Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 4, Issue 1 23 July 2021

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage

Blog Welcome to the first issue of my

newsletter for Volume 4. Since I have
Newsletter back issues written 52 issues (one newsletter per
Facebook week) in volume 3, I thought I would
start a fresh volume.
Instagram
We have been seeing a lot of wet
Twitter weather lately. Over the weekend,
there was a storm in Auckland, which
Linkedin caused some damage to the garden
(see page 2). I hope that the damage
Pinterest
wasn’t too severe at your place. Still,
we must pick ourselves up and carry
on, which I have tried to do. Some-
Contact me thing which has brought us a lot of
cheer at a particularly bleak time of
 Feedback the year is the sight of our hyacinths,
which have started flowering. I The hyacinth Yellowstone
 Newsletter input bought my bulbs from Bulbs Direct,
(tips, recipes, gar- who kindly pre-chilled them for me Some tips for growing hyacinths
den photos etc) prior to dispatching them in late May.  Hyacinths look great in contain-
 To be added to my Whether your bulbs need chilling pri-
ers
mailing list or to planting depends on where you
live. In Auckland, our winters are  If planting bulbs in containers,
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com relatively mild so it is necessary to make sure you use a high quality
pre-chill bulbs otherwise they won’t container mix rather than garden
flower well. Other bulbs that benefit soil
from chilling are tulips, anemones
Inside this issue: and ranunculus.  For maximum impact, position
bulbs close together

 Bulbs generally don’t flower well

P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 in subsequent years so replace
Anita’s Garden with new ones next season

Have a great weekend.

Top 5 gardening tasks 2 Useful links
for the week
 Italian Seeds Pronto
Collaboration news 2  Awapuni

