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. This is the last post in this series. To close, I would like to cover plants we have grown in our garden that originate from Australia and New Zealand, which is the region where I live. Jarrahdale and Queensland Blue Pumpkins While pumpkins are thought to originate from North America (which I covered in my previous blog post), the varieties Jarrahdale and Queensland Blue come from Australia. I don’t think it’s exactly a coincidence that both of these varieties perform exceptionally well in our garden, since they are from this part of the world. As I have mentioned when covering our favourite edibles which come from Europe, the pumpkin Musquee de Provence which comes from Southern France does not perform well in our microclimate. In all the years that I have faithfully sown a packet of seeds every spring, we have only ever harvested one pumpkin. Both of these varieties have great flavour and also store very well. Kamo Kamo I enjoy growing a type of squash called Kamo Kamo, which is native to New Zealand and was consumed by the Maori, the indigenous people to NZ. It needs very long hot summers in order to crop well. Because our summers start later every year, are shorter and temperatures are cooler due to climate change, we usually only get a couple even if I sow an entire packet of seeds. New Zealand Spinach
As the name suggests, NZ Spinach is also native to this country. It performs well in warm weather, so I recommend planting seedlings outside when summer has started.
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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 this post, I would like to cover plants we have grown in our garden that originate from North America. Sunflowers Every summer, I look forward to growing sunflowers in our garden. When I first started gardening a decade ago, I grew the very tall ornamental branching varieties which attract bees and help to pollinate veggies. In the past few years, I have become increasingly interested in flower farming, so I started growing sunflowers which are bred for the cut flower industry. These flowers produce only a single stem with one head. They are also pollenless. Usually, varieties suitable for picking tend to be hybrids. If you save seeds from your plants, they might not necessarily come true to type. The seeds also tend to be a lot more expensive than ornamental sunflowers. You can usually pick up a packet of these seeds for a few dollars from garden centres. Here are some cutting varieties I grew last summer. Rudbeckia Two years ago, I discovered rudbeckia, which are a rather charming flower in the same family as sunflowers. I purchased a packet of seeds on special from a large NZ mail order supplier called Kings Seeds. Every month, they have discounted seeds on their website, reduced by 40%. At $2.37 for a packet of seeds, I felt that I didn’t have anything to lose by giving it a try. I scattered the seeds in some punnets filled with seed raising mix and covered them with a light layer of the same product. I did this in mid-December. I left the seeds to germinate inside our greenhouse, but placed the punnets inside a plastic Sistema crate. I left the crate open during the day but covered it with a lid at night for extra warmth, as it can still be quite temperamental even at the start of summer. I kept the punnets moist by spraying them with the hose on the mist setting. Once the seedlings germinated and grew a bit, I moved them into our patio to grow a bit more before transplanting them into seedling trays, which you can see in the picture below. Once the plants were large enough, I planted them in plastic troughs outside once our marigolds finished flowering. By that time, it was late summer and the plants flowered in autumn. Blueberries When I set up our mini orchard in 2017, I planted quite a few different blueberry varieties in large containers. Prior to that, when I first started gardening, I did pick up a couple of blueberry plants on clearance at the garden centre and planted them in the ground, but they ended up dying. My theory is that the soil was too alkaline for their liking. Blueberries thrive in acidic soil. There are certainly things you can do to change the soil conditions where they are planted, such as adding pine needles. But this is of course an on-going task as any matter added to the ground will gradually decompose and fresh material will need to be added. For that reason, I wanted an alternative. In the past, Mitre 10 (a NZ hardware store with a garden centre) held a garden club evening around October. On one occasion, a sales rep from Tui, a large gardening company which makes a range of products, attended and gave a talk. He said that blueberries can be grown in containers filled with an acidic mixture called Pot Power, which is made by Tui. After having a chat to him after his talk, I decided to plant our blueberries this way and they have all done really well. The plants are much smaller and less productive than if grown in the ground under the right conditions, but are well-suited to an urban homestead like ours, where space is limited and the soil conditions are not naturally ideal. Pumpkins Every summer, I enjoy growing pumpkins. Here is a picture of the pumpkin Atlantic Giant, which I grew one year. It is an ornamental pumpkin that is used for entering pumpkin growing competitions. They are not as common here as in the US, which is a shame because I think they are fun and a great thing for young people to get involved in. There are so many temptations for youth, including recreational drugs and binge drinking, which aren’t good for your health. Pumpkin growing competitions are an example of good, wholesome fun that the whole family can be involved in. Contests bring together all the growers as part of a community, which is also nice. Modern society can be very individualistic. People can sometimes feel a bit isolated and lonely. I have recently written a blog post containing some tips for growing pumpkins, which you can read here.
