Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 18 20 November 2020

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage

Blog Welcome to the eighteenth issue of Seeds)

my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook
This week, I thought I’d write a bit
Instagram
about the eggplant varieties I am
Twitter growing this year. We love eggplants
as they’re so versatile and can be add-
Linkedin ed to many different dishes. I am
growing three main types—long,
Pinterest round and white. Eggplants need hot
weather in order to do well so I hope
we have a good summer.
Contact me
Long varieties
 Feedback Great for curries and ethnic cooking
 Newsletter input  Asian Bride (Kings Seeds)
(tips, recipes, gar-
den photos etc)  Dok (Kings Seeds)
 To be added to my  Farmers Long Purple (Asian
mailing list Seeds)
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com  Ho Chi Minh (Asian Seeds)
 Megadok (Asian Seeds)
 Pink (Asian Seeds)
Inside this issue:
 Ping Tung Long (Kings Seeds)
 Pink Supreme (Asian Seeds)
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 leaf)
Anita’s Garden  Purple Comet (Kings Seeds)
 Purple Judy (Asian Seeds)
Top 5 gardening tasks 2
for the week  Tsakoniki (Kings Seeds)
 Violetta Lunga (Franchi Seeds)
Herb of the week: fenu- 2
greek Round varieties
Great for Italian dishes
 Prosperosa (Franchi Seeds)
 Tonda Bianca (Franchi Seeds)
White
Great for all-round use. I find that
white eggplants are even more produc-
tive than purple ones
 White Delight (Asian Seeds)
 White Star (Kings Seeds)
New varieties at Italian Seeds
Pronto
Be sure to check out Italian Seeds Pron-
to’s website (see link below) for some
great new varieties in the Franchi
Seeds range that will hopefully be ar-
riving soon, including the following:
 Tomato Principe Borghese
 Tomato Costoluto Fiorentino
 Tomato Cuor di Bue of Liguria
(Oxheart)
 Fennel Romanesco
 Parsley Gigante di Napoli (flat
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Have a good weekend. Happy garden-
ing.

How to grow celeriac 3  Florence Round Purple (Kings Kind regards,

Seeds) Anita Kundu
 Listada de Gandia (Kings
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Potatoes galore!
Swift potatoes from the garden
Liseta potatoes from the garden
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow beans
It’s now warm enough to sow
beans direct to the ground.
2. Sow corn
You can also sow corn direct to
where you want it to grow.
3. Plant marigolds
Add cheer to borders, garden beds
Herb of the week: Fenugreek
We started growing fenugreek a
number of years ago after a lady
from the Waikato visited us and
brought us a couple of punnets
from a local nursery. We were
amazed by how easily they grew.
Fenugreek is also know as methi
and is used in Indian cuisine. It is
best grown from spring to autumn,
as it dislikes cold temperatures.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 8
Homegrown bananas
Our first poppy also flowered.
This was self-sown. I don’t know
the name of the variety.
More Liseta potatoes!
We also harvested the first bunch
of bananas from our tree. There
were close to 200 bananas from
just one flower, with 3 more to go.
up. From now until April, I use
and pots with these brightly col-
Yates Super Shield and Mavrick.
oured bedding plants. This year,
I’m growing the varieties French 5. Spray garlic
Vanilla, Durango Flame and Hon-
eycomb. We’re about a month away from
harvesting garlic on the longest
4. Spray roses day, but don’t stop spraying your
garlic to ward off rust. If yours is
It’s time to start using summer
too far gone like mine and is in-
sprays on your roses. Stop using
fected with rust, you might not
Liquid Copper or you might burn
bother spraying anymore. I have
the leaves as the weather warms
yet to find an effective solution.
Fenugreek can be sown into the
garden, containers and grown as
microgreens (see right). I like to
soak seeds overnight prior to sow-
ing them to aid germination. Fen-
ugreek doesn’t usually have prob-
lems with pests and diseases. It
can be harvested as you need it,
but bear in mind that it does go to
seed as temperatures increase so it
might pay to harvest it before this.
Fenugreek as microgreens
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 1 8
How to grow celeriac
We only discovered celeriac a cou-
ple of years ago when I popped in a
punnet I bought from Palmers in
September. It must have been
beginner’s luck because, like grow-
ing kumara, the first year I grew it
was the only year that I was suc-
cessful. Since then, I have always
struggled as it bolted to seed in
spring. Then I started doing some
research and read that it’s better
to plant celeriac in early summer
because the varying temperatures
in spring can cause it to bolt to
seed. This year I decided to try
raising it from seed, so I sowed the
variety Mars from Egmont Seeds
on my heat pad in mid-August.
About six weeks later, I carefully
transplanted the seedlings into 6-
cell punnets and kept them in my
greenhouse, before eventually
moving them outdoors when the
weather became warmer. I plant-
ed them in the garden earlier this
month.
Tips for growing celeriac
 If you’re growing celeriac
from seed, it’s best to raise
seedlings in punnets and
transplant them into the
ground later on. If you’re
new to gardening or don’t
want to raise plants from
seed yourself, you can pur-
chase celeriac seedlings
from Awapuni.
 To raise celeriac from seed,
simply scatter seeds in a
punnet filled with seed rais-
ing mix (not garden soil)
and cover lightly. As it
takes awhile to grow celeri-
ac from seed, it’s best to do
this at the beginning of
spring and use a heat pad to
aid germination.
 Make sure you keep the
seedlings moist while they
are germinating. I like to
spray mine twice a day, once
in the morning and once in
the late afternoon or even-
ing. I also wipe the
PAGE 3
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
condensation off the lids. Nutrition
3. When the seedlings are Celeriac contains protein, fibre,
large enough to be pricked vitamins and minerals. Celeriac
out (usually this occurs boosts bone and heart health. It
when they develop a few can also reduce the risk of diabe-
leaves), carefully transplant tes.
them into 6-cell punnets.
Ideas for using celeriac
4. You’ll want to plant your
Celeriac pairs well with chicken,
celeriac outside towards the
fish and pork. It also goes well
end of spring once tempera-
with apple in salads and can be
tures have stabilized, other-
used to make slaw (a personal fa-
wise you run the risk of
vourite).
them bolting prematurely
like mine did.
Here are some ideas for using ce-
leriac:
5. As a root crop, celeriac does
best in full sun so bear this  Roasted and baked
in mind when choosing a
site.  Slaw
6. I like to enrich the soil with  Soup
some compost beforehand
but caution against adding  Gratin and bakes
too much fertiliser, or the
plants may form a lot of  Chips/fries
leafy growth at the expense
 Mash and puree
of root.
 Hash browns and rosti
7. As celeriac can grow as big
as a baseball, it needs a bit  Pies and
of room. tarts
Space seed- “Celeriac boosts bone and
lings at least heart health. It can also  Risotto
15 cm apart. reduce the risk of
diabetes””  Salads
6. Get into the
habit of liq-  Pancakes
uid feeding your celeriac
weekly with a water soluble  Pasta
plant food or seaweed tonic
 Casseroles
if you’re gardening organi-
cally  Shepherd’s pie
7. Water your celeriac regular-  Remoulade
ly. Depending on where you
live, you may be on watering  Burgers
restrictions, so this may
mean using a watering can  Tacos
if you’re at Level 1
(Auckland at present).  Curries
 Bread
8. Celeriac takes awhile to ma-
ture so be patient! It can
Have a great weekend
take as long as six or seven
months if you started from Happy gardening!
seed. Harvest celeriac in
autumn.