Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 3, Issue 41
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Blog Welcome to the forty first issue of
my newsletter for Volume 3.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you are all well. I’m very sorry
Facebook that this newsletter was written so
late in the week...on Saturday. That
Instagram
pretty much never happens! As you
Twitter will have noticed, I do try to circulate
my newsletter on Friday so it gives
Linkedin you the weekend to read it and have
time to reflect, not to mention get
Pinterest
yourself into action in the outdoors. I
have been feeling incredibly tired
lately and napping in the afternoons,
Contact me which is why I haven’t been busy
working on my newsletter and left it
 Feedback until the last minute. I am going to
have some blood tests done for diabe-
 Newsletter input tes but will check with the doctor if
(tips, recipes, gar- there is anything more he would like
den photos etc) done so we can work out why I feel so
sleepy and need to nap every day,
 To be added to my
mailing list which is not normal.
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com May is a time of change in the garden.
It marks the end of autumn. By now,
your dahlias and zinnias will be on
their last legs. Ours put on a colour-
ful display throughout summer and
Inside this issue: autumn and it will be sad to see them
go. But I need to remove them to
make way for our spring bulbs. I
started by planting the jonquils and
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 was badly affected by it and didn’t
Anita’s Garden daffodils, but still have the dutch iris
and freesias to go. I will plant our
tulips and hyacinth in late May, as
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 our winters in Auckland are mild and
for the week they are still chilling. This year,
Bulbs Direct are very kindly giving
me a huge selection of tulip bulbs to
News 2 plant in our garden and I ordered
some hyacinth bulbs from them for
the first time, too. They are also very
kindly chilling them for me in their
Tips for growing straw- 3 chillers, which is a good thing because
berries
there isn’t enough room in the veggie
crisper compartment at the bottom of
our two fridges.
30 April 2021
May also marks the time that commer-
cial growers plant their strawberry
plants. Every year, I order plants from
a commercial grower in Katikati. This
year, I halved my usual order and am
planting the two varieties, Camarosa
and Ventana, offered by Awapuni, who
are very kindly giving me some plants
for our winter garden. It will be inter-
esting to do a comparison and see which
ones perform best.
This month is a good time to start chit-
ting your seed potatoes if you intend to
plant them on the shortest day (21st
June). You can get away with doing
this in warmer climates. I have been
growing potatoes over winter success-
fully for the past few years and we have
been very lucky to have not had severe
frosts. This year, I ordered 3 kg of Lise-
ta seed potatoes from Newton Seeds
which are laid out in trays and are hap-
pily chitting under mum’s bed. Hope-
fully by next month, our mini brassicas
will have been harvested and there will
be enough room for me to dig three
trenches to plant all of them.
Garlic is something else you might like
to give some thought to. These days, it
is very hard to obtain seed garlic due to
issues with rust. Our crop last year
grow, except for one elephant garlic
which self-seeded by our roses. I will be
re-planting the three cloves in May.
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
How are your brassicas doing? As
you can see from the photo below,
ours are coming along nicely.
I planted all of our seedlings in
early March, to allow them
enough time to get established
before the cooler weather set in.
This patch is our mini brassicas,
which will mature first but in our
main bed, I am growing some vari-
eties in Italian Seeds Pronto’s
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant dutch iris
Now is a good time to get dutch
iris into the ground. Bulbs Direct
have a fantastic selection at very
reasonable prices.
2. Liquid feed seedlings
Give your plants some love by liq-
uid feeding them with a water sol-
uble plant food or seaweed tonic.
News
If you’re looking to set up an as-
paragus patch, Italian Seeds Pron-
to stock the variety Argenteuil, a
heirloom white French asparagus.
This variety has the advantage of
cropping earlier in spring than
other types. If the bed is set up
well, asparagus will crop for 20
years. It does well in full to semi
sun. Make sure you mix in lots of
compost and fertiliser beforehand.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
fantastic range of Franchi Italian
heirloom seeds, including Broccoli
Romanesco, Broccoli Calabrese,
Cauliflower Macerata and Tuscan
Kale. These will mature after our
mini ones have been harvested.
It’s a good idea to stagger your
planting to avoid having a glut at
once or to plant different varieties
which mature at different times,
as I have done.
3. Spray roses with liquid
copper
This month, give your roses a
clean up by spraying them with
liquid copper.
4. Chit seed potatoes
If you live in a climate with mild
winters like me in Auckland, you
may be able to grow potatoes in
winter and harvest them in spring.
Bulbs Direct still have lots of
spring bulbs for you to choose
from, if you haven’t done your or-
dering or planting yet. May is re-
ally the last month for planting
spring bulbs, so don’t delay any
further. If you live in a warm cli-
mate, you might like to leave
planting tulips and hyacinth to-
wards the end of the month and
give them a cold spell in the fridge.
V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 4 1
We’re very pleased with how our
super hot chillies have done this
season. I propagated them from
seed and only put the plants out in
late December, as the tempera-
tures kept fluctuating and I was
worried I would lose the plants. It
did take a few months for them to
grow, so by the time they started
cropping it was already March.
