Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 38 9 April 2021

Useful Links Editorial

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Blog Welcome to the thirty-eighth issue
of my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you are all well. A very warm
Facebook welcome to newcomers to my mailing
list. I hope you enjoy reading my
Instagram
weekly gardening newsletters.
Twitter
April is such a busy month in the gar-
Linkedin den. As I have noted in my article on
page 3, April is to the winter garden
Pinterest what September is to the summer
garden. By now, the plants that you
have propagated from seed should
Contact me have grown and will be ready for
planting in the garden. This month is
 Feedback the ideal time to do it as it’s a bit cool-
er and it has started raining again,
 Newsletter input adding some moisture to the ground.
(tips, recipes, gar- For that reason, it’s also a good time
den photos etc) to sow seeds direct to the ground.
 To be added to my I haven’t entirely done away with the
mailing list summer garden. Some plants, such
as our eggplants, chillies, zucchini
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
and even cucumbers, are still produc-
ing so I don’t have the heart to pull
them out yet! Interestingly, a couple
of our dahlias were very late to flower
Inside this issue:
so I certainly won’t be lifting those
tubers any time soon. Our zinnias are
still a mass of colour. Best of all, the
recent rain brought most of our roses
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 coming along very nicely, as is my Ore-
back into bloom.
Anita’s Garden
I have put together a list of tasks to
do around the garden this month on
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 Useful links
page 3. I haven’t written any grow-
for the week
ing guides for awhile because I have
covered so many topics in the past. I
try my best to keep the material in
News 2
my newsletter as fresh as possible
and avoid too much repetition. Just a
little reminder that you can read old
What to do in the gar- 3 newsletters on my website. The link
den in April to back issues is in the left hand col-
umn on this page.
One good thing about the cooler weath-
er and arrival of rain is that the garden
needs a lot less water than in summer.
It’s still a good idea to keep an eye on
your plants so they don’t become dehy-
drated. We like to water the garden
(when it needs it) in the evening.
There’s no better way to spend a lovely
evening than pottering around the gar-
den and looking at our plants. Now
that daylight saving has ended the days
have become shorter, making it harder
to get into the garden after work. Win-
ter certainly brings many challenges,
but having a garden is richly reward-
ing. There’s nothing wrong with having
a break over winter though, and return-
ing to the garden refreshed and ready
to take on the world in spring. Every
year, I always think about how much I
would love to have a break and plant a
cover crop, but I simply can’t bear to
miss out on sowing all of my favourite
winter veggies. I’m very excited about
some of the varieties we are growing
this year. I have planted quite a few
veggies in the Franchi Seeds range
from Italian Seeds Pronto, including
Tuscan Kale, Broccoli Calabrese, Broc-
coli Romanesco and Cauliflower Macer-
ata. As you can see on page 2, my
French Thyme Timo di Provenza is
gano plant. The link to the website is
below.
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Last Sunday, I dug up our kuma-
ra. I planted the slips quite late,
in early January, so they had less
than the ideal 4-5 months in the
ground. Nevertheless, I was very
pleased with our harvest. I propa-
gated these slips myself by placing
some kumara in a little bit of dirt
in some seedling trays and leaving
them in our greenhouse, but you
can get plants from Awapuni.
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow peas
Now that it’s cooler, you can sow
sweet peas, snow peas and climb-
ing peas direct to the ground.
2. Plant daffodils
April is the perfect month to plant
daffodils. Bulbs Direct has a great
selection of bulbs and offer friendly
and efficient service, too.
News
Italian Seeds Pronto have a won-
derful range of herbs that I simply
cannot praise enough. As you can
see from the picture above, our
French Thyme Timo di Provenza is
doing so well. I also recommend
the Oregano. My plant is a bit
smaller, but is coming along nice-
ly. Another favourite is basil, es-
pecially Italiano Classico and Bol-
loso Napoletano.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
This beautiful decorative dahlia is
called Rebecca’s World. For some
reason, it is always quite late to
flower. Infact, it usually starts to
flower at what I consider the end
of the dahlia season when my oth-
er varieties have done their dash.
I must lift and divide it as it has
been in the ground for a long time.
3. Plant coriander
Coriander is a herb that does well
in cooler temperatures. It grows
well in pots or in the ground.
4. Harvest kumara
By now, your kumara should be
ready to be harvested. April is
when I usually lift mine. It’s not a
good idea to keep it in the ground
for much longer than that,
Bulbs Direct have a lovely selec-
tion of daffodils to choose from this
season. They have jonquils, single,
double and miniature. Think be-
yond traditional yellow. They
have other colours too, including
pink, white and orange. If you
can’t decide on named varieties,
choose from many of their amazing
mixes.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 3 8
I planted two thyme plants I grew
from seed in 9 litre buckets. I
raised these plants from seeds
kindly given to me by Gillian from
Italian Seeds Pronto. This thyme
variety is called French Thyme
Timo di Provenza and is in the
marvellous Franchi Seeds range.
