I have recently started reflecting on where plants in our garden are originally from, because people often ask me the same question about myself. Most of our flowers, fruits, veggies and herbs in the garden are from other countries. I have started writing a series of blog posts to explore some of our favourite flowers and edibles we have grown over the years which are from overseas. In my previous blog post, I covered our favourite edibles in the garden which come from Europe. Because there are so many, I decided to divide them into two posts. This post focuses on our favourite brassicas we grow in our garden that are native to Europe. They are cabbage (green and red), cauliflower, broccoli and kale. Since Wombok cabbage (Chinese cabbage) originates from Asia, I will cover that later on when I write about our favourite edibles which are native to that region, of which there are many. If you enjoy gardening, it’s not a bad idea to consider growing the brassicas I mentioned above because they have become rather pricey in New Zealand over the past couple of years, even when they are in season, which for us is during the winter months. Brassicas fare best when grown during the cooler months, so I usually plant them in autumn and winter. If planting brassicas in early autumn, you may need to protect them from the white butterfly. If you want to avoid using a pesticide such as derris dust (which is also available in an organic form), you could always drape fine netting or old net curtains over the plants to protect the white butterfly from laying eggs on the plants which turn into caterpillars who then munch on them rather merrily and can do a lot of damage. I recommend using tunnel hoops to drape the netting fabric over so it doesn’t come into contact with the plants and damage them, similar to the way I cover my strawberries with bird netting. Brassicas are not difficult to grow but can take a long time to mature as growth slows down considerably as it gets cooler. However, there are mini varieties that you can grow which are more compact and mature much more quickly. Another advantage is that because the plants are so compact, they can be planted quite close together. Regular varieties can get quite large and need a wider berth when spacing seedlings. I have grown the mini green cabbages “Ranfurly Mini” and “Space Saver”, the red cabbages “Red Express” and “Ruby Red”, the cauliflower “Majestic Mini” and the broccoli varieties “Mini Italian” and “Mighty Mini”. I highly recommend all of these varieties and have had great success with them. If you are living on your own or with just one other person, or have a large family but other people don’t like eating brassicas, growing mini varieties might be a good idea as it can take a long time to get through a large cabbage or cauliflower. After awhile, they start to lose their freshness. Mini varieties are sometimes small enough to be cooked and consumed in one meal. If you wish to plant brassicas when it has gotten very cold, you can always protect tender seedlings from frosts by covering each plant with a cloche. Cut the bottom off a 2 litre milk bottle and place it over each plant. This also helps keep slugs and snails away from young plants. I don’t recommend relying on this though as they can crawl through the hole at the top, so it’s a good idea to use additional protection to deter them from munching on seedlings. One little tip for growing broccoli is to leave the plant in the ground when you have harvested the main head. After awhile, side shoots will start to form. You can cut these little broccoli florets off the plant. Keep an eye on your plants regularly, as they will continue to form until the plant eventually runs to seed as it gets warmer towards the end of spring or beginning of summer. Kale is a bit different to the other brassicas I have mentioned as it doesn’t form a head and have to harvested at once. You can pick the leaves as you need them. We like using fresh kale leaves in green smoothies. But there are so many other ways kale can be consumed and it is well worth growing in the garden. Towards spring when the plants have fully matured and the leaves are really large, we pick them for making kale chips marinated with olive oil and baked in the oven.
