Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 39
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Blog Welcome to the thirty-ninth issue of
my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you are all well. A very warm
Facebook welcome to newcomers to my mailing
list. I hope you enjoy reading my
Instagram
weekly gardening newsletters. Writ-
Twitter ing my newsletter is the highlight of
my week. I put a lot of effort into
Linkedin thinking about new and interesting
things to write about so it doesn’t be-
Pinterest
come monotonous. This week, I’d like
to write a bit about challenging your-
self in the garden. Whether you’re a
Contact me beginner, intermediate or advanced
gardener, setting yourself a challenge
 Feedback in the garden makes life more inter-
esting and keeps you stimulated. If
 Newsletter input you are just starting out, a challenge
(tips, recipes, gar- might be setting up a garden bed or a
den photos etc) few containers, purchasing some
plants from the garden centre and
 To be added to my
then planting and looking after them.
mailing list
This is a huge achievement! If you
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com already have some experience in
planting seedlings purchased from the
garden centre, you will probably be an
intermediate gardener. The next step
Inside this issue: for you may be to start propagating
some simple seedlings from seed.
Good ones to start with and which can
be sowed right now are peas (snow
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 peas, climbing peas, dwarf peas and
Anita’s Garden sweet peas) and broad beans. If you
have been gardening for many years
like myself and have devoted your
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 whole life to nurturing your garden,
for the week you will have to work very hard to
come up with new and exciting chal-
lenges. I enjoy browsing through seed
News 2
catalogues in search of new and inter-
esting veggies and flowers to propa-
gate from seed. This year, I decided
The flower garden in 3 that my personal challenge will be to
raise bedding begonias (the waxy leaf
autumn
kind that are used for borders and in
containers, not the tuberous kind)
from seed. I have a lot of plastic
16 April 2021
terracotta troughs which I like to fill
with annuals all year round. In sum-
mer, I filled them with marigolds which
I raised from seed. While they were
very beautiful, I found that the flowers
did not last long and the plants were
dying by February. One of my troughs
contained some bronze leaf white flow-
ering begonias which I purchased in
punnets from Kings Plant Barn. By
contrast with the marigolds, they have
been flowering non-stop, with no signs
of slowing down. The idea of growing
an annual in these containers which
lasts all year long sounds too good to be
true, but this variety of begonia is very
hardy. They are also drought tolerant
which is a good thing given that we are
still on watering restrictions. I have
already placed an order for three differ-
ent types (bronze leaf with pink flowers,
bronze leaf with white flowers and
green leaf with white flowers) and will
start them in May. They require heat
for germination so I will have to take
out my heat pads (usually I don’t get
them out until August when I start
propagating seeds for summer). The
seed is in pellet form, which gives me
hope as they will be larger and easier to
work with. I will spend winter raising
and looking after my seedlings and
hope to be able to plant them out in
spring. I will let you know how my
challenge goes. What will your chal-
lenge be for this year?
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
As mentioned last week, one of my
dahlias, Rebecca’s World, is al-
ways quite late to flower. Another
one that has only just started
flowering is Crazy Love (pictured
above). When I chose dahlias for
our garden, I didn’t realise that
they flowered at different times.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow parsley
Parsley seeds can be sown direct to
where you want to grow them.
2. Plant pansies and viola
They look great both in the ground
and in containers or hanging bas-
kets
3. Label your dahlias
News
Italian Seeds Pronto have by far
the best selection of chicory and
radicchio of all the NZ seed suppli-
ers I am aware of. We enjoy add-
ing them to our winter salads so
we have a mixture of different
leaves. Both are low in fat and
highly nutritious. Radicchio has
the additional advantage of adding
some colour to green salads. Visit
the website to purchase them.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
We have been enjoying mandarins
from our dwarf citrus trees. A few
years ago, I planted several differ-
ent varieties of Flying Dragon
dwarf mandarin trees in 35 litre
black plastic buckets. I filled them
with container mix. We have been
very impressed with the amount of
fruit that such a small tree produc-
es. One advantage is that dwarf
trees don’t require pruning.
While you may remember all of the
different varieties as you walk
around your garden, in time to
come when your tubers are
dormant and lifted, you won’t be
able to tell them apart. I am trial-
ing using flagging tape (available
from Bunnings) and permanent
marker to note the name of each
variety. I will let you know wheth-
er this is an effective labelling
method later in the year.
Bulbs Direct have a lovely selec-
tion of dutch iris this season. They
are very hardy and easy to grow,
making them perfect for beginner
gardeners. My personal favourite
are traditional blue and purple
dutch iris, but they come in other
colours including white, yellow and
multicolour. They are tall and
make a great cut flower which
lasts a long time in a vase.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 3 9
Mum helped me pot some pansies I
grew from seed into plastic hang-
ing planters which are suspended
from our washing line. This varie-
ty is called Matrix Morpheus and I
obtained the seeds from the Eg-
mont Seeds Commercial Cata-
logue. I usually sow pansies in
January, transplant them into
trays in February and then plant
them out in March or April.
4. Sow peas
Climbing peas, sweet peas and
snow peas can all be sown direct
now. I always raise some in pun-
nets too, incase the ones I sowed
direct don’t germinate.
