week.
Instagram In this week’s editorial, I thought I
would write a bit about a subject that
Twitter is very close to my heart—flowers. As
most of you will have gathered by
Linkedin now, I’m not only a veggie gardener,
Pinterest but our garden contains flowers and I
would like to think that they comple-
ment our veggies, fruit trees, herbs
and other plants in the garden.
Contact me
Why bother to grow flowers, you
 Feedback might ask? Here are some of my top
reasons.
 Newsletter input
(tips, recipes, gar-  Flowers bring beauty to an oth-
den photos etc) erwise colourless garden
 To be added to my  They attract bees, butterflies
mailing list and beneficial insects to the
garden
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
 By bringing in bees, flowers aid
with the pollination process
Inside this issue:  Flowers act as companion
plants and can act as a natural
pest deterrent. Marigolds are
one such example
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 
Anita’s Garden  Some flowers complement edi-
bles. For example, growing
borage near strawberries is
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 said to being out their flavour
for the week
What flowers can you grow in your
garden this summer? I’ve put togeth-
Tips for growing passion- 2 er a list of annuals, perennials and
fruit bulbs.
Annuals
How to grow zucchini 3
 Marigolds– a great companion
plant for veggies as they repel
pests
18 October 2019
 Petunias—look great in hanging
baskets and containers
 Wildflowers—great for attract-
ing bees to the garden
 Sunflowers—a great way to at-
tract bees
 Zinnias—a wonderful butterfly
attracting flower
Perennials
 Coreopsis—a very hardy peren-
nial
 Foxglove—a biennial more than
a perennial, adds height to the
back of borders
 Delphinium—adds height to the
back of flower beds
Bulbs
 Dahlias—a tuber more than a
bulb, dahlias will give you a daz-
zling display of flowers all sum-
mer long
 Gladioli—stagger planting to
give you a dazzling display of
flowers during summer
Begonias—they look stunning in
pots and hanging baskets. For
best results, keep them in a
sheltered area
 Hippeastrum—they make a
wonderful Christmas present
For tips on planting summer bulbs,
please read my blog post.
Thank you for your continued support.
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Our first passionfruit of the
season!
We harvested our first passion-
fruit of the season off our vine at
the back of our house, which was
grown from seed nearly two years
ago. During the winter, we no-
ticed that our vine had a green
passionfruit on it (pictured below).
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow melons
Now is the perfect time to sow all
your favourite melons—
watermelon, rockmelon and honey-
dew melon.
2. Spray garlic
Continue to spray garlic for rust.
3. Keep on top of weeds
Tips for growing passionfruit
 First of all, make sure that
your area is suitable for
growing passionfruit. They
fare well in a sub-tropical,
frost-free climate. Frost or
snow during winter will kill
the plant.
 You can start passionfruit
easily from seed or you can
purchase an established
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
It took awhile to ripen but it final-
ly did. The fruit we enjoyed eating
can be seen below.
No one enjoys weeding the garden
but it’s a good idea to keep on top
of weeds around the garden so you
can pop your plants straight in
come Labour Weekend, without
having to worry about weeds.
4. Spray passionfruit
Passionfruit vines can develop fun-
gal diseases such as brown spot
due to Auckland’s humid condi-
tions, so spray them with Liquid
plant from the garden centre
 Passionfruit need support as
they creep and spread eve-
rywhere so plant them
against a fence or trellis
 To get your plant off to a
strong start, mix in some
compost, sheep pellets and
slow release fertiliser at the
time of planting
V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 1 3
Another patio Asiatic lily
Following the yellow Asiatic lily
that flowered last week and ap-
peared in this column, another lily
has flowered, this time a white
one.
Copper and Copper Oxychloride to
prevent such fungal diseases
5. Sow and plant spring on-
ions
For a continuous supply of spring
onions, sow and plant at fortnight-
ly intervals. Spring onions are
very easy to raise from seed or you
can pop in a punnet every few
weeks. Awapuni sell them in a
bundle with plenty of plants.
