Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 22
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Blog Welcome to the twenty second issue
of my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook
I can’t believe that Christmas is near-
Instagram ly upon us. This year has passed by
Twitter so quickly, I think in large part due to
Covid. It has been a challenging year
Linkedin on many fronts. Some parts of NZ
have already experienced watering
Pinterest restrictions in the past, but in June,
the Auckland Council imposed Level 1
watering restrictions, banning the use
Contact me of hoses in residential gardens. This
has caused a lot of people to rethink
 Feedback whether to plant a summer garden.
My own little business, Anita’s Gar-
 Newsletter input den, was greatly affected and I had
(tips, recipes, gar- hardly any customers come to me to
den photos etc) purchase plants. This is the main
reason that I stopped running my lit-
 To be added to my tle plant nursery. Covid, too, has af-
mailing list fected a lot of businesses and it will
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com take a long time for the economy to
recover.
Amidst all the uncertainty about the
future, keen gardeners can seek sol-
Inside this issue: ace outdoors. We are now well into
summer. At this time of the year, I
try to limit planting and concentrate
on maintaining the summer garden.
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2
In saying that, it’s not too late (and in
Anita’s Garden
some cases, quite timely) to plant the
following:
Top 5 gardening tasks 2  More cucumbers for cropping in
for the week
the new year
 Okra (if you plant too early
Flower of the week: 2 
they will die as okra is a heat-
Marigolds
loving plant)
 Marigolds
Water saving tips 3
 Sunflowers
 Zinnias
18 December 2020
 Moringa
 Basil (I highly recommend Ital-
iano Classico and Napoletana
from Franchi Seeds, which can be
obtained through Italian Seeds
Pronto)
 Parsley
 Chives
Now is also a good time to check your
seed collection and order any seeds you
intend to sow in the new year, as some
seed suppliers close for business over
the holiday period. Normally this
would include any seeds you intend to
sow for the autumn garden, such as
fennel and beetroot.
Continue to liquid feed your plants eve-
ry week. It does take a long time to
liquid feed our garden with a watering
can but the results are worth it. You
can really see a difference to the health
of the plants.
Don’t forget to remove the laterals from
your tomatoes to encourage your plants
to put their energy into the main stem
and fruit forming from it. Tie tomatoes
to their stakes as they grow. This year,
I’m using tomato cages for the first time
and this step is not necessary.
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
Bulbs Direct
Have a good weekend.
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Our beautiful patio oriental lilies
all flowered recently. Here are
some photos for you to enjoy.
Muscadet oriental lily
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plan garden cover over
the holiday period
Going away over Christmas? If
you haven’t already done so, or-
ganize someone to take care of
your garden while you’re away.
Your plants will thank you for it
when you return!
2. Sow asters
This year, I’m growing giant Chi-
Flower of the week: Marigolds
Marigolds are a staple in the sum-
mer garden. They are incredibly
easy to grow and make a great
companion plant for veggies by
helping to repel insects. Marigolds
look great in containers and in
garden beds. It’s possible to find
all different sizes, from dwarf to
large headed ones. They come in a
range of colours, mainly red, or-
ange, yellow and white.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Garden Party oriental lily
nese asters which I hope to use in
a bouquet for my aunt. They flow-
er in March, which coincides with
her birthday. You can sow seeds
in punnets now for transplanting
later on.
3. Sow more marigolds
You can never have too many of
these wonderful companion plants.
Egmont Seeds have a great range.
To raise marigolds from seed,
simply scatter some seeds in a
punnet filled with a little seed
raising mix and cover lightly. At
this time of the year it’s not neces-
sary to use a head pad to aid ger-
mination as it’s warm enough.
Simply leave the punnet in a warm
place outside and keep moist.
When the seedlings are large
enough you can pot them up into
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 2 2
Auratum Gold Band lily
As patio lilies, all of these varieties
are suitable for growing in contain-
ers. I used 18 litre pots and plant-
ed 3-5 bulbs in each pot. I used a
high quality container mix which
contained slow release fertiliser
and a wetting agent.
4. Sow rhubarb
Rhubarb can take awhile to grow
from seed, so be patient. This
year, I’m growing the varieties
Glaskins Perpetual and Victoria
from Egmont Seeds.
