A d v i ce . Id e a s .
I n sp i ra t i on
Volume 2, Issue 43
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Inside this issue:
Po t t e r i n g ar o u n d
Anita’s Garden
Top 5 gardening tasks
for the week
Tips for growing gladioli
nanus
How to grow endive
Anita’s Garden
Editorial
Welcome to the forty third issue of
my newsletter Anita’s Garden for
2020.
I hope you have all had a good week.
Contactless plant nursery
We are now at level 2, but as this is
all unchartered territory I am keeping
the service contactless. This means
you must order and collect outside our
home in Papatoetoe, Manukau in
Auckland.
Punnets are $3.50 each or 3 for $10.
Punnets contain at least 6 seedlings
I have the following in stock.
 Silverbeet/spinach (I’m sorry I
can’t say with certainty which
it is as the writing on the plant
labels faded and I can’t tell
them apart)
 Lettuce (cut and come again)
 Mixed brassicas (they are a mix
of cabbage, broccoli and cauli-
flower. I can’t sell these indi-
vidually as the writing on all of
these labels faded and I can’t
tell the plants apart)
2
The steps for ordering are as follows:
 Place order
2 lar varieties have already sold out (a
 Receive confirmation
 Make payment via internet
banking
2
 Receive a message when plants
are available for collection
3 If you wish to place an order, please
contact me via my Facebook page or
email me at anitakun-
du.nz@gmail.com.
15 May 2020
How to grow series on page 3
For awhile, I was struggling to come
up with veggies I hadn’t previously
covered for my “How to grow” series
which appears on page 3 of the news-
letter. As many of you will be aware, I
am a brand ambassador for Italian
Seeds Pronto (ISP), the New Zealand
retailer of Franchi Italian heirloom
seeds. ISP have a great range of unu-
sual vegetables, including endive, chic-
ory, radicchio, salsify, turnip leaf, ram-
pion, artichokes and asparagus. Over
the coming weeks, I will be exploring
each of these interesting veggies in
turn. Don’t be put off by the fact
you’ve never heard of them or tried
them before! Look at it as an oppor-
tunity to grow something new and
which can’t be found in supermarkets
and green grocers, which is a great
reason to give them a try in the gar-
den.
Last chance for planting spring
bulbs
May is really your last chance to get
spring bulbs in the ground. I highly
recommend sourcing your bulbs from
the mail order company Bulbs Direct.
They have a very wide range of spring
bulbs, including daffodils, freesias,
dutch iris, anemones, ranunculus, tu-
lips and hyacinth, which are delivered
direct to your door. While many popu-
lesson for next time!), they still do
have stock for many varieties. Don’t
delay—get your order in today!
If you plant your bulbs in June, you
risk them flowering poorly as spring
bulbs do best in cooler conditions.
Have a great weekend.
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Here is a selection of photos from
our garden for you to enjoy
Doesn’t my kale look lush and
healthy this year? Every year I
grow the standard variety Cavolo
Nero but this year I wanted to try
something new. This variety is
called Black Tuscan Kale and it is
part of the Franchi seeds range,
distributed by the retailer Italian
Seeds Pronto in New Zealand. If
you live overseas, please check for
your local retailer.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant spring bulbs
May is your last chance to get
spring bulbs in the ground. Don’t
worry, it’s not too late—I normally
plant tulips and hyacinth by the
end of May as it’s too warm any
earlier.
2. Order seed potatoes
Retailers will start to get seed po-
tatoes in soon. The supplier New-
Tips for growing gladioli nanus
Gladioli nanus have fast become
one of my favourite spring bulbs.
They are very easy to grow and
give a beautiful display in spring.
Bulbs Direct still has a few varie-
ties available if you are looking to
source them.
Here are a few growing tips which
I have taken from Bulbs Direct’s
page.
AN IT A’S G AR D E N
Our brassicas have started form-
ing heads, which is exciting! This
cauliflower is called Green Macer-
ata and is part of the Franchi
seeds range, distributed in New
Zealand by Italian Seeds Pronto.
Other brassica varieties in the
Franchi range that I highly recom-
mend are the hybrid cauliflow-
er/broccoli Romanesco, the broccoli
Calabrese and Broccoletti and the
cabbage San Michele. Note the
latter is more suited for cooler cli-
mates.
ton Seeds has already gotten a
selection of potatoes in store. They
take awhile to chit (sprout) before
they can be planted, so it pays to
source them in advance of when
you want to plant them.
3. Plant brassicas
It’s not too late to get brassicas in
the ground. For best results, use
lots of compost and mix a little
veggie food in the ground.