It has a lovely aroma. We can’t
wait to use it in one of our favour-
ite dishes, pumpkin and spinach
lasagne.
otherwise it can start to taste a bit
funny.
5. Check on your pumpkins
and squash for rot
Even though it’s no longer sum-
mer, the days are still quite warm
so there’s a risk that your stored
pumpkins and squash can start
rotting. We lost a few and had to
use some quite quickly. It pays to
keep an eye on them!
Awapuni have a new special on
this week. Grab 3 regular bundles
of sweet peas for just $12! This
deal applies to all varieties of
sweet peas on the website.
This offer is on until 9 am on Mon-
day 12 April 2021 or while stocks
last.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 3 8
What to do in the garden in April
April is to the winter garden what
September is to the summer gar-
den. It’s the perfect time to plant
seedlings, shrubs and many fruit
trees. I’ve put together a short
article with a list of tasks to do
around the garden this month.
Plant veggie seedlings
April is the perfect month to plant
all your favourite winter veggie
seedlings, including beetroot, broc-
coli, cabbage, cauliflower, broad
beans, spinach, silverbeet, kale,
lettuce, rocket, mesclun and fen-
nel.
Sow seeds
You can sow carrots and parsnips
direct to where you want to grow
them. Remember to dig the soil
deep down first, so you don’t end
up with forked roots. Don’t add
too much compost and fertiliser,
otherwise you’ll end up with lots of
leafy growth at the expense of
strong roots.
Sow peas direct to where you want
to grow them.
Plant herbs
You can plant the following herbs:
parsley, coriander, mint, thyme,
oregano, sage, chives and rose-
mary.
Plant flowers
Now is a great time to plant winter
bedding annuals, including pan-
sies, viola and polyanthus. These
look great as a border or can be
planted en masse in containers or
hanging baskets.
Sow poppies
You can sow poppies direct to
where you want to grow them.
Don’t raise them in punnets first
as they don’t transplant well. An
idea is to sow some soldier poppies
on ANZAC day in remembrance of
those who lost their lives in the
war.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Lift kumara
If you planted kumara in late
spring or early summer, it should
be ready to be harvested by now.
There’s no point in leaving it in the
ground any longer as it won’t grow
much more and if you do, it might
start to taste funny. Work careful-
ly with a fork to avoid damaging
any tubers. Leave them to cure in
the sun before storing them in a
cool, dark, dry place. It is recom-
mended to wrap each kumara in
some newspaper before storing
them in a cardboard box.
Plant passionfruit and tamaril-
los
If you raised passionfruit and ta-
marillos from seed in spring, your
plants should be big enough to
plant in the ground now. Get your
plants off to a good start by adding
some compost, sheep pellets and a
good fertiliser such as Kings 24
Plus to the ground beforehand.
Remember that passionfruit creeps
so it needs some support such as a
trellis. Tamarillos do get quite tall
and need support
too. Insert a stake
“April is to the winter
at the time of plant-
garden what September is
ing to avoid damag-
to the summer garden. It’s
ing the roots later
the perfect time to plant
on.
seedlings, shrubs and
Save seeds from many fruit trees”
your plants
As seed pods start to dry on your
summer annuals, remove and
leave them to dry inside before
storing in a safe place for sowing
next season. Don’t forget to label
your seeds so you know what they
are!
Plant spring bulbs
April is the perfect month to plant
most spring bulbs. There are so
many different kinds that there’s
something for everyone. Or you
can do what I do and plant a bit of
each type so you have a variety of
flowers in the garden that flower
at different times. Choose from
PAGE 3
anemones, ranunculus, daffodils,
dutch iris, tulips, hyacinth, freesi-
as, gladioli nanus and much more.
Bulbs can be planted in the
ground. They also look great in
containers.
If you live in a warm climate, leave
planting tulips and hyacinth until
next month when it’s a bit cooler.
These bulbs will also benefit from
a spell in the fridge. Don’t keep
your veggies in there at the same
time as they emit a gas which can
cause your bulbs to fail to flower
properly. Otherwise you can slip
an ethylene sachet in with your
bulbs. One of the best things
about buying spring bulbs from
Bulbs Direct (see below) is that
they will happily chill your bulbs
for you for free should you require
it.
I source most of my bulbs from the
mail order company Bulbs Direct,
who I highly recommend for their
selection, quality and excellent
customer service.
Sow cover crops
If you’re not do-
ing a garden over
winter, why not
sow a cover crop
instead? It’s a
great way to re-
plenish the soil so
that it’s packed
with nutrients for
next spring.
Keep on top of weeds
As it starts to rain again, you’ll
notice more weeds appearing in
your garden. It’s a good idea to
keep on top of them, so they don’t
get on top of you. If you have a lot
of plants in containers like me,
don’t forget that they also grow in
there, too!
Have a good weekend
Happy gardening!