Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 4, Issue 12 24 December 2021

Useful Links Editorial

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Blog Welcome to the twelfth issue of my  Potting up zinnia seedlings into

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Inside this issue:
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 mation in that time.
Anita’s Garden
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 tasks on my list of things to do:
for the week
Collaboration news 2 
Tips for growing zinnias 3 At the moment my seedlings
newsletter for Volume 4. I hope you
have all had a good week.
It is Christmas. That means spend-
ing time with family, getting some
well deserved rest and making the
most of the outdoors. We have been
very lucky to have had some really
beautiful weather here lately. I’m in
Auckland and hope that other parts of
the country have been like that, too.
We are also blessed that we are rela-
tively free and not in lockdown. Let’s
all take a moment to reflect on this
and be grateful for what we have.
I have really enjoyed writing my
weekly newsletter Anita’s Garden for
another year. It has had its challeng-
es. I had to unfortunately take a
three month hiatus earlier in the year
due to Auckland’s very long lockdown.
I gave my laptop in for repairs just a
couple of days prior to the lockdown
and it took three long months to have
it repaired and given back to me. I
hope everyone enjoyed reading back
issues filled with gardening infor-
We’re getting to the point where I’ve
started wrapping up my planting.
There are still a few outstanding
 Planting eggplants and chillies
in large containers
Potting up okra seedlings from
six cell punnets into individual
10 cm pots
 Planting snake beans outside.
are in my greenhouse. I am still
thinking of where to plant them
as space is pretty tight at the
moment
six-cell punnets. At the moment
they are sitting in my greenhouse
and I am waiting for them to
grow a bit more
 Making homemade guava moth
traps to keep the pests under
control, particularly as it contin-
ues to get warmer
 Spraying our fruit trees with
neem oil to prevent guava moth
infestations
 Spraying our roses with Shield
and Bravo to help prevent black-
spot
 Liquid feeding. I had to tempo-
rarily put this on hold while I
focussed on planting out the rest
of our remaining seedlings before
it is too late
 Weeding. Unfortunately despite
my best intentions I wasn’t able
to pull out the weeds after it
rained which is when it would
have been much easier to do so. I
need to gradually work my way
around the garden in January
and get on top of the weeds in our
garden and there are many
Have a great weekend.
Useful links
 Italian Seeds Pronto
 Awapuni
 Bulbs Direct
Kind regards,
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Procut Orange Sunflowers
Premier Light Yellow Cream Sun-
flowers
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant zinnias
It is warm enough to plant this
heat loving annual which is a per-
sonal favourite in the summer gar-
den. Awapuni stock the varieties
Green and Tall at the moment if
you’re looking to pop in some seed-
lings.
2. Plant eggplants and chil-
lies
Collaboration news
Italian Seeds Pronto stocks per-
haps the best basil variety ever.
My all-time favourite is called Ital-
iano Classico which is the basil for
making pesto. The leaves are
green and very glossy in texture. I
grow it in round bowls which I
place in a sunny position but this
variety can also be grown well in
the ground. Harvest the leaves as
you need them.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Vincent’s Choice Sunflowers
Petunias from Awapuni
It’s not too late to put more of
them in, which I am doing at the
moment
3. Spray roses
It’s always a good idea to keep up
with your summer spraying re-
gime to help prevent fungal diseas-
es such as black spot.
4. Lift garlic
Bulbs Direct will be back with
more exciting things for you in
mid– January 2022. Kayne and
the team didn’t quite say what but
if last year was anything to go by
it will be TULIPS and their fantas-
tic range of spring bulbs. It’s defi-
nitely something worth buying so I
hope that you didn’t spend too
much in the Boxing Day sales. We
left some money in our budget!
V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 1 2
More petunias from Awapuni
A lily in the garden
The longest day has recently
passed but if you forgot to lift your
garlic, it’s a good idea to do it soon
otherwise it will start re-sprouting
in the ground
5. Water your garden
To keep plants hydrated it’s a good
idea to water your garden regular-
ly. For us this means every day
because we have so many plants in
containers.
Awapuni has a great deal on at the
moment. 100 seedling Combo $90
 100 Manuka seedlings
 100 slow release fertiliser
tablets
 100 PB2 bags
 V O LU M E 4 , I S S U E 1 2
Tips for growing zinnias
One of my favourite summer flow-
ering annuals is zinnias. I discov-
ered these beautiful flowers when
I first started gardening. Zinnias
originate from Mexico and are
great Monarch butterfly magnets.
They add so much colour and life
to the garden. Unfortunately, zin-
nias don’t last very well in a vase.
I picked some for my aunt last
year and they only lasted a day.
However they do provide a daz-
zling display of flowers all autumn
long. Last year ours finished flow-
ering in May, which was good tim-
ing as I wanted to plant some Ice-
land poppies in that garden bed in
June.
Tips for growing zinnias
 Zinnias are a heat loving
flower which originate from
Mexico. Don’t sow seeds too
early otherwise you’ll have
trouble with germination
and/or the plants will die
later on from the cold
 I used to be able to sow zin-
nias direct to the ground in
December, when it’s a bit
warmer. However, this has-
n’t worked well for the past
two seasons so I have start-
ed sowing seeds on my heat
pad indoors in November. I
put a little seed raising mix
in an egg carton (the part
with the lid, not the part
that the eggs go in). I scat-
ter the seeds on top of some
seed raising mixture and
cover them lightly with a
little more seed raising mix-
ture. I spray the seedlings
twice daily and wipe the
condensation off the incuba-
tor lids.
 Once my seedlings have ger-
minated, I move them off
the heat pad and into our
greenhouse where it is pro-
tected and warm
 When seedlings are big
enough to prick out, I pot
PAGE 3
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Varieties of zinnias
There are so many great zinnia
varieties, but here is a list of my
favourites which I am growing this
year:
 Dahlia Flowered Gold Medal
Mix
Zinnias grown from seed in our
garden  Benary’s Giant
them up individually into six-cell  Oklahoma Mix
punnets. This is usually when
they have developed a couple of  Zinderella Blend
leaves.
Buying plants
5. When plants start getting a
bit bigger, I like to move If you are time poor or otherwise
them from the greenhouse don’t want to raise zinnias from
into our patio to start hard- seed, you can obtain plants to pop
into your garden. Awapuni stock
ening them off. It is very
zinnia seedlings. At the moment
important to do this before
planting them outside so they have two varieties in stock,
they become acclimatized to Green and Tall. Plants come
outdoor temperatures and wrapped in newspaper and not in
don’t get a shock to the plastic punnets, which is much
change in climate. better for the environment.
Awapuni also delivers direct to
6. Space seedlings about 30 cm your door, which is really conven-
apart as zinnias can become ient for busy gardeners who don’t
a bit bushy, especially if you have time to go to the garden cen-
pinch out the tip in the mid- tre.
dle to encourage branching,
which I highly recommend. Saving seeds from your plants
At the end of the season, you can
7. Protect young seedlings
save seeds from your zinnias when
with Baysol. This year we
they have dried on
had a terrible
the plants. You can
year for snails “Zinnias originate
put them away safe-
and slugs. I from Mexico and are
ly for sowing again
found that this great Monarch
next season.
is the only butterfly magnets”
snail and slug
pellet that
actually works. But feel
free to try other brands and
methods such as beer traps
which are organic.
8. Water seedlings well to get
them established.
9. Seedlings benefit from regu-
lar liquid feeding. I like to
use a seaweed tonic such as
Seasol or a water soluble
plant food such as Thrive
once a week.