Miners lettuce Every spring, I sow miners lettuce. As the name suggests, it was consumed by miners to prevent scurvy. It has a lovely flavour. You can pick the leaves as they become ready. As the weather warms up towards the beginning of summer, the plants start going to seed. 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 Mexico. In this post, I will focus on our favourite edibles which come from Europe. I have already covered our favourite flowers in the garden which originate from Europe in my first blog post in this series. Musquee de Provence pumpkin While pumpkins are not native to France, the variety Musquee de Provence comes from Southern France. Now that I am a gardener, when I think of France, an image of the Musquee de Provence pumpkin comes to mind. After that, there are a lot of things I fondly associate with France and way too many to name here, including the beautiful language, rich history and culture, the metro, RER and TGV which enable you to travel everywhere quickly, easily and affordably, rugby, football, the Tour de France, the fabulous cuisine (including gastronomie) bread, cheese, wine and champagne, Monet’s gardens at Giverny, Versailles with its palace and fabulous grounds, Paris (especially the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and le Musée d’Orsay), province (especially the interesting WWII museum in Caen, the Loire and its famous castles, the Alps, the French Riviera and Biarritz), fashion, L’Occitane and Carré Blanc. Unfortunately, because I knew absolutely nothing about gardening when I lived in France many years ago, I didn’t look out for Musquee de Provence at farmers markets in the South of France, where it is sometimes found and sold in wedges, so I read somewhere. This variety is great for making pumpkin soup, which is a favourite of ours in winter. Strawberries According to my research, the first garden strawberry was bred in Brittany, in France. Homegrown strawberries are so much sweeter and juicier than store bought ones, which can be quite tasteless so they are well worth growing in my opinion, even if you only have room for a few plants. Last summer wasn’t a good season for strawberries as we had too much rain in Auckland, but we had an excellent crop the year before that, as you can see in the picture below. Towards the end of the season when they stop producing fruit, the plants produce runners, which are baby strawberry plants. They usually put down roots on their own, but you can peg down any you see that haven’t done so with an n-shaped staple so they form roots. Because the plants have grown much larger and there are so many runners, your patch can end up looking quite messy by the end of the season, like this. Towards the end of autumn I carefully tidied it up, removing any runners that had planted themselves in the pathways and transplanted them into extra rows I created. This made the patch easier to navigate which is essential when harvesting fruit in summer as you need to walk between rows. By transplanting runners and dividing very large plants, you can significantly increase the number of strawberry plants you have and the size of your patch for the following year. This can be time consuming depending on how many plants you have, but in my opinion it is well worth the effort. The green tunnel hoops are for draping bird netting over when fruit starts ripening (usually in mid-spring), to avoid the netting from coming into contact with the plants and fruit. Parsnips Parsnips are native to Europe. I love growing them. They do well sown in spring and autumn and I recently discovered that they can be grown in 35 litre containers, which is really handy if you don’t have much ground space. For the best germination results, I recommend purchasing fresh seeds and storing them in the fridge until you are ready to sow them. This is known as stratification and some seeds benefit from this prior to germination, in order to improve the strike rate which can be hit or miss otherwise. Swiss chard Swiss chard is commonly referred to as silverbeet in New Zealand. It is very easy to grow and is incredibly nutritious. We grow it year round so we can harvest the leaves as we need them. Lately it has become challenging to grow well and succumbs to rust due to the high rainfall we have had in Auckland in the past year. Asparagus
Something that differentiates asparagus from most other veggies is that it is a perennial, rather than an annual plant. In saying that though, in countries with a very hot climate all year round, there may well be lots of plants (both flowers and edibles) that behave as perennials which don’t in more temperate climates and come to an end as it starts getting cooler. Asparagus can be grown from seed or you can purchase one year old crowns from garden centres or mail order suppliers who stock bulbs and other edibles such as garlic and potatoes. The advantage of growing asparagus from seed is that it is much more economical, as one year old crowns can be quite expensive for what they are, which brings me to my next point. I have planted both in our asparagus patch, and I noticed that asparagus grown from seed is always much healthier and produces better, stronger spears than purchased crowns. When purchasing crowns, make sure they haven’t dried out (usually they are sold in bags covered with some dirt or sawdust like lily bulbs, which are in the same plant family) otherwise they won’t be viable. In France, you might come across white asparagus sold fresh in bunches and preserved in bottles. Even though I was not a gardener when I lived there a long time ago, I did notice that because I love asparagus and have never seen white asparagus in New Zealand. However, the heirloom white French variety Argenteuil is available in New Zealand through Italian Seeds Pronto, the NZ importer and distributor of Franchi heirloom seeds from Italy. It is currently out of stock, so keep an eye out for when it becomes available again. 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. Pumpkins are incredibly expensive right now in New Zealand so I thought it might be a good idea to write a blog with some tips for growing them. It is the wrong time of the year to sow pumpkin seeds in the southern hemisphere, but this blog post is timely for any readers in the Northern Hemisphere who wish to grow pumpkins this season.
