Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 2, Issue 29 7 February 2020

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage
Welcome to the twenty ninth issue 3. Begonia plants
Blog
of my newsletter Anita’s Garden for $40. In 18 litre square pots. Flower-
Newsletter back issues 2019. ing now. Will flower in subsequent
I hope you have all had a good week. years. Simply beautiful
Facebook

Instagram Plant nursery

Twitter As you will be aware from the email I

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Pinterest
Contact me
 Feedback
 Newsletter input
(tips, recipes, gar-
den photos etc)
 To be added to my
mailing list
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
circulated last week, I have re-opened
my plant nursery! To make an ap-
pointment to visit the nursery, please
text me on 021 02762091 (please don’t
call as I’m often in the garden and
can’t pick up). Please don’t just drop 4. Chilli Fire and Ice plants
by as I may be with another customer
or away from home. $15. In 9 litre square pots. Fruiting
prolifically.
If you live outside the Auckland re-
gion, I can ship plants on the over-
night courier (cost additional). I have
done this for customers in the past
and they arrived in perfect condition.
For a complete stock list and reviews,
see my Facebook page.
Plants for sale

Inside this issue:
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 
Anita’s Garden
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week
Tips for growing pansies 2
and violas
How to grow cauliflower 3 $5 each
1. Veggie seedlings
3 punnets for $10 or $3.50 each
5. Seeds
 Beetroot (round)
 Asian loki gourd seeds $20. 20g
Cabbage (Ranfurly Mini)
packet (approx 70 seeds). Big
 Lettuce (Lollo Bionda cut-and- packet, not a regular size packet
come again)  Holy basil (sacred basil or
 Broccoli (Romanesco) Tulsi). $15. 10g packet. Big
packet, not a regular packet
 Spring onions
6. Spring bulbs
 Leeks
Mixed bags of 5 bulbs for $7. Contains
2. Okra plants x1 jonquil, x1 daffodil, x1 tulip, x1
freesia and x1 dutch iris
Have a good weekend.
Tall, healthy and strong. Red and
green Anita Kundu
PAGE 2 A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 2 9

Pottering around Anita’s Garden

Avocado tree “Cleopatra”
I’m excited to announce that our
dwarf avocado tree “Cleopatra”
from Incredible Edibles has fruit
on it! The tree is two years old.
with fruit from our dwarf Honey
Babe peach tree! Here is a basket
containing just some of the fruit
we picked off the tree.

Okra

This year, our okra plants look

Lilies their healthiest!

In last week’s newsletter, I men-

Honey Babe peach tree
This year, we were inundated
tioned that our lilies have been
stunning this season. Here is a
picture of a patio oriental lily
called Romance, which I purchased
from NZ Bulbs

Top 5 gardening tasks for the week

1. Sow, sow, sow!
Now is the time to start sowing
your autumn and winter garden.
You can sow broccoli, cabbages,
cauliflower, beetroot, fennel, kale,
spinach, silverbeet and lettuce now
2. Harvest parsnips
Parsnips sown back in spring
should be ready for harvesting
now. You can harvest them as you
need them or dig up the lot if you So that it’s not a huge task at the
need the space to plant other veg- end of summer, slowly start tidy-
gies ing up the summer garden. Pull
out any sunflowers that have fin-
3. Spray roses ished blooming
To beat fungal diseases like black 5. Sow pansies and violas
spot, continue to spray roses regu-
larly Now is the perfect time to sow
pansies and violas from seed. See
4. Start tidying up the sum- below for some of my growing tips
mer garden

