Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 4, Issue 5
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Blog Welcome to the fifth issue of my
newsletter for Volume 4. I hope you
Newsletter back issues have all had a good week.
Facebook It has indeed been a very busy week
in the garden. After the drought and
Instagram
watering restrictions of last year, I
Twitter feel incredibly grateful for all the rain
we have been having. The garden is
Pinterest looking incredibly lush and it is nice
not have the chore of watering the
garden. The only downside is that
Contact me
weeds grow much more rapidly. I do
 Feedback my best to try and keep on top of
them but it is a never-ending battle.
 Newsletter input
(tips, recipes, gar- It has been so wet that I have been
den photos etc) deferring lifting our Summer Delight
potatoes. The tops have died down,
 To be added to my which is a sign that they are ready. I
mailing list read somewhere that potatoes don’t
store very well if it has been raining
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com prior to harvesting them so I’m going
to wait until there is a long, dry spell.
While it has been raining so much I
Inside this issue: have also deferred liquid feeding and
spraying.
Still, there has been plenty to press
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 on with. I planted the first of our to-
Anita’s Garden matoes in some hanging baskets over
the weekend (see picture on page
two). I also planted some lettuce in a
couple of containers, including the
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 wonderful variety Degli Ortolani from
for the week
Italian Seeds Pronto, which is in the
Franchi Seeds range. I also potted up
some kumara slips. Back in May, I
placed about a dozen red kumara in a
Collaboration news 2
crate filled with some dirt, which I left
in our greenhouse. I closed the crate
with a lid to retain warmth. Once
spring began, they came to life and
Tips for growing sunflow- 3 some of the shoots started getting
ers long enough to pick off and pot up.
The idea is for them to develop roots
before being planted in the garden.
There is a lot on the agenda. I’m
5 November 2021
growing many herbs from seed this
year, including the Italian parsley vari-
ety Gigante di Napoli, also from Italian
Seeds Pronto and in the Franchi Seeds
range. I also sowed curly parsley and
chives. These seedlings are currently in
10cm pots in our nursery. I will plant
them in troughs in our herb garden at
the back of the house. These all grow
very well in the ground but I have
found that they also do incredibly well
in containers. I haven’t sown basil yet
as I’m waiting for it to be a bit warmer.
This year I am growing two varieties
from Italian Seeds Pronto, Bolloso Na-
poletano and Italiano Classico, which
are both in the Franchi Seeds range.
I also need to start planting out toma-
toes, zucchini and cucumber. I didn’t
want to rush to do this over Labour
Weekend as I feel we have had a slow
start to spring after one of the coldest
winters I can remember. I am growing
all four tomatoes offered by Italian
Seeds Pronto this year, Red Pear, Cuor
di Bue, Principe Borghese and
Costoluto Fiorentino. I am also grow-
ing three zucchini varieties in the Fran-
chi Seeds range again, Striato d’Italia,
Fiorentino and Romanesco, as well as
the cucumber Beth Alpha. All of these
can be obtained from Italian Seeds
Pronto. My eggplant seedlings are
quite small so I will discuss them later.
Have a great weekend.
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Our Garden Affair lilies and a
very late flowering daffodil. Our
flowers have provided us with so
much cheer during lockdown.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow beans
You can sow beans direct to where
you want to grow them. I person-
ally raise climbing beans in pun-
nets first as I find they tend to rot
in the ground or get scratched up
by birds. But I find I have success
in sowing dwarf beans direct to the
ground.
2. Plant corn
Collaboration news
Italian Seeds Pronto have four
wonderful tomato varieties availa-
ble this season—Red Pear,
Costoluto Fiorentino, Cuor di Bue
of Liguria and Principe Borghese.
I am growing all of them and look
forward to sharing their progress
over the summer. Note that these
varieties are heirloom and have
been around for generations. They
are renowned for their flavour.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
I planted some tomatoes in hang-
ing baskets. This variety is called
Topsy Tom and was grown from
seed. If you live in New Zealand,
you can get the seeds from Egmont
Seeds. For other countries, please
check for your local retailer. To-
matoes grow well in containers
and hanging baskets. Look for
cherry-type tomatoes and the kind
that are suitable for container gar-
dening.
You can plant corn seedlings now
or sow seeds direct to where you
want them to grow. Remember
that corn is pollinated by the wind,
so sow in blocks rather than in
rows.
3. Plant tomatoes, zucchini
and cucumbers
These can all be planted out now.
4. Liquid feed plants
Bulbs Direct still have Pacific
Challenge asparagus crowns on
sale. Grab 5 crowns for $6.50 or
10 crowns for $10.50. They pro-
duce medium to large (17-23cm)
spears with purple bracts. Once
established, the asparagus bed
should last for 10-15 years. Start-
ing with established crowns means
that you will only have to wait two
years before you can harvest them.
V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 5
Our dianthus has finally flowered!