We have been enjoying them in a
number of Asian dishes (a favour-
ite, alongside Italian) and freeze
them free flow for use later on.
Some of the varieties I grew which
I recommend are Devil’s Tongue
(the seeds of which were kindly
given to me by my friend Minette
Tonoli), Cherry Bomb (ditto) and
Orange Habanero. I plan to save
seeds from my plants. You need to
let the pods dry on the plant before
harvesting them to extract seeds.
Lay your seed potatoes out on
trays and place them in a dark
place (I put them under our beds).
Soon, they will develop shoots.
Don’t plant them any earlier than
the shortest day (21st June).
5. Plant a native
Do something for the environment
and plant a native. Awapuni have
a great selection at very reasona-
ble prices.
Awapuni have a great special on at
the moment. Spend $45 and re-
ceive a free 500ml Tui Organic
Seaweed fertiliser.
Awapuni are also running a com-
petition to win a Herb Farm Mood
Mist pack and Awapuni voucher.
See the pinned post on their Face-
book page to enter. Entries close
at 10 am on 4 May 2021.
 V O LU M E 3 , I S S U E 4 1
Tips for growing strawberries
If you’re wanting to grow super
strawberries next summer (and
let’s face it, who doesn’t?), now is a
good time to start planning your
strawberry patch. Did you know
that commercial growers, who are
the experts at growing strawber-
ries, put their plants in during the
month of May? The reason for this
is that it gives the plants enough
time during the cooler months for
their roots to get established so
they can put all their energy into
forming flowers and fruit in
spring. Normally I purchase my
strawberry plants from a commer-
cial grower located in Katikati, but
this year I decided to halve the
amount of plants I get from him
and do a growing trial of Awapun-
i’s two varieties, Camarosa and
Ventana, which should be availa-
ble to order from their website in
June. I’ve already picked a sunny
site—a patch which currently has
the mini brassicas in the picture
on page 2 of the newsletter. By
late May, I hope that we will have
harvested them to make way for
the strawberries.
Here are some of my top growing
tips for sensational strawberries.
Select the site carefully
Strawberries do best in a sunny
site. Don’t forget that they need a
lot of sunshine in order to ripen.
You can grow strawberries in con-
tainers or hanging baskets if
you’re short on space or live in an
apartment, but you’ll probably find
you get a better crop if they’re
grown in the ground. If planting
strawberries in containers or
hanging baskets, make sure you
use a quality strawberry or potting
mix rather than garden soil.
Prepare the ground well
If you’re planting strawberries in
the ground, be sure to work in lots
of compost and fertiliser before-
hand. I like to dig the bed over
before getting started with plant-
ing. I use a little slow release
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Homegrown strawberries from our
garden
fertiliser designed for strawberries
in each hole at the time of plant-
ing.
Use tunnel hoops (and bird
netting)
It’s a good idea to cover your
strawberries with bird netting to
protect your crop as berries ripen.
One way of keeping the netting
from coming into contact with the
plants is to use tunnel hoops to
drape the netting over. It pays to
insert these at the time of plant-
ing, which will give you a frame-
work for planting your strawber-
ries within. I usually manage to
get two rows of
strawberries within
the hoops, with “Did you know that
around 12 plants commercial growers, who
across. I grow 4 are the experts at growing
rows, so 100 plants strawberries, put their
in total. plants in during the
month of May?”
Don’t cover the
crowns
When you’re popping in your
plants, be sure you don’t cover the
crown with soil or it may rot.
Mulch with pea straw
Once you have planted your straw-
berries, I highly recommend
mulching them with pea straw. It
helps keep the weeds down and
adds nitrogen to the soil. It is a bit
more expensive than other forms
of mulch but it is worth it in my
opinion.
Liquid feed weekly
In spring, start liquid feeding your
PAGE 3
strawberry plants with a water
soluble liquid fertiliser designed
for strawberries. Last season, I
used one designed for tomatoes
which worked fine as it is a fruit-
ing crop and was high in potassi-
um. You will really notice a differ-
ence in berry production if you get
into the habit of doing this every
week.
Pollination
While you want to keep the birds
out make sure your bird netting
has holes large enough for bees to
get through so they can pollinate
the flowers on your plants, other-
wise you won’t get fruit.
Caring for your crop
Berries ripen very quickly, so we
usually check our patch for ones
that are ready at least once a day,
sometimes twice (once in the
morning and again in the evening).
If you don’t do this, you may find
that the birds or insects have beat-
en you to it. In very hot weather
berries can also start to rot.
How to enjoy
strawberries
I don’t think I
really need to tell
you how to con-
sume strawber-
ries! Here are
some ideas if you
have a glut and start getting sick
of them.
 Smoothies and milkshakes
 Frozen yoghurt and sorbet
 Tarts and cakes
 Eton Mess
 Muffins and scones
 Chocolate dipped strawber-
ries
 Jam
Have a good weekend
Happy gardening!