Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 19 27 November 2020

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage

Blog Welcome to the nineteenth issue of  Ronde de Nice (round squash)

my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues  Solar Flare (yellow)
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook  Striato d'Italia
This week, I’m going to write about
Instagram the cucumber and zucchini varieties I  Zephyr (yellow)

Twitter am growing in the garden. Tips for growing cucumbers and

Cucumbers zucchini
Linkedin
 Beth Alpha (Lebanese)  Choose a sunny site
Pinterest
 Crystal Apple (apple)  Prepare the ground well before
planting. I like to mix in lots of
Contact me  Gherkin compost, sheep pellets and gar-
den fertiliser beforehand
 Feedback  Lebanese
 Leave enough space between
 Newsletter input  Lebanese Medici plants as they need some room to
(tips, recipes, gar- grow
 Lemon (apple)
den photos etc)
 Water well regularly
 Lombardy White (apple)
 To be added to my
 Liquid feed weekly with a water
mailing list  Louisa (telegraph) soluble plant food or seaweed
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com tonic such as Seasol.
 Manny (Lebanese)
 Harvest fruits as they become
 Muncher (miniature)
ready to encourage further fruit-
 Tender Green (long) ing
Inside this issue:
Zucchini  You can pick the male blossoms
when they flower. They’re deli-
 Amanda cious stuffed with goat’s cheese.
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2
Anita’s Garden
The male blossoms don’t have a
 Black Coral zucchini attached to them.
 Cocozelle Useful links
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week  Costata Romanesco  Italian Seeds Pronto
 Golden Zebra (yellow)  Awapuni
Herb of the week: Lov- 2
age  Fiorentino  Bulbs Direct
 Flying Saucers (scallopini) Have a good weekend.
How to grow kumara 3
 Partenon Kind regards,