5. Order strawberries
Some places are accepting orders
for strawberry runners for sending
out in May.
Awapuni have a great special on
this week. Spend $45 and receive
a FREE pair of bypass secateurs.
They will automatically be added
to your cart when you hit the mini-
mum spend. This offer is valid
until 9 am Monday 19 April 2021
or while stocks last.
Awapuni are running a Facebook
competition. Click here to enter.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 3 9
The flower garden in autumn
Autumn is a busy time for flower
gardeners. The garden is still full
of colour and there is so much that
can be sown and planted now.
Here are some tips to help you.
In bloom right now
I don’t know about you, but our
garden is still a mass of dazzling
different colours. Our dinner plate
dahlias are still putting on a splen-
did show, especially Café au Lait,
Labyrinth and Penhill Watermel-
on. Some of our decorative and
cactus dahlias have only just start-
ed flowering, including Rebecca’s
World, Crazy Love and My Love.
Our zinnias are still blooming like
crazy and I don’t have the heart to
pull them out to make room for our
spring bulbs. If you missed the
boat and didn’t plant dahlias and
zinnias last spring, don’t fret.
There is always next year. Bulbs
Direct have an excellent selection
of dahlia tubers which normally go
on sale in July. Dahlias have seen
a real comeback in recent years. It
pays to be quick with your order as
popular varieties sell out fast. Zin-
nias can be grown from seed or you
can purchase plants from Awapuni
when they become available
around Labour Weekend. I nor-
mally do a bit of both so I am guar-
anteed to have this bold, beautiful
annual in our autumn garden.
When I first started gardening, I
used to be able to sow zinnia seeds
direct to where I wanted them to
grow and they would germinate
and grow perfectly. Over the past
two years, I haven't had luck with
this method. I have had to propa-
gate them on my heat pad in
spring and then painstakingly
transplant them into punnets,
keeping them in our greenhouse
until it is warm enough to plant
them outdoors. If you are growing
zinnias from seed, I advise you to
do a bit of both to ensure that you
have flowers.
Seeds to sow outdoors
Poppies are one of my favourite
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
spring annuals and April is the
perfect month to sow seeds. Al-
ways sow poppy seeds direct to
where you want them to grow, as
their roots resent being trans-
planted. This year, I am sowing
an Iceland poppy for the first time.
It is called Windsong. Some of you
may wish to sow soldier poppies on
ANZAC day in remembrance of
those who lost their lives in the
war.
Seeds to sow indoors
I usually put my heat pads away
in December after sowing heat-
loving plants such as snake beans
and okra and only bring them out
again in August, when I start sow-
ing the first of our heat-loving veg-
gies, such as chillies, capsicums
and eggplants. I’ll be bringing
them out soon as this year I really
want to try propagating bedding
begonias from seed for the first
time. May is the perfect time to do
it. Egmont Seeds stocks a fantas-
tic selection of bedding begonia
seeds in their Commercial Cata-
logue (you’ll need to ask for per-
mission to view it
online or request a
“Autumn is a busy time for
hard copy, as it isn’t
flower gardeners.
viewable on their
garden is still full of
website). According
colour and there is so
to the owner John
much that can be sown
McCullough, they
and planted now”
aren’t difficult to
raise from seed but
they do take some time. He recom-
mends sowing them in a punnet or
tray and covering lightly with ver-
miculite. John also advises to wa-
ter and cover with a plastic bag to
maintain humidity. Don’t forget to
keep an eye on them and move
them off your heat pad and into
your greenhouse when the seed-
lings are large enough. From
there, you can transplant them
into six-cell punnets when they
have grown a bit more. While this
may sound like a lot of work now,
it will pay off come spring when
your garden is a mass of colour.
These beauties don’t stop flower-
ing. I planted mine back then and
PAGE 3
they’re still flowering!
Bedding annuals to plant now
It’s too late to sow all your favour-
ite winter bedding annuals from
seed, but you can pop in some
plants. Pansies, violas and polyan-
thus can all be planted now.
Awapuni stock all of these in great
value bundles wrapped in newspa-
per that are conveniently delivered
direct to your door. Keep an eye
on their website as new varieties
become available.
Be creative. Bedding annuals can,
as the same suggests, be grown in
garden beds as a low-growing bor-
der infront of medium to high
plants. But they also look great in
containers and hanging baskets.
Spring bulbs
Autumn is the perfect time to
plant all your favourite spring
bulbs for a magnificent display of
flowers during the coldest months
of the year. You can’t beat anemo-
nes and ranunculus for value for
money and a long-lasting display
of colour. Noth-
ing quite says
spring like daffo-
The
dils. They are so
bright and cheer-
ful. I really look
forward to seeing
them in the gar-
den every spring.
I also recommend dutch iris. They
flower a bit later in the season and
make a magnificent cut flower. If
you live in a warmer climate, leave
planting tulips until May and give
them a cold spell in the fridge first.
I highly recommend ordering
spring bulbs through the mail or-
der company Bulbs Direct. They
have a fantastic selection, the
bulbs are of a very high quality
and they offer friendly and effi-
cient customer service.
Have a good weekend
Happy gardening!