I planted some seedlings in two
containers in our patio back in
April and they took ages to flower
but it was worth it! Every year I
like to have a container or two of
dianthus as it brings so much
cheer to the garden once our pan-
sies have finished flowering. It
makes a great bedding plant and
can be grown in containers too.
If I can I like to do this weekly in
spring when growth is active. I
recommend using a seaweed tonic
such as Seasol or a water soluble
plant food such as Thrive.
5. Spray garlic
If you’re growing garlic don’t forget
to continue to spray it to protect it
from rust. Ours did develop some
but I have been cutting off the af-
fected leaves.
Awapuni has a great special on
salad vege bundle options this
week.
Grab any regular bundle of lettuce
(9 seedlings), spring onions (20
seedlings) and spinach (9 seed-
lings) for just $4.
Deal ends 8/11/21 or while stocks
last. Available online only!
 V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 5
Tips for growing sunflowers
Sunflowers are one of my favourite
summer flowers to grow and they
feature prominently in the garden
every year. This year I have had a
bit of trouble getting them started
so I thought I would share my ex-
perience and some tips for growing
them successfully.
Last year was very dry. It hardly
rained in spring. Infact, the coun-
cil imposed watering restrictions
in Auckland. When I sowed seeds
in spring, I simply left them to it.
I didn’t even think to protect
young seedlings from slugs and
snails as it wasn’t an issue. By
contrast, this year has been very
wet and we have seen a lot of rain
in spring. The first lot of seeds
that I sowed around the third
week of September got decimated
because I forgot to protect them
from slugs and snails. The second
time round I was a bit wiser. I
sprinkled snail pellets over the
area. Every morning I check on my
patch and remove them by hand.
I’m pleased to say they are doing
well (so far). If you haven’t al-
ready sown sunflowers now is the
perfect time to do it. This year I’m
focusing on growing the type that
are bred for the cut flower market
rather than giant ones. Most can
be obtained from the Egmont
Seeds Commercial Catalogue,
which you have to request.
They’re not cheap but the seeds
come in big packets so they should
last a few seasons. I find that they
are perfect for putting in a vase.
The only downside (apart from the
cost) is that they are pollenless so
if you want to attract bees, make
sure you plant some giant ones too.
We have a lot of other bee-
attracting plants in the garden
which is why I didn’t bother with
sowing giant sunflowers this year.
Tips for growing sunflowers
 Sunflowers do best when
sown direct to the ground
rather than raised in pun-
nets, as they resent being
transplanted
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
 Like all plants, sunflowers
 Stake giant sunflowers to
Vincent’s Choice (Egmont Seeds
 You’ll probably find that
Commercial Catalogue)
 It is possible to start sowing
sunflowers in September.
Beware that not all varieties
are suitable for sowing this
early in spring. One excep-
tion is the variety Vincent’s
 Depending on what varieties
Choice, which I grew last
year (see picture above). It
is available from the Eg-
mont Seeds Commercial
Catalogue
 I find that sunflowers actu-
ally do best in poor soil and
that adding compost can be
more harmful than good, so
I don’t do a lot of soil prepa-
ration. I like to mix a little
general purpose fertiliser
into the soil
and dig it over
“”I find that
prior to sowing
sunflowers
seeds actually do best
in poor soil and
 Dwarf a nd
that adding
medium sized
compost can be
sunflowers
more harmful
(including
than good”
those bred for
the cut flower
market like the ones I’m
growing) can be sown closer
together. Space giant sun-
flowers further apart
 Once seedlings emerge I
highly recommend protect-
ing them from slugs and
snails. You can use snail
pellets or make beer traps to
catch them.
PAGE 3
benefit from weekly liquid
feeding. I recommend using
a seaweed tonic such as Sea-
sol or a water based soluble
plant food such as Thrive
protect them from being
damaged by the wind. You
might want to insert a few
stakes at the time of plant-
ing to avoid damaging the
roots later on.
some varieties have a better
vase life than others. The
best is called Sunbright Su-
preme from the Egmont
Seeds Commercial Cata-
logue
you sow, you might want to
save seeds from your plants
for next year. Because the
varieties that are bred for
the cut flower market are
hybrids and won’t necessari-
ly come true to type, I don’t
bother saving seeds. But if
you are growing heirloom
varieties, this is worth do-
ing, especially as the process
of importing seeds has be-
come more difficult during
Covid and supplies are not
guaranteed anymore.
 The time to flower-
ing depends on the varie-
ties that you are growing.
Dwarf varieties can flower
as soon as 60 days. The
cut flower varieties I grow
take between 60-90 days.
I find giant sunflowers take
around 90 days to flower.
One of the advantages to
sowing early is that they
flower earlier, leaving
enough time in the season
for me to plant zinnias after,
which are more an autumn
rather than summer flower-
ing annual in NZ.
Happy Gardening!