 Romanesco Anita Kundu

PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
I’m pleased with how healthy our
zucchini are looking. This one is
called Romanesco from Franchi
Seeds, which you can purchase
from Italian Seeds Pronto. This
year, I’m growing three zucchini
varieties in the Franchi range:
Romanesco, Striato d’Italia and
Fiorentino. They are all doing
wonderfully well and we look for-
ward to having a fantastic harvest
this season.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow okra
It is now warm enough to sow
okra.
2. Sow snake beans
It is also warm enough to sow
snake beans.
3. Sow dwarf beans
For a bumper crop, sow dwarf
Herb of the week: Lovage
Lovage has celery flavoured leaves
that can be used dry or in sauces,
soups, stews and casseroles. The
leaves can also be used fresh. Add
to salads, meat and fish dishes.
Use leaves moderately as they are
strong in flavour.
Lovage can be grown from seed. It
can be sown in spring, summer
and autumn. Sprinkle some seeds
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
This year, I planted all our lettuce
in containers. My favourite varie-
ty is the lovely Degli Ortolani from
Franchi Seeds. If you wish to pur-
chase plants, Awapuni has a great
range of lettuce seedlings.
beans direct to the ground. Pre-
pare the ground well beforehand
by mixing in lots of compost, sheep
pellets and garden fertiliser.
4. Plant zucchini
Zucchini are such a versatile vege-
table and can be used in so many
ways, so don’t worry about having
too much of them. You can plant
more zucchini in November and
in a punnet filled with some seed
raising mix. If raising seeds in
early spring, it may help to use a
heat pad. From October onwards
it should be fine to leave them out-
side to germinate. Seeds take 10-
14 days to germinate. When the
plants are large enough, carefully
transplant them into six cell pun-
nets before potting them up indi-
vidually.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 9
Due to space constraints, I grew
all our radish in containers this
year. These radish are the variety
German Giant. Our favourite rad-
ish is a yellow variety called Zlata
in the Franchi Seeds range. While
some radish can be bitter, this va-
riety is very sweet. Whether grow-
ing radish in containers or in the
ground, I recommend sowing seed
direct. You can also purchase rad-
ish plants from Awapuni.
December. Sick of green zucchini?
Try growing yellow zucchini for a
change.
5. Plant marigolds
Marigolds make a great companion
plant. They’re great for keeping
bugs off veggies and roses. Mari-
golds can be used as bedding
plants and look great in contain-
ers. Awapuni has a great range.
Lovage is a perennial herb. It dies
down in winter but comes back to
life in spring. It can be grown in a
sunny position or in the shade.
Plants reach maturity in 4 years
and can be 1.5m high. Most people
find that one plant is sufficient for
the garden. You can save seed
from your plants and store them in
an airtight container for sowing
the next season.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 9
How to grow kumara
To be honest, I don’t know if I’m
the best person to write an article
about growing kumara, given that
I only had success with it the first
year that I grew it. I simply
popped some slips in the ground in
December and by April was har-
vesting lovely fat tubers. Since
then, I’m a lot more knowledgeable
about the growing process, but it
doesn’t seem to have helped much.
Even so, I thought it would be a
good idea to share some of the mis-
takes I have made over the years
which have led to my downfall.
Kumara is an incredibly versatile
root vegetable. It is much more
difficult to grow than potatoes and
needs a long hot summer in order
to do well. But don’t let this stop
you from giving it a go. It’s a lot of
fun and nothing beats the taste of
fresh, homegrown kumara.
Tips for growing kumara
 Kumara grows from slips.
You can either propagate
your own or purchase them
from Awapuni.
 There are two ways that you
can propagate slips—by
placing kumara in some dirt
and leaving it in a warm
place, or placing a kumara
in a jar of water. Henri
Ham, the owner of Awapuni,
recommends the first meth-
od. In spring, wriggle some
whole kumara in a box or
crate filled with some dirt.
Make sure that they are
about half buried. Keep in a
warm place (I use our green-
house) and keep moist. I
use a spray bottle regularly
to mist the kumara.
 When the shoots are long
enough (I normally wait
until they’re 5-10 cm long),
carefully pick them off the
kumara and pot them up so
that they develop roots.
 Don’t plant kumara outside
too early. I always wait
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Propagating kumara slips at home
until November when it’s a bit
warmer.
5. As a root crop, kumara does
best in full sun so bear this
in mind when choosing a
site.
6. There are two things that
you don’t want to do. The
first is not to add compost or
fertiliser, because the nitro-
gen encourages leafy growth
at the expense of nice fat
tubers. The second is not to
dig the soil over prior to
planting because it encour-
ages the roots to keep trav-
elling downwards rather
than concentrate their ef-
forts on forming tubers.
7. Kumara is a
“Kumara is an incredibly
vine and versatile root vegetable. It
spreads. It
is much more difficult to
needs a bit of grow than potatoes and
room. Space needs a long hot summer
slips at least
in order to do well”
15 cm apart.
6. Get into the habit of liquid
feeding your kumara weekly
with a water soluble plant
food or seaweed tonic if
you’re gardening organically
7. Water your kumara regular-
ly. Depending on where you
live, you may be on watering
restrictions, so this may
mean using a watering can
if you’re at Level 1
(Auckland at present).
8. When kumara grows, the
vines will put down roots
everywhere so be sure to lift
these and turn the vines
over so the plants put their
PAGE 3
energy into forming tubers.
9. Kumara takes a long time to
grow so be patient. It needs
at least 4-5 months in the
ground so be patient! By
April, your kumara should
be ready to harvest. Don’t
leave it in the ground for
much longer as it will stop
growing when the weather
becomes cooler. Dig the tu-
bers carefully with a fork
and make sure you use
speared ones first as they
won’t store well.
10. To store kumara, allow the
tubers to dry for a few days.
Wrap each kumara individ-
ually in newspaper and lay-
er in a box. Store in a cool,
dry place.
Nutrition
Kumara is one of the most nutri-
tious vegetables. It is a good
source of fibre, antioxidants and
vitamins. Kumara is low GI, mak-
ing it friendlier than potatoes.
Ideas for using
kumara
 Roasted
 Wedges
 Stuffed
 Frittata
 Gratin
 Soup
 Rosti, croquettes and frit-
ters
 Curries
 Hash
 Shepherd’s pie
 Roasted vegetable salad
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!