 If your plant is small in win-
ter, you may need to protect
it from the cold with a
cloche
 In spring, spray with liquid
copper and copper oxychlo-
ride to prevent fungal dis-
eases such as brown spot
 Feed with granular or slow
release fertiliser for big fruit
 V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 1 3
How to grow zucchini
In my humble opinion, every sum-
mer garden should contain at least
a couple of zucchini plants. Zuc-
chini are nutritious, easy to grow
and are extremely versatile as
they can be added to so many dif-
ferent dishes. Whether you choose
to grow them from seed or pur-
chase plants from your local gar-
den centre, I’m sure you’ll agree
that they make a terrific addition
to the garden.
Growing zucchini from seed
Zucchini are easy to grow from
seed. At this time of the year, it’s
best to sow seeds undercover as
they’re a heat-loving plant and if
temperatures are too low, seed
won’t germinate. I recommend
using a heat pad. With one, you
shouldn’t have any trouble getting
seed to germinate. I like using egg
cartons to raise seeds in rather
than plastic punnets. Once plants
develop two leaves, I usually pot
them into individual 10 cm pots.
Varieties
There are so many different varie-
ties and colours of zucchini. I rec-
ommend planting a range so you
don’t get tired of eating the same
one! This year, I’m growing Aman-
da, Partenon and Solar Flare from
Egmont Seeds. I’m also growing a
few different varieties from Fran-
chi seeds—Striato d’Italia, Fioren-
tino and Romanesco. I have grown
all of these varieties in the past,
with success so I thought they
would be a safe bet in the garden
for this summer. I highly recom-
mend growing yellow zucchini, my
favourite being Solar Flare, be-
cause they are so prolific.
Tips for growing zucchini
 For zucchini to do well, they
need to be grown in full sun
(that is, at least six hours
per day)
 Prepare the ground well
beforehand. I like to mix in
lots of compost, sheep
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Zucchini “Zephyr”
pellets and general garden fertiliz-
er prior to planting
3. Before planting, I like to
soak each plant, whether
raised from seed or pur-
chased from the garden cen-
tre, in some Seasol diluted
in a bucket of water. This
minimizes transplant shock
and ensures that plants get
off to a strong start
4. I like to add a
scoop of to-
mato fertiliz- “Zucchini are nutritious,
er to each easy to grow and are
plant’s hole extremely versatile as
prior to they can be added to so
planting. Did many different dishes”
yo u k no w
that tomato
fertilizer can be used for so
much more than just toma-
toes? It’s suitable for any
flowering and fruiting
plant—zucchini, cucumbers,
pumpkins, squash, melons,
strawberries and so much
more.
5. Water well at the time of
planting and thereafter.
Try not to get too much wa-
ter on the leaves, which can
be susceptible to powdery
mildew
6. Liquid feed weekly with a
water soluble plant food
such as Thrive or a seaweed
tonic like Seasol
PAGE 3
7. Remember not to plant your
zucchini out too early. Per-
sonally, I prefer to wait un-
til Labour Weekend, when
night time temperatures
have increased as it can still
be quite cool in the evenings
in October
8. Harvest zucchini regularly
in order to encourage fur-
ther flowering and fruiting.
Keep an eye on their growth
to avoid them turning into
marrows.
9. One of the biggest problems
that you’ll probably have
with zucchini is a glut on
your hands. There are
many different ways they
can be used, or you can
share them with family,
friends, neighbours and col-
leagues. I’m sure that they
will be appreciated, as
they’re usually quite expen-
sive in the supermarket,
even in summer.
Ideas for using
zucchini
 Bread/loaf
 Cho co l a t e
cupcakes
 Frittata
 Zucchini blossoms stuffed
with goat’s cheese, either
fried or baked for a healthi-
er option
 Quiche
 Parmigiana
 Lasagne
 Stir fry
 BBQed
 Stuffed marrow with mince
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!