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I have been thinking a lot about Italy lately. The reason is because I started conversing with an Italian I met in an international homesteading forum. He was raised in California and has been living between the US and Italy for most of his life. He is in the process of planting himself in Italy permanently, between Rome and Naples. I couldn’t help but be envious. I am admittedly the world’s worst cherry picker and those are all wonderful places in my opinion for many reasons. Years ago when I worked in an office, I came across a skirt with cherries on it while shopping for clothes. I simply had to have it, because it summed me up perfectly. I don’t wear that skirt anymore now that I am a gardener but even now, if I had to pick fruit for a living, cherries would suit me to the ground. While New Zealand is a very long way from Italy, I have been able to bring Italy to the garden for over a decade by growing veggies and herbs in the famous Franchi Seeds range, which are made available here thanks to the New Zealand importer and distributor Italian Seeds Pronto, which is owned by the lovely Gillian Hurley-Gordon. Franchi Sementi dates back to 1783. All of the seeds in the Franchi range are heirloom, which means that you can save seeds from your plants and be assured that they will come true to type. Just be careful as cross-pollination can sometimes occur. There are ways around this such as planting different varieties far away from each other if space permits, or sticking to just one variety per family if space is tight. In true cherry picking style, I have selected my favourite varieties which I have grown over the years to share with readers. Brassicas I always grow brassicas in our garden during winter. While they take a long time to mature, they are not difficult to grow. I highly recommend Cauliflower Macerata, Cauliflower Romanesco and Broccoli Calabrese. Kale I highly recommend the Black Tuscan Kale Cavolo Nero. It has a wonderful flavour. Towards spring when the plants have grown a lot, we harvest large leaves which are perfect for making kale chips. Lettuce Lettuce is one of my favourite veggies to grow as the taste is so much fresher and succulent than what you would find at the supermarket. Italian Seeds Pronto stock a very wide range and I have enjoyed growing quite a few different varieties over the years. For a peppery flavour, you can’t beat the Rocket Coltivata. I came across Lamb’s Lettuce, which was something I hadn’t heard of until I saw it in Italian Seeds Pronto’s range. My favourite variety is called Verte de Cambrai. Mesclun is really good to have in the garden as it contains lots of different varieties and the leaves can be harvested as you need them. I have grown both Misticanza di Lattughe and Misticanza Quattro Stagioni, which each contain 14 different lettuce varieties. For a great lettuce variety which can be harvested whole or picked as required as a cut-and-come again, you can’t go past Degli Ortolani, which I have grown successfully season after season. It performs well planted both in the ground (ideal if you want it to form a head and harvest it whole) and containers. Spinach There are two fantastic spinach varieties in Italian Seeds Pronto’s range, Merlo Nero and Matador. Both perform very well in spring in our Auckland garden. Zucchini I highly recommend the three zucchini varieties Romanesco, Fiorentino (which wasn’t available last year) and Striato d’Italia. They are prolific, have great flavour and the large flowers are perfect for stuffing. Not all zucchinis produce blooms that are ideal for stuffing. The flowers on my other varieties were small by comparison. Last year, Gillian kindly gave me a round variety called Tondo Chiaro di Nizza, which I had never grown before. It performed incredibly well, despite the floods and cyclones in Auckland. They can be stuffed, baked or steamed. Tomatoes Italian Seeds Pronto offers a wonderful range of tomatoes that are meaty and full of flavour. Eggplants Every summer, I look forward to growing Prosperosa (a round deep purple variety) and Violetta Lunga (a long deep purple variety). I always grow my eggplants in containers as space is tight and I leave the ground for growing root crops as well as veggies that sprawl, such as pumpkins and melons. Pumpkins I highly recommend the variety Marina di Chioggia. Don’t be put off by the warts on the exterior! Personally, I find them charming and they help the pumpkin to store longer. This variety also has a great flavour. One of my favourite ways to consume pumpkin is in cannelloni made with fresh spinach (ideally Matador and Merlo Nero, which are covered above). Herbs Basil Basil is a staple in our summer garden. I always grow it in containers to save ground space for other crops and for ease of harvesting. For pesto, the perfect variety is Italiano Classico which has deep green glossy leaves. For something different, I have also grown the lettuce leaf basil variety Foglie di Lattughe. This variety is ideal for wrapping balls of mozzarella. Parsley Italian Seeds Pronto stock the Italian flat leaf parsley variety Gigante di Napoli, which has a fantastic flavour. Thyme The thyme Timo di Provenza is hands down the best variety I have ever come across. It has so much more flavour compared to common thyme. It did very well in 9 litre household buckets with holes poked in the bottom for drainage. Oregano
