A d v i ce . Id e a s .
I n sp i ra t i on
Volume 3, Issue 6
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Inside this issue:
Po t t e r i n g ar o u n d
Anita’s Garden
Top 5 gardening tasks
for the week
Herb of the week: Ore-
gano
Tips for raising seedlings
Anita’s Garden
Editorial
Welcome to the sixth issue of my
newsletter for Volume 3.
I hope you have all had a good week.
Plant nursery
It will be awhile before seedlings be-
come available for sale, but you’ll all
be pleased to know that I have taken
the first step towards running my
little nursery this season by starting
to sow seeds. Most seeds need to be
sown in September at the earliest,
when temperatures are a bit warmer,
but there are a couple of varieties in
the Franchi seeds range (distributed
by Italian Seeds Pronto in New Zea-
land) that can be sown in August.
One is the fabulous lettuce Degli Or-
tolani, which is a cos-type and my
favourite variety. The others are two
spinach varieties, Merlo Nero and
Matador.
2 some of the more unusual bulbs, too.
Degli Ortolani, in the Franchi seeds
range (for Italian Seeds Pronto’s web-
2
site, see the link on the right hand
side)
Some of you may even wish to try
2
starting your plants from seed, so I’ve
included an article about seed sowing
on page 3 this week. If you’re new to
3 gardening, I suggest this to be the
next step after your first season.
Propagating plants from seed is not as
daunting as it may seem and is
28 August 2020
incredibly rewarding. If you’re after
high quality seeds and some interesting
varieties, look no further than Italian
Seeds Pronto’s fantastic range.
Plants
Sometimes we all want a head start,
which is why I strongly endorse
Awapuni for purchasing established
plants (see link below). Keep an eye on
their website for new season’s varieties
as they become available. Awapuni
conveniently delivers direct to your door
and plants come wrapped in newspaper,
making it eco-friendly.
Bulbs
If you haven’t already ordered bulbs for
your summer garden, it’s not too late to
do so but be quick as popular varieties
tend to sell out fast. My preferred bulb
supplier is Bulbs Direct (see link be-
low). Kayne and the team are very
good at what they do. Their bulbs are
high quality and their amazing service
blows me away every time. If you’re
keen on growing dahlias, gladioli and
begonias this year, have a look at their
website. Incredibly, they have over 160
varieties of dahlias alone this season!
There’s also an interesting selection of
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
I hope you find this week’s issue inter-
esting.
Have a great weekend.
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
My tete-a-tete daffodils are in
bloom! I purchased these bulbs
from the mail order company
Bulbs Direct, who I highly recom-
mend for the quality of their
bulbs, as well as their friendly and
efficient service. Tete-a-tetes are
miniature daffodils, making them
ideal for growing in pots and
troughs. At the end of the season,
lift and store your bulbs. They
should re-flower the following au-
tumn. I have some in a small pot
that are in their second year.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Start sowing seeds!
You can start sowing seeds under-
cover and outdoors now that
spring is almost here.
2. Spray fruit trees
Switch from Lime Sulphur to Liq-
uid Copper, now that the weather
is slowly warming up, as you don’t
want to burn the leaves. Doing so
will help prevent fungal diseases
Herb of the week: Oregano
We love using
oregano in Ital-
ian cuisine.
Awapuni kindly
gave me some
plants back in
June, which are
doing well in
containers, as you can see on the
left. Alternatively, you can raise
plants from seed. In spring, I’ll be
AN IT A’S G AR D E N V O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 6
Isn’t this boat one of the best ex-
amples you have seen of upcycling?
My friend Leah, who runs the Tau- We have still been harvesting
snow peas from our Goliath plants
ranga Bay Holiday Park (where
our bach is) with her husband in our back garden, where our
washing line is. I sowed them
Harry, turned an old dinghy into a
gorgeous garden bed filled with from seed in April and they grew
steadily over winter. Normally,
kale, celery, cauliflower and salad
greens. It’s conveniently located autumn sown peas crop in spring
but I was surprised by an early
outside the campers’ kitchen, too,
making it easy for them to grab crop this year. We enjoy having
them steamed.
what they need for a healthy meal.
organically, it’s fine to use Copper
such as leaf curl and brown rot
spray.