 Gladioli nanus can be plant-
ed anytime from late March
through to mid-late May in
New Zealand
 Select a sunny, well-drained
site
 Mix in some bulb food
 Plant with their tips facing
upwards
V O LU M E 2 , ISSU E 4 3
Last spring, I sowed the carrot
varieties Ruby, White, Yellow and
Purple from Egmont Seeds. Mum
and I were amazed with the re-
sults—strong, healthy and tasty
carrots which were ready by Janu-
ary. The variety pictured is Yel-
low. I highly recommend these
multi-coloured carrots to other
gardeners. They will be popular
with kids, who adore colourful veg-
gies. To shop the Egmont Seeds
r a n g e , v i s i t
www.egmontseeds.co.nz
4. Plant strawberries
May is when commercial growers
plant their strawberries. Mine are
arriving later this month.
5. Plant garlic
You can also start planting garlic.
It is traditionally planted on the
shortest day (21st June) but garlic
can be planted any time from April
right through to July.
 For maximum impact, plant
in bold clumps
 After flowering, let the foli-
age die down naturally be-
fore lifting and dividing
bulbs
 Store bulbs in a cool and dry
place until it’s time for
planting them the following
season
 V O LU M E 2 , ISSU E 4 3
How to grow endive
As mentioned in my editorial, over
the coming weeks, I will be taking
you through a range of unusual
veggies that you might not have
previously grown in the garden.
Please bear with me. I hope you
learn something new and give
some thought to trying some of
them in the future. You never
know, you could discover some-
thing you really like to eat!
Endive is not a new veggie to me.
A few years ago, the lovely Gillian
Hurley-Gordon who owns and op-
erates Italian Seeds Pronto, the
NZ retailer of Franchi Italian heir-
loom seeds, gave me a complimen-
tary packet with my seed order. I
must admit that I was a little ap-
prehensive about trying it, because
I had heard that endive is rather
bitter in taste. Bitter greens are
so good for you and you can always
mix them with other salad greens
to blend the taste. This is what
we do to make eating them more
bearable.
How to grow endive
I recommend sowing endive in late
summer/early autumn. Simply
sprinkle some seeds in a punnet
filled with seed raising mix and
cover lightly. Make sure you keep
them moist to aid germination, as
seeds tend to dry out quickly in
warm weather. When your seed-
lings are large enough to be
pricked out, transplant them into
punnets or seed raising trays so
they can grow a bit bigger. From
here, you have two options—either
you can plant your endive in the
ground or grow it in containers as
we do. If you opt for the latter,
your endive will remain baby leaf,
sort of like Mesclun. This makes it
easy to harvest for salads in au-
tumn and winter.
Varieties
Italian Seeds Pronto stocks two
varieties of endive—Scarola
Bionda A Cuore Pieno and Scarola
Cornetto di Bordeaux.
AN IT A’S G AR D E N PAGE 3
Egmont Seeds stocks the variety Ideas for using endive
Green Curled Ruffec.
Endive pairs very well with
It may be best to sow endive from cheese, so you might want to bear
seed than rely on finding it in gar- this in mind when using it in reci-
den centres, given that it is an un- pes. Other harmonious accompa-
usual vegetable and may not be niments include apple, garlic, olive
readily stocked. oil, lemon and avocado.
Tips for growing endive  Sautéed with butter
1. If you’re short on garden  Braised
space, consider growing en-
dive in containers. You can  Roasted
simply harvest what you
 Baked
need, leaving the rest of the
plant to continue to grow.
 Pan-fried
2. When choosing a seed rais-  Caramelised
ing mix for raising seed-
lings, look for one that is  Stuffed
fine in texture and doesn’t
contain stones and pieces of  Boiled with olive oil and
bark lemon
3. Don’t leave sowing seeds too  Cooked with garlic
late—February and March
is perfect. It gives your  Eaten with ham
plants enough time to devel-
 Raw in salads (this is how
op before they are trans-
we like eating endive)
planted into the garden or
containers before cooler  Slaw
temperatures
set in. “”Bitter greens are so good  With pasta
for you and you can
4. Water seed- always mix them with  On pizza
lings well other salad greens to blend
after plant- the taste”  In green
ing. smoothies
5. To keep your plants looking  Gratin
healthy, you might want to
liquid feed them weekly  Quiche
with a water soluble plant
food or seaweed tonic if
 Strudel
you’re gardening organical-  Fondue
ly.
 Tarts
6. When temperatures in-
crease in spring, you may  Tartiflette
find your plants start going
to seed. To save seeds from  Curry
your crop, simply allow one
plant to go to seed and col- Have a great weekend
lect seeds once they’re dry.
Label and put them away Happy gardening!
for safe keeping until you
are ready to sow them the
following season.