Advice. Ideas.
Inspiration
Anita’s Garden
Volume 2, Issue 6
Useful Links Editorial
Webpage
Welcome to the sixth issue of my
Blog
newsletter Anita’s Garden for 2019.
Newsletter back issues
I hope you have all had a good week.
Facebook
It’s nearly spring!
Instagram
Are you as excited as I am? You can
Twitter feel the temperatures increasing.
Whenever I’m out and about (that is,
Linkedin in Manukau, not in the garden), I al-
most feel that it’s a bit too hot to be
Pinterest wearing a jacket. But please remem-
ber to take care. Despite the weather
almost being balmy on some days, it
Contact me goes without saying that spring
weather can be very temperamental.
 Feedback I strongly advise against planting
summer veggies outdoors, despite
 Newsletter input what you may see being sold at gar-
(tips, recipes, gar- den centres at this time of the year.
den photos etc) In fact, I have even seen some signs
cautioning against planting them out-
 To be added to my
doors, which was good to see.
mailing list
To help you all work out what you
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com
can do in the garden in September,
I’ve put together a little guide on page
3. Where I feel it’s best to defer sow-
ing and growing plants until later on,
Inside this issue: I have included a little note, with
when I feel it would be appropriate.
Franchi seeds competition
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 need, allowing the plant to continue to
Anita’s Garden As you may recall, I ran a competition
back in August which was a huge suc-
cess. Unfortunately, there could be
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 only one winner, but I have some fan-
for the week tastic news. Gillian Hurley-Gordon
has very generously given me another
set of seeds for a second giveaway,
Franchi Italian heirloom 2 which I am holding at the moment!
seeds giveaway
To be in the draw, see the details on
page 2 of this newsletter. Don’t miss
What to do in the gar- 3
out! Hurry, draw closes Monday 2
den in September September at 5 pm.
30 August 2019
Planting ready-to-eat-veggies
Finally, I just wanted to write a little
note about planting mature veggies
that either can be harvested right
away, or are close to harvesting. The
equivalent for flowers would be potted
colour, which are already in bloom.
Sometimes in garden centres, you see
plants at this stage and I think to my-
self, why do this when you can start a
plant from seed and watch it grow
from its very inception? However,
there may be times when you need
instant gratification. During the win-
ter months, growth in the garden
slows considerably. If like me you
weren’t able to get your winter garden
established during autumn, when the
days were warmer, you may find that
your plants are still small. We have
put in quite a few punnets of lettuce in
our container garden near our front
door, but these were taking a very long
time to mature. So, when The Ware-
house had six-cell Salanova ready-to-
eat lettuce reduced by half price to $4,
I leapt at the chance to replenish our
dwindling supply. They were only a
dollar more expensive than a regular
six-cell punnet of lettuce and so much
bigger! The other good thing about
them is that you simply snip what you
grow for the next time you need it.
The point of this little story is that no
one should feel bad about buying big
plants from the garden centre. Even if
they are more expensive than smaller
seedlings or starting plants from seed,
you’ll still find that they are more eco-
nomical than having to purchase veg-
gies from the supermarket, not to men-
tion so much fresher.
Thank you for your continued support.
Anita Kundu
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Here’s a potted summary of the
past week around Anita’s Garden.
Planting Awapuni seedlings
Last Friday, I received a box of
plants for the garden very gener-
ously donated by Awapuni. I
thought I would talk a bit about
each of them.
Lettuce. There were three bun-
dles—Drunken Woman, Red and
Mesclun Mix. I planted these in a
round terracotta container, where
we have happily been growing
lettuce all winter.
Spring onions. I had planted
some spring onions around the
shortest day, but there were a few
gaps so one bundle from Awapuni
was just what I needed to fill in
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Plant celeriac
Celeriac can be hard to start from
seed, so seek some seedlings from
your local garden centre.
2. Spray fruit trees and ros-
es with copper
I alternate between liquid copper
and copper oxychloride every 10-14
days.
Franchi Italian heirloom seeds giveaway!
Gillian Hurley-Gordon of Italian
Seeds Pronto has kindly given me
a collection of Franchi seeds to
give away to one lucky gardener in
New Zealand. The prize contains
the following varieties:
 Radish Gaudry 2
 Mesclun Quattro Stagioni
 Basil Napoletano
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
the remaining spaces.
Silverbeet. As you may recall me
mentioning in last week’s newslet-
ter, some of our silverbeet has
been going to seed so I planted one
bundle in a space left by some
plants that I pulled out.
Beetroot. I asked Awapuni if I
could have one bundle of round
beetroot as I wanted to do a little
experiment this year. Last year I
discovered that it is possible to
grow radish successfully in con-
tainers. This year, I want to see if
I can also grow beetroot in my 35
litre buckets. I used old potting
mix which previously housed our
capsicums over summer and
spaced the seedlings apart gener-
ously . I will report back on them.
3. Plant asparagus
You should be able to find dormant
2 year old crowns at your garden
centre now. With a bit of luck,
you’ll be harvesting fresh aspara-
gus next year!
