Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 2, Issue 30
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Welcome to the thirtieth issue of my
Blog
newsletter Anita’s Garden for 2019.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook
Plant nursery
Instagram
As you will be aware from last week’s
Twitter newsletter, I have re-opened my plant
nursery and am selling a range of
Linkedin plants. Click here to see my stocklist.
Pinterest Autumn and winter gardening
As you will have noticed in previous
newsletters, I am firmly focussed on
Contact me
the next season which lies ahead—
autumn, followed by winter. If you
 Feedback
wish to grow a winter garden from
seed, now is the time to start sowing,
 Newsletter input
(tips, recipes, gar- so your plants can grow during March
den photos etc) and will be ready for planting out in
April. I always like to try and plant
 To be added to my my seedlings out by April at the latest
mailing list because it is warm enough for them to
go into the ground without a cloche or
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
any protection, and it gives them time
to get established before the cooler
weather sets in during May, including
potential frosts. Some gardeners shy
Inside this issue: away from growing a winter garden
because they can’t be bothered. There
are a few reasons behind this:
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2  Gardening in winter isn’t as
Anita’s Garden pleasant as being outdoors in
summer. It’s colder and less
sunny
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week
 The days are shorter, making it
harder to get outdoors during
the week after work, unlike in
Tips for growing fennel 2 veggies can be expensive to buy in
summer
 It’s hard to get excited about
growing different varieties of
How to grow cabbage 3 column. For contributions, email me at
cabbage, cauliflower and broc-
coli, unlike summer veggies
such as tomatoes and eggplants
which are all appealing
14 February 2020
 Winter veggies are not normally
seen as delicious as summer
veggies. Some winter greens
such as silverbeet and endive
are bitter, and therefore seen as
less delicious to eat
 Winter veggies tend to take up
more space than summer fruit-
ing veggies and some only pro-
duce once. For example, cab-
bages, broccoli and cauliflower
form one head and need a wide
berth in order to form properly
 A lot of people think winter veg-
gies are cheap enough to buy,
provided that you purchase veg-
gies which are in season
While all these reasons and points are
valid, I actually find being outdoors in
winter more beneficial than in sum-
mer. It’s important to get Vitamin D,
especially in winter, and being out-
doors even on grey days can help beat
the winter blues. Many New Zealand-
ers, including myself, suffer from de-
pression and I find gardening helps me
tremendously. Don’t forget about
planting some flowers. Spring bulbs
such as daffodils are bright and
cheery, and will surely lift your mood
in winter.
Another valid reason to have a garden
is to help reduce your grocery bills. By
planting even just a small patch with
some staples such as kale, spinach and
silverbeet which you can harvest as
you need, you will save money as these
bunches.
I hope you have enjoyed this week’s
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Melons
I’m pleased to announce that we
have both watermelons and rock-
melons growing on our vines. The
fruit comes from plants purchased
from Kings Plant Barn. I grew
the variety Inverno from Franchi
Seeds (distributed by Italian
Seeds Pronto in NZ) but it is too
soon to tell whether it will fruit.
As these plants were started from
seed, they are less developed than
our other melons.
Zucchini
By far the most prolific of all the
zucchini that I planted was
Zephyr from Kings Seeds. This
beautiful zucchini is yellow, with a
green tip at the end. I have no-
ticed that yellow zucchini seem to
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow fennel
Now is the time to start sowing
fennel for autumn planting. Sim-
ply scatter seeds in a punnet filled
with some seed raising mix and
leave it outside. Don’t forget to
water it regularly!
2. Pick sunflowers
If you’re anything like me, your
summer garden will be filled with
Tips for growing fennel
If you’ve never grown fennel be-
fore, you simply must give it a try.
It isn’t difficult to grow and makes
a lovely addition to salads. Here
are some growing tips”
 You can start fennel from
seed in late summer for au-
tumn planting and spring
for early summer planting
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
be more prolific than green zuc-
chini. Has anyone else noticed
this?
Tumbling Tom Red tomatoes
My Tumbling Tom Red cherry to-
matoes from Egmont Seeds are
doing so well in the hanging bas-
kets that I planted them in. They
took longer to fruit; the first of all
my tomatoes (including the con-
tainer varieties) was the wonderful
Topsy Tom. Both varieties have a
place in my future summer gar-
dens. In fact, my container toma-
toes have done so well that I am
questioning whether to grow toma-
toes in the ground. Now that I am
back to growing garlic for mum, I
have less ground space become
available around Labour Weekend
as garlic is traditionally harvested
beautiful sunflowers. Don’t forget
to pick some and bring them in-
doors to add some cheer to the
home
3. Sow beetroot
If you haven’t already done so, it
isn’t too late to start beetroot from
seed, for autumn planting
4. Plant more herbs
 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 six-cell punnets or
V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 3 0
on the longest day. We are finding
that our container tomatoes are
fulfilling our needs—and much,
much more
Dwarf beans
On the 10th of December, two
wwoofers staying with us sowed a
range of dwarf beans. Unfortu-
nately, they didn’t germinate too
well but at the time, I didn’t real-
ise that the reason was inadequate
moisture, as they were sown at a
particularly dry time, without
much rain. When we started using
the sprinkler which my cousins
Shireen and Tor gave us for
Christmas a few years ago, they
shot up and the area is now cov-
ered with dwarf beans. They
should be ready by late February.