We always use fresh oregano in homemade pasta sauce. The oregano in Italian Seeds Pronto’s range has a wonderful flavour. I have been very busy in the garden this month. The shortest day is actually my favourite time of the year, as it marks when I plant strawberries, onions and garlic, which I really enjoy growing in our garden. Did you know that once the shortest day (21st June) has passed, every day is lighter by one minute more? I think this is what seems to trigger growth for some veggies, including alliums. Onions do really well if planted as seedlings around this time of the year. Here is a round up of what I have been doing so far this month. Spring bulbs A week ago, I planted out the last of my spring bulbs. I was a bit late in receiving my tulips and hyacinths from Bulbs Direct this year because the owner had Covid and had to self-isolate. I somehow managed to plant everything out in two days. I also sent my cousin Shireen who lives in Whangarei a package which included some tulips and daffodils (from another bulb order which arrived in mid-May). Bulbs Direct usually upload their spring bulb catalogue on the website in mid-January and it does pay to get in quick with your order as popular varieties sell out fast. In addition to offering a fantastic range of spring bulbs at very reasonable prices and great customer service, Bulbs Direct is also happy to pre-chill your tulip and hyacinth bulbs if you live in a climate with mild winters, like Auckland. This ensures that your flowers have long stems and are suitable for picking. I have grown tulips and hyacinths which were not pre-chilled in the past and I noticed that the plants were considerably stunted by comparison. Lifting dahlias Towards the end of May I started the process of lifting our dahlia tubers and carried on with this task into June. We have had quite a bit of rain recently and I was concerned that I might lose the tubers to rot if I left them in the ground over winter. I have stored all our dahlia tubers in plastic Sistema crates filled with some potting mix and saw dust. Mum sprays them with water every day to keep the tubers alive. Here is a picture of how I have stored them in our greenhouse, as there is no available space in our garage. Strawberries I didn’t need to order any new strawberry plants as my plants from last year went absolutely wild and produced so many runners! Most of my plants were given to me by Awapuni last year and are the variety Camarosa. It took me awhile to tidy up our patch. It looked like a complete jungle to begin with. I wasn’t sure where to start so I enlisted the advice of a fellow gardener called Candy, who goes by the Insta handle @nzgardener. Candy is an expert on growing strawberries and grew over 26kg of fruit last summer. Candy advised me not to dig up and replant all my plants, which is what she is doing in her own garden. She said that I just needed to remove the runners that had appeared in the pathways between rows and replant them elsewhere, so we would have little pathways to walk between rows to pick the berries as they ripen. I created three new rows of strawberries with the additional runners, so we now have a total of seven rows of strawberries. I did not count how many plants we have in total but a rough guesstimate is 300 plants. Here are some photos of what our strawberry patch looks like now. Onions Over the past fortnight, I planted eight punnets of Pukekohe Longkeeper brown onions and five punnets of Californian red onions. I found four punnets of brown onions and the five punnets of red onions on clearance at the Warehouse and it made sense to purchase them at $1 and $1.50 per punnet. I got the remaining four punnets of brown onions for free by redeeming a $10 voucher at Kings Plant Barn. They have a loyalty card and I had accrued enough points over time to redeem a reward. I received a very pleasant surprise when I went to pay at the checkout! What is a shame is that this year I had every intention of ordering onion seedlings from Awapuni, who stock both brown and red onions but I have more than enough and don’t need to do this. Nor do I need to bother raising any onions from seed in spring, as I did last year. I find onions incredibly easy to grow. Other than keeping the weeds down, they need little care until they are harvested in mid-summer. Garlic I wasn’t intending to grow garlic this year after struggling with rust for the past few seasons. Like a lot of gardeners, I lost all of my good seed stock and had to keep purchasing new seed garlic. It is becoming very difficult to source and is very expensive. The quality of what you get these days isn’t that great, either. A picture of an amazing garlic harvest popped up on my Facebook feed and belonged to a gardener in one of the many gardening Facebook groups I belong to. I happened to comment on what an incredible crop it was and mentioned that I had given up because of my on-going battle with rust. The author of the post responded with some advice – to spray the foliage with apple cider vinegar. She was kind enough to let me in on her secret and that is to mix 1 cup of apple cider vinegar (she uses the Countdown Homebrand one which is around $4 for a bottle) with 5 litres of water. I have planted four varieties: Printanor, Red Russian, Ajo Rojo and Elephant. I was very fortunate that a fellow Auckland gardener gave me some spare elephant garlic cloves as I had been having problems sourcing them this year. I gave some of each garlic variety to my cousin in Whangarei, along with some strawberry runners and dianthus Diana Blueberry plants that I raised from seed in autumn. Ornamental kale
The two garden beds that I planted with ornamental kale seedlings when I returned home from our bach in mid-May are shaping up nicely. I grew three varieties from seed, Crane Pink, Crane White and Crane Bicolour. |
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