3. Spray roses
5. Plant potatoes
You can use Copper spray on your
Get your potatoes into the ground
roses too, to help prevent black
soon if you want homegrown spuds
spot in summer.
on your Xmas dining table. Early
4. Spray garlic varieties mature more quickly and
are perfect for boiling, whereas
Continue to spray your garlic at main crop varieties take longer to
fortnightly intervals to help pre- mature and are ideal for roasting
vent rust. If you are gardening or baking. They store better, too.
sowing Oregano seeds in the Fran-
chi seeds range kindly given to me
by Gillian Hurley-Gordon of Ital-
ian Seeds Pronto (see right). If
starting seeds in early spring, I
would advise using a heat pad.
Wait until seedlings have devel-
oped at least three leaves before
pricking them out and potting Oregano from Franchi Seeds, dis-
them up into six cell punnets. tributed by Italian Seeds Pronto in
Grow in pots and in the ground. New Zealand
 V O LU M E 3 , ISSU E 6
Tips for raising seedlings
Now that it’s just about Septem-
ber, it’s time to turn your mind to
sowing seeds. There are numerous
benefits to propagating plants this
way. It’s cheaper, you can grow a
broader range rather than being
limited to the varieties in garden
centres and plants are often
healthier than store-bought plants
and end up doing better.
What you’ll need
 Seeds (you can either get
them from your local garden
centre or through mail order
companies. I highly recom-
mend Italian Seeds Pronto
and Egmont Seeds)
 Clean plastic punnets
 Incubators/plastic mini
greenhouses (Egmont Seeds
stock them)
 Seed raising mix (don’t use
garden soil or potting mix.
Seed raising mix is very fine
in texture and it’s easier for
seedlings to surface)
 Plant labels
 A permanent marker to la-
bel your plants
 Spray bottle filled with wa-
ter
 Heat pad (can be helpful for
germinating heat-lovers
such as peppers, eggplants
and tomatoes)
Tips for sowing seeds
 Before getting started, en-
sure that you are sowing at
the right time of the year for
the particular seedling that
you want to grow. Normally
this information can be
found on the back of the
packet or on the seed com-
pany’s website
 Check whether you need to
sow the seeds directly into
PAGE 3
AN IT A’S G AR D E N
before date. Some seeds need to be
really fresh in order to germinate,
such as parsnip. Once you have
been gardening for awhile, you
may want to try and save seeds
from your plants in the garden to
sow in future. This is a good way
of ensuring a supply of your fa-
vourite varieties, which may not
necessarily be available from sup-
pliers in future. As a general rule
Sowing my favourite lettuce varie- of thumb, it’s only worthwhile to
ty, Degli Ortolani from Franchi save heirloom seeds, not hybrids,
as they may not come true to type.
Seeds, distributed by Italian Seeds
It’s for this reason that I really like
Pronto in New Zealand
Italian Seeds Pronto’s seeds. They
the ground or in punnets for trans- are all heirloom, making them ide-
planting later. Some things resent al for seed saving.
being transplanted, such as car-
rots. 7. Try not to shock your plants
too much by dramatic
3. Check the optimum temper- changes in temperature.
ature for germination. This For example, if you are tak-
will depend on what you’re ing your seedlings off a heat
sowing. Some plants germi- pad, you may want to keep
nate in cooler conditions, them in incubators inside
such as lettuce, spinach and for awhile, before moving
silverbeet. Others need them to your greenhouse.
heat in order to germinate. When you want to move
plants outdoors, start by
4. Be sure to wash your pun-
exposing them to an hour a
nets with a
day outside and
little bleach “There are numerous built it up gradu-
and water in benefits to propagating ally until they
order to pre- plants this way. It’s can be left out-
vent disease. cheaper, you can grow a side overnight.
I like leaving broader range rather than
this task for being limited to the 8. Don’t prick
rainy days, varieties in garden centres out seedlings too
as it can be early or they may
and plants are often
done inside. healthier than store- die. Generally,
it’s best to wait
5. Give your bought plants and end up
doing better” until they devel-
incubators or
op three leaves.
plastic mini
greenhouses a wash, too, if 9. Always use a quality potting
you’re re-using them from
mix for potting up your
last season. They can also seedlings, not garden soil
harbor bacteria, leading to
10. Once seedlings have out-
diseases.
grown a 6-cell punnet, they
6. For the best results, use can be moved into individu-
fresh seed. The viability of al 10 cm pots, before being
seed declines from the time planted in the garden.
a packet is opened, even if it
has not expired. That said, Have a great weekend
some seeds may still germi-
nate if kept beyond the best Happy gardening!