4. Plant lettuce
I just put in quite a few Salanova
lettuces which were on special at a
local garden centre. They should
 Melone Zatta
 Zucchini Striato d’Italia
To enter, visit my Facebook page
and comment on the pinned post
at the top of the page.
Competition closes Monday 2 Sep-
tember at 5 pm
Open to NZ residents only
V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 6
Herbs. Awapuni has a great selec-
tion of herbs and it’s always diffi-
cult to choose which ones I want
for the garden. I received four bun-
dles—parsley (Italian and curly),
oregano and coriander. I planted
the oregano in a plastic bucket and
put it in the patio along with our
other herbs. I planted the parsley
and coriander in our herb garden
by our back door. No doubt I’ll be
ordering more as we use these.
As these plants grow, I will include
photos so you can see what they
look like. As you can see, space in
my newsletters is very limited. To
see the progress of the garden,
don’t forget to keep an eye on my
social media accounts. The links
are always on the left hand side of
the first page of the newsletter.
keep us going until the ones I
sowed from seed are large enough
to transplant outside.
5. Continue to spray garlic
As we near spring, it is more im-
portant than ever to continue your
spraying regime to prevent rust.
Mine is a mixture of liquid sul-
phur, liquid copper, potassium per-
manganate, raingard and vapor-
gard, as recommended by Wally.
 V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 6
What to do in the garden in September
September is one of the busiest
months for gardeners, and not
without good reason. There is still
rain and the ground is moist
enough for seeds to easily germi-
nate and grow. September is the
perfect time for sowing and plant-
ing many spring and summer veg-
gies. But be careful. Before you
put your gardening gloves on it
pays to check that you are sowing
in the right way and growing
things that are suitable for this
time of the year.
For your ease of reference, I have
organized this list alphabetically
Asparagus. Seek 2 year old
crowns from your nearest garden
centre or sow from seed in punnets
for transplanting later. They will
mature in 3 years.
Beans. I find beans are best left
until November as they are very
sensitive to the cold
Beetroot. Seedlings can be plant-
ed out in September or sow seeds
in punnets for transplanting later
on
Capsicums and chillies. Sow in
punnets undercover for potting up
later. See Page 3 of Issue 5 of my
newsletter for growing tips.
Carrots. Sow direct into loose soil.
Don’t add compost or fertiliser or
you’ll end up with forked roots.
Celeriac. Buy seedlings for plant-
ing in September or sow seeds in
punnets for transplanting later on
Corn. As corn is fast growing, I
sow seeds in October and plant
seedlings out around Labour
Weekend
Cucurbits (cucumbers, melons,
pumpkins, squash, zucchini). I this time of the year, make sure
personally prefer to start these in
October when the weather is a bit
warmer, as they are more sensitive
to the cold. So I recommend defer-
ring these until next month. Be-
sides, it will give you something to
look forward to doing then!
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
Don’t delay planting potatoes for
Christmas day
Eggplants. Sow in punnets under-
cover for potting up later
Herbs. September is the perfect
month for sowing parsley (Italian
and curly), dill and coriander di-
rect to the ground
Kumara. You can start kumara
indoors. I place mine in some dirt
in a trough and leave it in our
greenhouse to form sprouts, which
can later be picked
off and planted
when the weather
“September is the perfect
warms up. I advise
time for sowing and
against planting planting many spring
kumara outdoors
and summer veggies”
until at least La-
bour Weekend, at
the earliest
Lettuce. Plant seedlings in the
ground or in containers. Sow
seeds in punnets for transplanting
later on. Some varieties of lettuce
are suitable for sowing direct, such
as rocket, lamb’s lettuce and min-
ers lettuce
Marigolds. They make a great
companion plant for the summer
veggie garden. They are sensitive
to the cold so don’t plant seedlings
out just yet, but you can start
plants indoors for planting outside
around Labour Weekend
Microgreens. These can be sown
in September. I like to grow these
in a foil roasting tray. Remember
to cut some holes at the bottom for
PAGE 3
drainage.
Parsnips. Sow direct into loose
soil. Don’t add compost or fertilis-
er or you’ll end up with forked
roots.
Peas. Can be sown direct to the
ground in September. Protect
from snails and slugs.
Potatoes. Chit them first. Plant
with the sprouts pointing upwards.
Radish. Seeds can be sown direct
in September. Radish grows well
both in the ground and in contain-
ers, provided that there is suffi-
cient depth.
Rhubarb. You can put rhubarb
plants in now. Get them from your
local garden centre
Silverbeet and spinach. You
can plant seedlings outside from
September onwards. You can also
sow silverbeet and spinach seeds
in punnets filled with seed raising
mix for transplanting into the gar-
den later on
Spring onions
and leeks
Both can be sown
in September in
punnets for
transplanting
later
Strawberries. It’s still not too
late to plant strawberries, but
don’t leave it any longer as they
need time for their roots to settle
into the ground before flowering
and fruiting. See page 2 of Issue 1
for growing tips
Tomatoes. Sow in punnets under-
cover for potting up later. If you
can’t resist purchasing plants at
you keep them indoors until La-
bour Weekend, when they can be
planted outdoors
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!