Advice. Ideas.

Inspiration

Anita’s Garden
Volume 2, Issue 21 13 December 2019

Useful Links Editorial

Webpage
Welcome to the twenty first issue of I am excited to be doing a dwarf bean
Blog trial this year and am planting many
my newsletter Anita’s Garden for
2019. different varieties so I can compare
Newsletter back issues
how they do in the garden. I am grow-
Facebook I hope you have all had a good week. ing the following varieties from Eg-
mont Seeds:
Instagram I’m pleased to report that our two ta-
marillo plants which I grew from seed  Admires
Twitter two years ago, have fruit on them!
This is a real testament to the fact  French Hickok
Linkedin
that it is possible to grow fruit from
 Cherokee Butter
Pinterest seed successfully, as I explored in this
column two weeks ago in my newslet-  French Baby
ter. I think plants raised from seed,
in particular tamarillos, are more ro-  French Commander
Contact me bust than plants purchased from the
garden centre. I feel the same way  French Contender
 Feedback
about asparagus. Our asparagus
patch is comprised of crowns raised
 French Greencrop
 Newsletter input
(tips, recipes, gar- from seed a number of years ago. I  French Jackson
den photos etc) did purchase some one year old
crowns that were on special at the  French Top Crop
 To be added to my garden centre, but these never did as
mailing list well as the ones that were grown from  Green Gold Mix
seed.
anitakundu.nz@gmail.com I am also growing the following dwarf
At this time of the year, it is possible varieties from the Heritage Food Crops
to germinate plants from seed without Research Trust, which were kindly
using a heat pad (perhaps with the given to me by Mark Christiansen:
Inside this issue: exception of okra, which is a heat-
loving vegetable and needs consistent-  Amish dwarf bean
ly warm temperatures during the
 Canadian wonder dwarf bean
night in order to germinate and grow).
P ot te r ing aro u nd 2 I just leave seedlings sown in punnets  Dutch brown soup bean
Anita’s Garden with a little seed raising mix in our
patio. Just remember to water them  Kaiapoi red dwarf bean
well! You may recall me mentioning
Top 5 gardening tasks 2 that I am trialling vermiculite from  Red kidney dwarf bean
for the week Egmont Seeds. During spring, I scat-
 Rijdal A dwarf bean
tered a little vermiculite over my
seeds after sowing them in punnets.  The Prince dwarf bean
Tips for growing dwarf 2
Doing so conserves moisture, which is
beans
helpful if you’re not good at remem- I hope you have enjoyed this week’s
bering to water your plants! I can column.
How to grow okra 3 report that this product has been very
successful and I intend to use it in the Anita Kundu
future. I would also recommend it to
other gardeners.
PAGE 2
Pottering around Anita’s Garden
Over the past week, we have had
new wwoofers staying with us,
Geffrey and Magalie. They helped
us tremendously around the gar-
den, including completing the fol-
lowing tasks:
 Harvesting the Liseta pota-
toes which I planted on the
24th of September
 Sowing dwarf beans in the
same area, after preparing
the ground with compost,
sheep pellets and nitrophos-
ka fertiliser.
 Sowing more zucchini and
cucumber to ensure we have
a continuous supply all
summer long
 Sowing okra on my heat
Top 5 gardening tasks for the week
1. Sow dwarf beans
They mature faster than climbing
beans. If you sow them now, they
should be ready by February
2. Sow more zucchini
If you sow seeds now, your zucchi-
ni should be ready for planting
outside later this month
3. Sow more cucumbers
Tips for growing dwarf beans
Dwarf beans make a great addi-
tion to the summer garden. They
are easy to grow and mature very
quickly. Here are some growing
tips:
 Dwarf beans are easy to
grow from seed or you can
purchase plants from your
garden centre. Awapuni
stock dwarf green beans and
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
pad (for growing tips, see page 3 of
this newsletter)
 Sowing more gem squash as
my first round of plants did-
n’t fare so well
 Planting more eggplants,
capsicums and chillies in
containers
 Planting spring onions in
containers
 Planting a cape gooseberry
plant in the garden
 Weeding the garden to the
right hand side of our drive-
way and our strawberry
patch
 Liquid feeding plants with a
water soluble plant food
You can never have enough crisp,
tasty, fresh cucumbers in the gar-
den. They are so versatile and will
make a fantastic addition to your
salads all summer long. Sow more
seeds now for a continuous supply.
4. Cut back on watering
your garlic
In anticipation of harvesting your
garlic on the longest day of the
year (21st December), start to
deliver direct to your door
 It’s best to sow seed direct
as beans hate their roots
being interfered with, which
is inevitable if they are
transplanted.
 Don’t soak bean seeds. It
isn’t necessary to aid germi-