5. Sow asparagus
It takes three years to crop if grow-
ing asparagus from seed, so start
sowing now!
six-cell punnets for transplant-
ing. If you’re a new gardener
or can’t be bothered to raise
them from seed, you can pur-
chase high quality marigold
plants from Awapuni. This
year I sowed mine from seeds
purchased from Egmont Seeds.
I am growing French Vanilla
and Durango Flame, my two
favourite varieties.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 2 2
Water saving tips
As of Monday 14th December (the
beginning of this week), Watercare
has allowed Aucklanders to use a
hose in the garden with a trigger
nozzle after banning the use of
garden hoses since June this year.
While the dam levels are still
down from previous years, we are
in a much better position thanks to
everyone taking watering re-
strictions so seriously and doing
their best to save as much water
as possible. This development is
great news for all gardeners and
comes at a great time as it starts
to get drier. However, just be-
cause watering restrictions have
been eased somewhat, it is more
important than ever for us to con-
tinue gardening in a water con-
scious manner or else stricter re-
strictions will be imposed again in
the future.
There are many ways that we can
save water in the garden. In this
article, I thought I’d put together
some tips on how to do just that.
Use a wetting agent or water
storage crystals
Using a wetting agent such as Sat-
uraid or water storage crystals
when planting plants in pots and
garden beds helps to retain mois-
ture and reduce the need for wa-
tering. You can buy it as a sepa-
rate product to add to your potting
mixture or garden beds or look for
a container mix which contains it,
such as Tui Pot Power, Tui Tomato
Mix or Kings Plant Barn Contain-
er Mix. It’s a bit more expensive
than buying a basic potting mix
that doesn’t contain it, but it
makes life much easier when pot-
ting up your plants.
Use a watering can rather than
your hose
Even though we’re allowed to use a
garden hose with a trigger nozzle
in Auckland, I’m still going to wa-
ter some areas of our garden with
a watering can. I find that it uses
water more efficiently and effec-
tively as it goes straight to the
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
plant’s roots. The hose still comes
in handy though as instead of hav-
ing to walk back to the tap to refill
the watering can, I use our hose,
which saves time.
Invest in a water storage de-
vice
The on-going drought issues which
many parts of the country have
been facing have made us all think
long term about how we can go
about collecting water for use later
on. Installing a tank is just one
idea. You can also look for some
drums, which are very cost effec-
tive and do the job. Even just leav-
ing some buckets outside to collect
water when it rains is a good start.
Mulch, mulch, mulch
Apply a layer of mulch over your
plants to help conserve moisture
and reduce the need for watering.
I like using pea straw. It adds ni-
trogen to the soil as it breaks
down. The downside is that it can
be expensive, so I tend to use this
only for strawberries and garlic.
You can use lawn
clippings which also
contain nitrogen “[J]ust because
and are free. If you restrictions have been
plan to go away eased somewhat, it is more
over Christmas, important than ever for us
mulching is a good to continue gardening in a
idea. water conscious manner or
else stricter restrictions
Try and plant in will be imposed again in
the ground rather the future”
than in pots
As much as I love container gar-
dening, I have to admit that pots
tend to dry out much faster than
garden beds. It’s therefore a good
idea to plant as much as you can in
the garden and save containers for
special plants.
Use your grey water in the gar-
den
Don’t throw away the water which
you use to wash dishes and your
clothes in. You can recycle this for
your garden.
PAGE 3
Weed your garden
Weeds compete with plants for
nutrients, so it’s a good idea to
keep on top of them so they don’t
absorb water at the expense of
your plants.
Put in plants that need less
water
Some plants need less water than
others. Succulents and clivia are
an example of plants that don’t
need a lot of water in order to do
well.
Water in the morning or even-
ing
It’s cooler in the morning and
evening than during the day, so
watering at this time minimises
evaporation. We used to always
water the garden in the morning
but with Level 1 restrictions decid-
ed to switch to the evening. We
noticed that it takes longer for the
water to absorb in the soil, reduc-
ing the need for a “second” water-
ing which we had to do in the
evening when we watered in the
morning.
watering
Water the base
of plants rather
than the leaves
This will help
water t ra v e l
down to the roots
of the plants.
Check to see if
the soil is dry before watering
Sometimes if it has been raining, it
isn’t necessary to water the garden
for a couple of days afterwards.
Overwatering can be detrimental
to the health of your plants.
Water a few times a week rather
than every day It’s better to water
deeply less frequently than super-
ficially more often.
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!