Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 52 16 July 2021

Useful Links Editorial

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Blog Welcome to the fifty second issue of
my newsletter for Volume 3. This
Newsletter back issues week’s issue is a bit special as it
marks the second anniversary of
Facebook
Anita’s Garden. I have now been
Instagram writing my weekly gardening newslet-
ter for two years! Those of you who
Twitter
began reading my newsletter since its
inception will have noticed that the
Linkedin
biggest change is the template, which
Pinterest evolved from a Microsoft Word docu-
ment to Publisher in that time. The
reason behind the change was be-
cause I was continually asked to pro-
Contact me vide a format which was more smart-
phone friendly. Since switching to
 Feedback
Publisher, I haven’t looked back.
 Newsletter input Long-time readers will have also no-
(tips, recipes, gar- ticed how the column at the bottom of
den photos etc) page 2 has evolved into a space for me
to share news from the brands which
 To be added to my I collaborate with, which are listed in
mailing list the links in the next column. What
hasn’t changed is my commitment to
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com offering free, helpful gardening ad-
vice, ideas and inspiration.
 Washing plastic punnets with a
solution of bleach, washing deter-
gent and warm water. This helps
disinfect them to prevent the
build up of diseases
 Spraying my dahlia tubers with
water every second day to keep
them alive and stop them from
drying out. If this happens, they
won’t develop shoots in spring
Tasks that remain include:
 Weeding. The biggest problem
for me at the moment is that it’s
so freezing cold outside, even
with multiple layers on, includ-
ing thermals on top and the bot-
tom. It’s also often quite windy,
contributing to the cold.
 Spraying the roses and fruit trees
with lime sulphur. I’m waiting
for a fine day with no wind which
are the preferable conditions. I
may be in for a long wait!

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to  Planting rhubarb seedlings I