nation and increases the
risk of seeds rotting in the
V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 2 1
 Clearing out our greenhouse
and nursery, removing
plants which have died
 Planting tomatoes suitable
for growing in containers in
pots for our patio
 Sowing more herbs—thyme,
oregano, sage and tarragon
for us and catmint and cat-
nip for Ginger, our cat
 Planting more tomatoes in
our garden. These included
the wonderful Costoluto va-
riety from Franchi Seeds
(distributed by Italian Seeds
Pronto in NZ), a beefsteak
kind of tomato. I also plant-
ed more San Marzano Re-
dorta tomatoes from Fran-
chi, a low acid variety.
reduce water, which can affect the
length your bulbs can be stored
5. Remove laterals from
your tomatoes
Don’t forget to keep removing the
laterals on your tomato plants so
that they can put all their energy
into producing more fruit rather
than leafy growth. The laterals
are the side-shoots between the
main branch and side stems.
soil
 Prepare the ground well. I
like to mix some compost,
sheep pellets and garden
fertiliser into the soil prior
to sowing
 You should find that dwarf
beans don’t require any sup-
port
 V O LU M E 2 , I S S U E 2 1
How to grow okra
Every year, I try to grow okra in
our summer garden. Okra needs a
long, hot summer in order to do
well, and even so it won’t grow to
six feet tall like it does in Fiji.
Nevertheless, for fans of bindi, as
it is known in Indian, it is well
worth giving it a try.
How to grow okra from seed
The best way to grow okra is from
seed. It may be possible to source
plants—I have seen them for sale
at Palmers in Albany—but they
are scarce. Okra is relatively easy
to grow from seed, provided it is
not sown too early. This heat-
loving vegetable should be sown
from seed in December, and even
then it is my recommendation to
use a heat pad in order to keep
temperatures constant at night.
Soaking seeds overnight helps im-
prove the germination rate as okra
has a hard coating. Sprinkle a
little seed raising mix in a punnet
and cover the seeds lightly. If you
don’t have a heat pad, you can
keep your seedlings incubated in
your hot water cupboard. A handy
thing to invest in is a plastic incu-
bator, which you can purchase in-
expensively from Bunnings. Once
seedlings germinate, remove from
your hot water cupboard and move
them into the light. Once your
seedlings have been pricked out
and potted up (see tip 3 in the next
column), move them to a green-
house where they can remain
warm at night. If your summers
are marginal or short, you might
want to try growing your okra in a
glasshouse. This is a viable option
if growing okra in pots, as I do.
Last year, I kept my pots in the
greenhouse until January, after
which time I moved them outside
when it was warmer.
Varieties
Okra is traditionally green, but it
is possible to find burgundy and
orange varieties, too. Egmont
Seeds stock Burgundy and Emer-
ald Green. I’ll be growing both of
these varieties this summer.
A NI T A ’ S G A R D E N
An okra plant flowering
Tips for growing okra
 Okra needs full sun in order
to do well. This means at
least six hours per day
 In my experience, okra does
better in containers than in
the ground. If you can use
black pots, it is even better
as it will radiate the heat.
3. Once your seedlings have
germinated and grown three
leaves, they can be pricked
out and pot-
ted up indi-
vidually into “Okra is relatively easy to
six-cell pun- grow from seed, provided
nets. it is not sown too early”
4. When they
have grown a bit bigger,
transplant them into 10 cm
pots.
5. The final step is to plant
your okra either into the
ground or containers when
the plants are large enough.
I won’t personally be doing
this until January, when the
weather is warmer.
6. Water well after planting
and thereafter.
7. Liquid feed weekly with a
water soluble plant food
such as Thrive or a seaweed
tonic like Seasol
8. Okra is self-pollinating so
you don’t need to worry too
PAGE 3
much about pollination. Plants
produce both male and female
flowers which pollinate them-
selves.
9. Pick okra as it becomes
ready otherwise it will be
tough to eat. Don’t be sur-
prised if you only start har-
vesting your okra in au-
tumn. It takes all of Janu-
ary and February—the hot-
test months of the year—to
develop before fruiting.
10. Okra is best eaten fresh but
it can be stored in the fridge
if you can’t eat it immediate-
ly. You could also cook and
freeze your okra, for con-
suming when it is out of sea-
son.
11. At the end of the season,
you can try saving seeds
from your plants.
Some ideas for using okra
 Gumbo (a dish eaten in the
Southern states of the US)
 Cooked on
the stove with
some onion, tur-
meric and chilli
 Fried
 Baked
 Pickled
 Curry
 Casserole
 Vegetable stews – add a
handful of chopped okra to a
ratatouille (BBC)
 Bhaji
 Okra with tomatoes
 Soup
Have a great weekend
Happy gardening!