 Bulbs Direct

Gardening tasks to do in 3 Kind regards,

winter
Anita Kundu
The hyacinth Fondant
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Over the weekend, there was a
really bad storm in Auckland. On
Saturday afternoon, mum excited-
ly called me to the living room.
Thinking our cat had done some-
thing funny, I was dismayed to
look out the window and see that a
massive branch with a bunch of
bananas had snapped off the tree
and landed in our strawberry
patch.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Weeding
Keep on top of those weeds so they
don’t get on top of you!
2. Disinfect old pots and
punnets
This is a great task to do on a
rainy day. I always use a little
detergent and bleach mixed with
warm water.
Collaboration news
If you’re itching to start sowing
seeds, Italian Seeds Pronto stock a
wonderful variety of lettuce that
can be sown from August onwards.
It is called Degli Ortolani and is a
cos-type lettuce. It grows well in
both the ground and in containers.
We treat it as a cut-and-come
again variety and harvest the
leaves as we need them, leaving
the rest to continue growing.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
I just felt I couldn’t cope with this
problem. The next morning, after
I returned from the gym, I put on
my gardening clothes and assessed
the situation (by then the weather
was calm). I decided that the
branch could be sawed off at the
base of the tree. I also sawed the
bunch of bananas off the tree and
left them in our patio to ripen.
3. Spray roses and fruit
trees with lime sulphur
This really helps to prevent fungal
diseases such as black spot and
brown rot in summer.
4. Spray garlic
I’m still trying to find a spray that
helps to prevent rust.
5. Order summer bulbs and
Bulbs Direct have a lovely selec-
tion of begonias available. Begon-
ias are a firm favourite in the sum-
mer garden. I’ve worked out that
they grow best in containers and
need a somewhat sheltered posi-
tion. I keep the pots in our patio,
which is enclosed by our house and
a 6 foot fence, so it doesn’t get a lot
of wind. The tubers will re-flower
in subsequent years.
V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 1
The hardest part was dragging the
branch out of the strawberry
patch. It was so heavy! I man-
aged to put it where the rest of our
garden waste is infront of our sec-
tion. In all, I was pleased with my
efforts. I really didn’t think I was
strong enough to cope with this
problem and surprised myself!
seeds.
Many companies are open for or-
ders. Bulbs Direct still have some
much-loved dahlias available on
their website but be quick! They
will sell out super fast.
Italian Seeds Pronto also has a
wonderful range of heirloom seeds
on their website. Hold off on sow-
ing for a bit though, until it’s
warmer.
Awapuni have another great pro-
motion for you this week. Grab a
regular bundle of garlic for just $4.
Each bundle contains four plants.
I was kindly given four bundles
myself and they are growing really
well in our garden.
This offer is only valid online until
26 July 2021 or while stocks last.
 V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 1
Gardening tasks to do in winter
In last week’s column, I wrote
about what to plant in the winter
garden. I covered strawberries,
garlic, onions and potatoes. This
week, I thought it may be useful to
cover some of the tasks that need
doing over the cooler months.
Protecting frost tender plants
Even if you live in a climate with
mild winters, some plants still
need protecting from occasional
frosts. Examples include tamaril-
los and passionfruit (especially
when plants are young). The prob-
lem with material frost cloth is
that it can stick to the leaves of the
plant. What I have found very ef-
fective over the years is a product
called Vaporgard. It is a liquid
frost cloth. When sprayed onto the
leaves and stem of a plant, it pro-
vides a protective coating that
lasts for up to three months.
Vaporgard can be purchased from
Wally’s online store.
Spraying roses and deciduous
fruit trees with lime sulphur
During the winter months, when
our roses and deciduous fruit trees
have lost most of their leaves, I
like to give them a good spray with
lime sulphur. I reapply it every 10
-14 days. This helps prevent fun-
gal diseases such as black spot and
brown rot in summer. In spring, I
follow this with spraying with liq-
uid copper, until about October
when it becomes warmer and there
is a risk that it will burn the
leaves.
Spraying garlic
This never used to be necessary
prior to the problem of rust. I
have yet to find an effective solu-
tion. This year, I am trialing two
products from Wally– Silicon plus
Boron Soil Drench and Cell
Strengthening and Super Spreader
combined. I will report back on
the success of these products dur-
ing the growing season.
Disinfecting plastic punnets
PAGE 3
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
and pots time to time. Most people store
them in containers filled with
Before you start sowing seeds in some sawdust or potting mix. To
spring, it’s a good idea to disinfect prevent the tubers from shrivelling
old punnets and pots with a solu- up and drying out, it’s a good idea
tion of water, some detergent and to keep them moist by occasionally
bleach. This kills any germs that spraying them with water. Every
may lead to problems later on. couple of weeks, I like to inspect
This is a great task to do on rainy underneath the tubers for any
days. signs of crown gall, which is a ma-
jor problem with growing dahlias.
Recycling old plant labels
I don’t have a picture to show you
If you use plastic plant labels as we very fortunately haven’t had
around the garden, you’ll find that this problem yet, but gall resem-
you’re able to re-use them. I wipe bles cauliflower-like growth on the
the writing on ours off with a rag tubers.
and a bit of jiff (some household
Stock the storage shed
cleaner).
While things are quieter around
Planning the summer garden
the garden, you may want to ex-
Before you get carried away with amine your garden supplies and
placing seed orders, it’s a good idea see if you need to top up on any-
to plan your summer garden so thing before spring. Every garden-
you have an idea of how much er has their favourite fertilisers,
space you have and what you want seed raising mixtures and other
to grow. Doing this means that products. The latest thing I
you won’t waste money buying bought was a product called Pot
things you simply don’t have room Recharger from Kings Plant Barn
to grow. My seed list was actually when they recently had a sale.
quite short this year as I intend to This is a wonderful product which
devote one garden bed to growing enables you to re-use old potting
dahlias in, most of which have mix. I tried it for the first time in
been pre-ordered from a couple of autumn when I re-used the potting
specialist nurseries. Even if you mixture in our troughs which pre-
don’t know the exact order you will viously had marigolds in them to
place your plants, plant pansies for
don’t worry. This will “Before you get winter. As the
depend on what ar- carried away with troughs were quite
rives (which can placing seed orders, large, I added four
sometimes be differ- it’s a good idea to scoopfuls of Pot Re-
ent to what you origi- plan your summer charger and mixed it
nally ordered) and garden so you have an into the soil. I can
what germinates and idea of how much report that our pan-
survives. It’s good to space you have and sies have flowered
just have an idea of what you want to beautifully, no differ-
what will go in each grow” ent to if I had used
bed. This also makes fresh potting mix-
it easier to draw up a crop rotation ture. Obviously at
plan later on. some point I will have to replace it
with fresh potting mix but this
Check on dahlia tubers product will help me to get at least
a couple more seasons out of the
If you lifted your dahlias potting mixture I have bought.
(something which I think is a good
idea or they may rot in the ground Have a great weekend!
if it gets very wet) and stored them
indoors, keep an eye on them from Happy gardening