Tips for growing pansies and violas

The very kind John McCullough
from Egmont Seeds recently gave
me a variety of pansies and violas
to sow and grow in my garden.
Here are some tips for growing
pansies and violas from seed.
 You can start pansies and
violas from seed in spring
and autumn. Before sowing
though, always check on
the back of the packet first
 At this time of the year, you
can simply scatter seeds in a
punnet filled with seed rais-
ing mix and leave it outside.
 Don’t forget to water them!
 Prick plants out only when
they have developed at least
three leaves and pot them
up into 6-cell punnets
 Once plants are big enough,
you can carefully plant them
outside. Pansies and violas
look great in containers or
in the ground as a border
 Water your plants regularly
 Liquid feed plants regularly
for bright blooms
 V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 2 9
How to grow cauliflower
Cauliflower is a staple in our win-
ter garden. It needs a bit longer to
grow than broccoli, so make sure
you get your plants in by early au-
tumn. It is easy to grow and the
taste of homegrown cauliflower is
nothing like that purchased in
stores. Cauliflower can be used in
many different ways, which are
covered below.
Growing cauliflower from seed
Cauliflower is very easy to grow
from seed and I normally start
plants this way, unless I have been
unwell in late summer as I was
these past few years, or I other-
wise run out of time. If you are a
new gardener, you may also want
to start from plants rather than
seed. Awapuni stock a really good
range of winter vegetable seed-
lings, including cauliflower
If you want to try raising cauli-
flower from seed, here is some ad-
vice. Simply sprinkle some seeds
in a punnet filled with some seed
raising mix and cover lightly. I
like to use Gardn Gro’s seed rais-
ing mix as it is fine and they de-
liver direct to your door, which is
convenient. Water regularly, as
plants tend to dry out easily in the
heat of February. When seedlings
have at least three leaves and are
large enough, prick them out of the
punnet and pot them up individu-
ally into 6-cell punnets. If I have
lots of seedlings, I sometimes plant
them into a seedling tray. At this
stage it’s fine to use potting mix.
Varieties of cauliflower
Egmont Seeds offer a broad range
of cauliflower— All Year Round,
Candid Charm, Clapton F1, In-
cline F1, Italian Violet, Majestic
Mini and Romanesco. Franchi
Seeds (distributed by Italian Seeds
Pronto in NZ) offer four varieties—
Romanesco, Di Jessi, Sicilia Vio-
letto and Verde Di Macerata. I have
grown all of Franchi’s varieties suc-
cessfully in the past.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Tips for growing cauliflower
 Only start cauliflower from
seed at a time when you can
foreseeably see space becom-
ing available in the garden
to plant it. They do need
more time to grow than
broccoli or cabbages, so
planting by early autumn is
best.
2. Cauliflower seeds are very
small so scatter seeds spar-
ingly
3. Prior to planting seedlings, I
like to add some compost,
sheep pellets and fertiliser
to the ground. Normally I
don’t dig it in, just scatter it
on top of the ground.
4. Make sure you leave enough
space between plants to
grow. I leave at least 30 cm
between plants.
5. Stagger your plantings
every fortnight so you have
a continuous supply of broc-
coli
6. At this time
of the year, “It needs a bit longer to
the white grow than broccoli, so
butterfly can make sure you get your
be a pest so plants in by early autumn”
cover seed-
lings with
netting or sprinkle some
derris dust over your plants
to protect them.
7. You might also want to
sprinkle some snail pellets
around plants, although
snails and slugs are not usu-
ally a problem at this time
of the year.
8. Liquid feed plants weekly
with a soluble plant food or
tonic such as Seasol
9. Keep an eye on cauliflower
and harvest as soon as it is
ready (see photo)
PAGE 3
Ways to eat cauliflower
Here are some ways that cauli-
flower can be enjoyed.
 Steamed, sautéed, fried or
boiled
 Stir-fried
 Cauliflower cheese
 Battered and fried, into cau-
liflower bites
 Roasted and eaten as
“cauliflower steaks’ (great
for vegetarians and vegans!)
 In a vegetable bake or
gratin with other winter
veggies
 In curries
 In pakora
 With pasta
 Paleo “Cauliflower
pizza” (using ground cauli-
flower as a base rather than
wheat)
 In casse-
roles
 Soup
 Ve ge t ab l e
pasties
 Tarts
 Quiches
 Salads
 Macaroni cheese
 Fritters
 Pilaf
 Tempura
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!