new members of our community. raised from seed. It took me a
Inside this issue:
very long time to pot them all up.
What have you been up to in the gar- Now I just have to find place for
den over the past week? I have done them all!
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 the following tasks:
Anita’s Garden  Rubbing the writing off my plant
 Spraying my garlic for rust. I labels so they can be re-used.
have been using Wally’s Cell
Strengthening and Super Have a great weekend.
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week Spreader. I am not sure if this
Useful links
product will work though, so
bear that in mind if you decide  Italian Seeds Pronto
Collaboration news 2 to try it, too. I will be reporting
back on the success of this  Awapuni
spray.
 Bulbs Direct
Winter gardening with 3  Potting up my polyanthus
Awapuni plants into round bowls. Poly- Kind regards,
anthus are one of my favourite
Anita Kundu
winter annuals.
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Over the weekend, I potted up our
polyanthus seedlings into some
round containers. I purchased
these as very small seedlings and
potted them into 10cm pots when
they grew a bit. Awapuni stock
polyanthus seedlings in bundles.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Disinfect old punnets
and pots
Cold, rainy days are perfect to do
this to eliminate diseases when
you sow seeds in them next season.
2. Recycle old plant labels
Another task that’s great to do at
this time of the year is to wipe the
writing on old plastic plant labels
Collaboration news
Gillian Hurley-Gordon, the owner
of Italian Seeds Pronto, has recent-
ly done a road trip of Vetro stores
in New Zealand, who stock Fran-
chi Seeds from Italian Seeds Pron-
to’s range. Vetro are retailers and
wholesalers of quality ingredients
sourced from the Mediterranean
and Europe. Stores are in Napier,
New Plymouth, Rotorua, Gisborne,
Tauranga and Hamilton.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
On a rainy day, I packaged up all
our superhot chilli seeds I saved
from our plants this summer and
labelled them, before filing them
away safely with the rest of our
seeds. We had a very successful
season for growing chillies this
year and managed to freeze the
surplus. The problem with the
seeds I have saved is that they
may have cross-pollinated so they
are not sure to come true to type.
off so you can re-use them. I use a
bit of Jiff to do this.
3. Check on stored dahlias
If like me you lifted your dahlias
at the end of autumn, you may
want to inspect them from time to
time to check for the killer disease
crown gall. If any tubers are in-
fected, get rid of them immediate-
ly.
Bulbs Direct have some beautiful
gladioli varieties available in their
summer catalogue online. There
are old favourites such as Nori, a
beautiful purple variety which I
grew last year and Nova Lux, a
cheerful yellow variety. Kayne
and his team have also added
some stunning new varieties, in-
cluding Speed Date, Buggy and
Kitty.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 5 2
Thank you very much to Gillian
from Italian Seeds Pronto for kind-
ly sending me this selection of
Franchi seeds to grow in the gar-
den this season. As many of you
will be aware, I am proud to be a
brand ambassador for Italian
Seeds Pronto, who stock a wide
range of heirloom seeds, including
the renowned Franchi Italian heir-
loom seeds range.
4. Plant polyanthus
They look great as bedding plants
or can be planted in containers.
5. Plant strawberries
If you haven’t already got them in
the ground, it’s not too late.
Awapuni stock the two varieties
Camarosa and Ventana. They
come in regular and great value
mega bundles.
Awapuni have another great pro-
motion for you this week. Spend
$55 (excluding shipping cost) and
receive a free Leaf and Grass Col-
lector, worth $12!
This offer ends on 19 July 2021 or
while stocks last. The Collector
will automatically be added.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 5 2
Winter gardening with Awapuni
If you haven’t quite managed to
get your winter garden sorted,
don’t fret. There’s still plenty of
time to plant strawberries, garlic,
onions and potatoes (in frost-free
zones). The mail order company
Awapuni stock everything you
need for your winter garden and
deliver direct to your door, which
is really convenient for the busy
gardener who would rather be
spending time outdoors than run-
ning around to different garden
centres to locate what they need.
This week, I’ll be taking you
through each of these with my top
tips for planting them.
Strawberries
No summer garden is complete
without strawberries! It’s a good
idea to plant them over the cooler
months so the roots have time to
get established. This will also
mean earlier cropping. Prior to
planting, make sure you work lots
of compost into the soil. I like to
use sheep pellets too but they have
become very expensive lately so if
you can’t afford them, don’t worry.
Slow release or granular fertiliser
formulated for strawberries is also
a good idea and can be added to
each hole prior to planting your
seedlings. I recommend mulching
your strawberries once they are
planted to retain moisture, add
nutrients to the soil and keep
weeds down. I used pea straw on
our patch. As soon as you see ber-
ries start to develop, you might
want to cover the patch with bird
netting to prevent your berries
from being eaten before you can
get to them! My key advice on
growing strawberries successfully
is that they need a lot of water as
it gets warmer and rain becomes
infrequent. This makes sense as
berries do contain quite a bit of
water. You will also get a much
better crop if you liquid feed your
strawberry patch weekly with a
water soluble plant food formulat-
ed for strawberries or fruiting
plants (I used one for tomatoes on
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
mine last year and still got really
good results).
Garlic
What used to be one of the easiest
things to grow in the garden has
become perhaps the most difficult
thanks to an incredibly vicious
strain of rust. This will be your
biggest challenge to growing garlic
successfully. Unfortunately, I
don’t know of a way to control rust
successfully. There are many
sprays on the market but I have
yet to come across one that actual-
ly works. The two that I am trial-
ing this year are actually formulat-
ed to prevent TPP but have also
been found to be successful in pre-
venting rust. As the season pro-
gresses, I will be following up on
the success of these products. For
those who are interested, they are
called Wally’s Silicon and Boron
Soil Drench and Cell Strengthen-
ing and Super Spreader. They are
both available here.
What some growers recommend
doing is planting your garlic early
so it gets a head start and does
most of its growing before rust be-
comes a problem in spring. I man-
aged to do this successfully this
year as for the first time I started
with plants, rather
than cloves.
Awapuni still have “If you haven’t quite
them in stock but be managed to get your
quick! winter garden sorted,
don’t fret. There’s still
Garlic is a gross feed- plenty of time to plant
er so make sure you strawberries, garlic,
mix in lots of com- onions and potatoes
post prior to plant- (in frost-free zones)”
ing. Since garlic is a
bulb, I also add a
little bulb fertiliser in each hole
prior to planting. As with straw-
berries, I also recommend mulch-
ing your garlic after planting it. I
used pea straw on ours.
Onions
Some people have asked me why I
bother growing onions when they
are so cheap to buy. Unless you
PAGE 3
have actually grown fresh onions
before, you won’t appreciate how
good they taste. As with garlic,
onions are a gross feeder so will
appreciate lots of compost being
added to the soil prior to planting.
I also mix in a little bulb fertiliser.
Onions do well in a sunny site. I
prefer not to mulch the seedlings
as the mulch coming into contact
with the bulbs as they form can
cause them to rot (at least from
what I’ve read). Onions should be
ready to be harvested in January
or February. You’ll be able to see
the bulbs forming and will know
when it’s time to dig them up.
Store in netted bags to allow the
air to circulate.
Potatoes (in frost-free zones)
Some of us are lucky to be able to
plant potatoes on the shortest day.
Others may have to wait until
spring when there is no chance of
frosts. Potatoes need full sun in
order to do well. Mix in lots of
compost, sheep pellets and fertilis-
er into the ground prior to plant-
ing. I recommend using a fertiliser
specially formulated for potatoes.
Dig trenches for planting your po-
tatoes in and cover each potato
carefully, so you avoid damaging
the shoots. As your plants grow,
mound the soil
around them to pre-
vent any potatoes
which form from be-
ing exposed to the
light. If this hap-
pens, the potatoes
will turn green and
become toxic. To
know when your po-
tatoes will have ma-
tured, check the packet they came
in. Early varieties tend to mature
more quickly than main crop varie-
ties, but don’t store as well be-
cause the skin is waxy and soft.
The advantage to getting your po-
tatoes in now (if you can, and this
will depend on where you live) is
that you can use the space to plant
summer crops in October and No-
vember, when your potatoes will
have been harvested.