Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 14 23 October 2020

Useful Links Editorial

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Blog Welcome to the fourteenth issue of If you haven’t sown melons yet, it’s not
my newsletter for Volume 3. too late to get them started for planting
Newsletter back issues out in early December. I used to be
I hope you have all had a good week. able to plant melons by the third week
Facebook of November but in recent years, my
Labour Weekend planting date has been pushed out by
Instagram
awful weather. This year I think I’ll
Perhaps the most important date in
Twitter wait until early December to plant
the gardening calendar is finally
them, which means that I don’t want to
Linkedin here—Labour Weekend. This time of
sow seeds too early. Labour Weekend is
the year marks the start of when it is
therefore perfect timing for sowing mel-
Pinterest safe to plant summer veggies, such as
ons.
tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and
much more. You can also plant dahlia Ýou can also sow more of the following:
tubers, petunias and avocado trees
Contact me
(the latter in frost-free zones only).  Zucchini
 Feedback Garden centres will certainly be busy  Cucumbers
over the long weekend.
 Newsletter input  Lettuce
(tips, recipes, gar- If you’re not able to do your planting
den photos etc) this weekend, do not fret. Summer  Spring onions
veggies can be planted in November
 To be added to my
and December, too. In fact it’s some- Greenhouse
mailing list times a good idea to wait a week or If you have a greenhouse, make sure
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com two after Labour Weekend before that you open the door(s) and windows
planting tender veggies because the on warm days otherwise the plants
weather can be quite temperamental might suffocate.
at this time of the year, especially at
night. Don’t forget this, as it’s easy to Watering the garden
Inside this issue:
just think of daytime temperatures
when putting in new plants. With water restrictions in place in some
parts of the country (Auckland is cur-
Seeds to sow rently at Level 1), now is a good time to
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2
Anita’s Garden plan ahead and think about installing a
There are some seeds that require tank in the garden to collect rainwater.
warmer temperatures to germinate,
even with the help of a heat pad. Useful links
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
Among them are the following:
for the week  Italian Seeds Pronto
 Okra
 Awapuni
Herb of the week: Cat- 2  Snake beans
nip  Bulbs Direct
 Gourds
Have a great weekend.
How to grow corn 3  Bitter melon
Kind regards,
 Luffa
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Our petunia is so beautiful! This
variety is called Queen of Hearts
and I bought it from Mitre 10 in
early September. In its first week
with us, I had to repot it twice! I
highly recommend this plant.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant summer veggies
Labour Weekend marks the time
when it is safe to plant out sum-
mer veggies such as tomatoes, zuc-
chini and cucumbers. But be sen-
sible. If the weather is horrible, it
may be best to wait a bit.
2. Plant catnip
Gardeners with felines will be
wanting to add catnip to their gar-
Herb of the week: Catnip
Catnip is one of three herbs that
are grown for cats. The other two
are catmint and catgrass. Our cat
Ginger isn’t fussed with the other
two, so this year I will only be put-
ting in catnip for her. Awapuni
kindly gave me some seedlings.
Catnip can be grown in the ground
or in containers, as you can see in
the picture. It is very easy to grow
from seed. Simply
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
My Tom Thumb peas are coming
along nicely. This variety is good
for growing in containers. It is a
dwarf pea that doesn’t require
staking. This is the first time that
I am growing it and I’m very excit-
ed about the idea of growing peas
in containers. Other peas I have
sowed in the garden are Alderman
(a tall climbing pea), Goliath (a
snow pea) and Petit Provencal (a
climbing dwarf pea)
den. Cats adore this herb, as you
can see in the picture below. Nor-
mally I sow catnip from seed but
the seed supplier I purchase seeds
from is out of stock, so this year
I’m putting in seedlings from
Awapuni.
3. Plant dahlias
It’s now warm enough to plant
dahlia tubers.
sprinkle some seeds in a punnet
filled with seed raising mix and
cover lightly. Keep outdoors and
make sure it remains moist. When
the seedlings are large enough
they can be pricked out and potted
into six-cell punnets.