We love using herbs in cooking and
are constantly planting more herbs
to replace the ones we use. Good
herbs to have in the garden in-
clude parsley, oregano, mint, rose-
mary and sage.
5. Harvest fruit
Keep an eye out for ripe fruit in
your garden, including passion-
fruit, cape gooseberries and blue-
berries
seed raising trays
 Once plants are big enough,
you can carefully plant them
outside. Don’t forget to give
your plants extra water
when putting them into the
ground
 Water your plants regularly
 Liquid feed plants regularly
 V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 3 0
How to grow cabbage
Cabbage is a staple in our winter
garden. It is easy to grow and the
taste of homegrown cabbage is
nothing like that purchased in
stores. Cabbages can be used in
many different ways, which are
covered below.
There are many types of cabbage—
standard green, red cabbage and
Chinese cabbage, to name a few.
Growing cabbage from seed
Cabbage is very easy to grow from
seed and I normally start plants
this way, unless I have been un-
well in late summer as I was these
past few years, or I otherwise run
out of time. If you are a new gar-
dener, you may also want to start
from plants rather than seed.
Awapuni stock a really good range
of winter vegetable seedlings, in-
cluding cabbages.
If you want to try raising cabbage
from seed, here is some advice.
Simply sprinkle some seeds in a
punnet filled with some seed rais-
ing mix and cover lightly. I like to
use Gardn Gro’s seed raising mix
as it is fine and they deliver direct
to your door, which is convenient.
Water regularly, as plants tend to
dry out easily in the heat of Febru-
ary. When seedlings have at least
three leaves and are large enough,
prick them out of the punnet and
pot them up individually into 6-cell
punnets. If I have lots of seed-
lings, I sometimes plant them into
a seedling tray. At this stage it’s
fine to use potting mix.
Varieties of cabbage
Egmont Seeds offer the following a
broad range of cabbages— Chinese
Napa Blues, Chinese Wong Bok,
Cabbage Desert Vantage, FOS
Pyramid, Kilaton, Ranfurly Mini,
Savoy King, Summer Cut and Su-
per Red Mini. Franchi Seeds
(distributed by Italian Seeds
Pronto in NZ) offer the variety San
Michele, which comes from the
Alpine region of Italy and needs
very a cool winter to form a head.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N PAGE 3
Tips for growing cabbage Ways to eat cabbage
 Only start cabbage from Here are some ways that cabbage
seed at a time when you can can be enjoyed.
see space becoming avail-
able in the garden to plant  Steamed, grilled, braised,
sautéed, roasted or boiled
it.
2. Cabbage seeds are very  Stir-fried
small so scatter seeds spar-
 Traditional coleslaw or
ingly
other slaw salads (including
3. Prior to planting seedlings, I with red cabbage)
like to add some compost,
sheep pellets and fertiliser  Cabbage “steaks”
to the ground. Normally I  Sauerkraut
don’t dig it in, just scatter it
on top of the ground.  Colcannon
4. Make sure you leave enough  In stews
space between plants to
grow. I leave at least 30 cm  With noodles
between plants.
 With pasta such as car-
5. Stagger your plantings bonara or linguine
every fortnight so you have
a continuous supply of cab-  Risotto
bages
 Croquettes
6. At this time of the year, the
white butterfly can be a pest  In curries
so cover seedlings with net-
 In Vietnamese rice paper
ting or sprin-
rolls (Chinese
kle some der-
cabbage is best)
ris dust over “It is easy to grow and the
your plants taste of homegrown
 Gratin
to protect cabbage is nothing like
them. that purchased in stores.”  Stuffed
cabbage
7. You might
also want to sprinkle some  Relish
snail pellets around plants,
although snails and slugs  Soup
are not usually a problem at
this time of the year.  Egg rolls
8. Liquid feed plants weekly  Cabbage “chips”
with a soluble plant food or
 Frittata
tonic such as Seasol
 Tacos
9. Keep an eye on your cab-
bages and harvest as soon  Japanese pizza
as it is ready
10. Club root is a fungal disease
which affects cabbage.
There are no chemical con-
Have a great weekend
trols for club root. Make
sure you buy brassicas from Happy gardening!
a club root free source.