Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 4, Issue 22 4 March 2022

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage

Blog Welcome to the twenty second issue Container garden

of my newsletter for Volume 4.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook Here is a snapshot of what is going on
around Anita’s Garden
Instagram
Our Tonda Bianca eggplants are com-
ing along very nicely. This variety is in
the Franchi Seeds range and is availa-
ble from Italian Seeds Pronto in NZ.

Twitter Nursery

Pinterest Unfortunately, I am not selling plants

Contact me
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(tips, recipes, gar-
den photos etc)
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mailing list
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
anymore, but I still propagate plants
from seed for our garden. A month
ago, I sowed quite a few seeds, includ-
ing the marvellous Kale Cavolo Ne-
ro in the Franchi Seeds range, which
was kindly given to me by Gillian
Hurley-Gordon of Italian Seeds Pron-
to. After a fortnight, I potted the
seedlings into a seed raising tray. As
you can see in the picture, they are
coming along nicely and I will plant
them into the garden soon.

Inside this issue:

Eggplant Tonda Bianca

P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 Social media

Anita’s Garden
I have a Facebook page called Anita’s
Garden and maintain an active Insta-
Garden gram account, too.
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week Last weekend, I planted bok choy, Collaborations
celery and giant asters.
I have the following collaborations:

 Italian Seeds Pronto

Collaboration news 2
 Awapuni

 Bulbs Direct
Bulbs Direct: Spring 3 If you are interested in collaborating
Bulbs Catalogue Part VI with me, please get in touch by email.

Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
This week, I want to give you a
glimpse of the seedlings in my
nursery from Italian Seeds Pronto,
which I propagated from seed.
These varieties are in the Franchi
heirloom seeds range.
Lettuce Degli Ortolani
This is a cut and come again varie-
ty. It does well in the ground and
in containers.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant jonquil bulbs
Now that it is autumn, you can
start planting spring bulbs. I al-
ways start with jonquils as they
are usually the first to flower.
2. Plant lettuce
You can plant lettuce seedlings in
containers or in the ground but try
to keep them in a shady place as
Collaboration news
Italian Seeds Pronto stock a great
range of lettuce seeds which can be
sown now. My personal favourite
is Degli Ortolani, which does well
both in the ground and in contain-
ers. If you’re after a mix, why not
try the Mesclun? There is Misti-
canza di Lattughe and Quattro
Stagioni. I have grown both in the
past successfully in round contain-
ers.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Spinach Merlo Nero
Spinach Matador
it’s still hot.
3. Plant asters
I just finished planting 16 trays of
king sized aster seedlings into a
garden bed. I hope they put on a
beautiful display in autumn.
4. Plant celery
Now is the perfect time to plant
celery seedlings. I spray mine
Bulbs Direct have just added some
superb hyacinth varieties to their
already great range. There are
some beautiful blue hyacinths in
addition to Royal Navy, Blue Jack-
et and Blue Star. The new varie-
ties are Delft Blue, Aqua and Blue
Pearl. There is also a pink variety
called Pink Pearl. There are a few
new tulips too, including the peony
variety Flashpoint.
V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 2 2
Other Franchi seeds from Italian
Seeds Pronto you can sow now:
 Broccoli
 Rocket
 Chicory
 Endive
 Radicchio
 Carrots
 Cauliflower
 Leek
 Spring onion
 Kohlrabi
 Fennel
with liquid copper to prevent rust.
5. Feed fruit trees
Now that autumn has commenced,
you can feed fruit trees. Remem-
ber that granular fertiliser is for
fruit trees planted in the ground
and slow release fertiliser (in pot-
tles) is for fruit trees in containers.
You can also liquid feed your fruit
trees with a seaweed tonic
(organic).
Awapuni have a great selection of
pansies in stock! Choose from
Black Crystal Clear, Blue Angel,
Dark Blue, Frilled, Frost Lemon,
Giant Mixed, Jolly Joker, Moody
Blues, Orange, Pink, Velvet Mixed,
White and Yellow.
Just a little note that Awapuni is
not able to courier to Auckland
and the North Shore right now.
 V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 2 2
Bulbs Direct: Spring Bulbs Catalogue Part VI
This is the sixth and final article
in a series about Bulbs Direct’s
new spring bulb catalogue. This
week, I am going to focus on anem-
ones, ranunculus and freesias.
They are all staples in our spring
bulb garden and put on a spectacu-
lar show every year.
Anemones and ranunculus are
great value for money. You get a
lot of corms and each one provides
you with many flowers, as opposed
to just a single stem like daffodils,
dutch iris and tulips.
Anemones
My all time favourite anemone is
the variety Blue Poppy. I abso-
lutely adore blue flowers. You can
get 20 corms for $7, 50 corms for
$15.50 or 100 corms for $26 from
Bulbs Direct.
Anemone Blue Poppy
Another favourite is the variety
The Bride. This is a pure white
anemone which looks fantastic
mixed in a vase with Blue Poppy
and freesias.
Anemone The Bride
PAGE 3
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
If you don’t want to get named va- My favourite variety is the double
rieties, you can get a mix. Bulbs flowering white freesia Vienna.
Direct have a mix of single flower-
ing anemones (De Caen) and dou-
ble flowering anemones (St Brig-
id). Bulbs Direct also have a range
of Blanda anemones, which are
shorter and daisy-like in appear-
ance. I have not yet grown these
but hope to in a future season.
Ranunculus
Bulbs Direct sell individual colours Freesia Vienna
or you can get a mix, which I pre-
fer as it has some of each of all of I also adore the yellow variety
the different varieties in the cata- Golden Wave, which you can see
logue. in a vase mixed with Vienna be-
low.
Freesia Vienna and Golden Wave
I highly recommend getting a mix-
ture if you’re unsure which named
varieties to get, or in addition to
getting the named varieties that
appeal to you so you don’t miss out
on something really nice. That’s
how we ended up with such a wide
Ranunculus Mix
range of freesias in our garden.
This year, I purchased one of the
individual varieties, Salmon, as
well.
Freesias
Bulbs Direct have both single and
double flowering freesias. You can
get named varieties or a mix and
they even have a mix of both single Mixed freesias
and double flowering
varieties. Freesias Tip
make an excellent “ A n e m o n e s a n d
ranunculus are great Soak anemone
cut flower and are
value for money. You get and ranunculus
highly fragrant.
a lot of corms and each corms b e f o re
They look great in
one provides you with planting them.
bouquets on their
own or mixed with many flowers, as opposed
Have a great
other shorter spring to just a single stem like
weekend
flowers, such as daffodils, dutch iris and
anemones. tulips” Happy garden-
ing!