Beware that catnip doesn’t always
have the same effect on cats. It
makes Ginger playful but it can
make some cats aggressive.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 4
For my recent 40th birthday, my
aunt and uncle got me this gor-
geous Floret Flower Farms calen-
dar. They didn’t know that, but I
absolutely LOVE their website and
have been using their collection of
dahlias to build a wish list for next
year. Although they’re an Ameri-
can business, most of their tubers
can be purchased here in NZ.
They have also written books and
host online workshops.
4. Plant avocado trees
You can also plant avocado trees in
frost-free regions.
5. Sow corn
You can sow or plant sweet corn
now. For growing tips, see the
article on page 3. Corn can either
be sown direct or you can raise
seedlings in punnets for trans-
planting into the garden.
Our cat Ginger in catnip heaven
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 4
How to grow corn
Corn is great to have in the sum-
mer garden. It’s easy to grow and
kids love it. Corn is very easy to
grow from seed, but you can find
seedlings at garden centres.
Awapuni sell corn seedlings in
bundles wrapped with newspaper
and deliver direct to your door.
This year, I’m growing just one
variety—Honey n’ Pearl from Eg-
mont Seeds.
Tips for growing corn
 Corn can either be sown
direct to the ground after
Labour Weekend when the
ground has warmed up or
you can plant seedlings in
November. As it takes at
least 100 days to mature, I
wouldn’t plant corn any lat-
er than early December,
otherwise it might not ma-
ture in time before it starts
to get cold.
 There is no need to soak
corn seeds prior to planting.
Doing so may cause them to
rot.
 A head pad (or your hot wa-
ter cupboard) will aid germi-
nation, as temperatures
drop at night.
 Sprinkle a little seed raising
mix (not potting mix or gar-
den soil) into a punnet and
sprinkle seeds. Cover light-
ly.
 I like to keep my seedlings
in an incubator (mini green-
house) which sit on top of
my heat pad.
 Make sure you keep seed-
lings moist. I mist mine
with a spray bottle twice a
day and wipe off the conden-
sation on the incubator lids.
 Avoid shocking your plants.
When they come off the heat
pad, move them into your
greenhouse before gradually
PAGE 3
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
ready to be harvested when it is
sitting at a 45 degree angle from
the cob. The silks on the end of
the corn will also become dry and
brown.
13. Corn is best eaten cooked
straight after being picked,
when it is at its sweetest.
14. Corn can be frozen.
Nutrition
Corn in our garden last summer
While it is high in carbohydrate,
exposing them to the outdoors, an corn contains protein, fibre, vita-
hour at a time, in October. Even- mins and minerals.
tually, build up to leaving them
Ideas for eating corn
outdoors overnight.
8. Make sure you plant corn in  Boiled with some butter,
a sunny site. salt and pepper (our favour-
ite)
9. Prepare the ground well
beforehand. Make sure you  Barbecued and grilled
mix in lots of compost, sheep
pellets and fertiliser. I like  Fritters
to use some nitrophoska.  Salads
10. Corn is pollinated by the
 Creamed
wind. Always sow or plant
corn in blocks to aid pollina-  Chowder
tion. Also,
don’t sow or  Casseroles
plant corn “Corn is great to have in
seedlings too the summer garden. It’s  Salsa
far apart or easy to grow and kids love
it”  Dips
all the cobs
won’t be pol-  Pies
linated. I like to leave a
hand span’s space between  Pizza
seedlings. If you plant too
closely, you’ll end up with  Risotto
small corn.
 On nachos and tacos
10. Get into the habit of liquid
feeding your plants weekly  Cornbread
with a water soluble plant
 Relish
food or seaweed tonic if
you’re gardening organically  Puddings
11. Water your plants regularly.  Frittata
Depending on where you
live, you may be on watering  Paella
restrictions, so this may
mean using a watering can  Stir-fry
if you’re at Level 1
(Auckland at present). Have a great weekend
12. You’ll know that corn is Happy gardening!