Inspite of having such a terrible summer, we ended up harvesting around 30 pumpkins. I was very surprised. I sowed quite a few varieties, but the ones that were most successful were Blue Prince (a crown-type), Queensland Blue, Jarrahdale, Blue Hubbard and Marina di Chioggia. Unfortunately our butternut pumpkins did not fare as well. We only harvested two of them. I think they tend to need very hot weather in order to crop well. Pumpkins do need a bit of space as they sprawl over the ground. It is not practicable to grow them in containers. If you don’t have a lot of ground space, you can grow things like capsicums, chillies and eggplants in containers and use your ground space for growing pumpkins and squash. Reasons why I recommend growing pumpkins
Tips for growing pumpkins
Here’s a round up of developments in the garden. Harvesting pumpkins and butternuts My pumpkins and butternuts died off the vines quite early this year so I harvested them and stored them inside. The butternut variety that we grew this year was called Chieftain. We also grew Spaghetti Squash and the following pumpkin varieties – Blue Hubbard, Jarrahdale and Queensland Blue. All of these are known to store really well. Harvesting okra Our okra is starting to become ready! This season I grew four varieties: Gunjan, Emerald Green, Clemson Spineless and Burgundy. I planted my okra in 9 litre square black plastic containers (around the size of a household bucket). I have 193 plants in total. Every two days, I keep an eye on them as they mature quickly. It’s best to harvest them while they are young otherwise they can start to become too tough. Planting rudbeckia seedlings My marigolds that were planted in large plastic baba troughs had just about had it, so I pulled them out and replaced them with some dwarf rudbeckia seedlings that I raised from seed. This is the first time that I have grown rudbeckia and I am very pleased with the results. They are very easy to grow from seed and required little effort on my part. Potting up seedlings I have been busy working in my nursery. I have been potting up lettuce seedlings (including the wonderful variety Degli Ortolani from Italian Seeds Pronto), Pak Choi, Silverbeet, Kale and Spinach. When they have grown a bit in the seed raising trays I transferred them to, I will move them into the garden. I expect this to be in March some time. Next steps
It has been a shamelessly long time since I have written a blog post and I thought it was about time I resurrected the blog section of my website. Apart from the three month hiatus when my laptop was being repaired during the last lockdown, I have been very diligent at writing my weekly gardening newsletter. I really think that this would benefit from being supplemented by extra gardening tips and news about what is happening at Anita’s Garden. I will try to include the link to my recent blog posts in my newsletter, so readers can stay up to date. It feels like summer is over. Our Naked Ladies have started flowering, which for me is a sign that we have moved into autumn. It has been an interesting season with a mix of successes and failures. I would like to share them with you. Successes
Failures
Pumpkins and squash always feature prominently in our summer garden. They are very easy to grow. Almost too easy, most gardeners would agree. As they do take up quite a bit of room, a lot of gardeners don’t bother growing them.
For those that do grow them, pumpkins are somewhat taken for granted in the garden. Indeed, the biggest problem you’ll probably have is working out what to do with your abundance! It’s a good thing that they store well and will see you through autumn and winter. Like zucchini which I discussed in an earlier blog post, in previous years, we’ve always taken pumpkins and squash for granted as a guaranteed summer crop. But by a freak of nature we were cursed with a terrible season last summer and harvested very few pumpkins and squash as a consequence. I’ve therefore decided to do a bit more research into growing them so I can work out where we went wrong. Despite being so easy to grow, pumpkins in particular are hideously expensive in supermarkets, especially at Christmas time because it’s a popular feature of the traditional roast for lunch. A small wedge of pumpkin can cost around $6 and it’s hardly enough to feed the entire family. Unfortunately, your own homegrown pumpkin crop won’t be ready by Christmas for you to harvest but in my view, it’s worth growing pumpkins so you can store them for a time when crops become scarce in the garden. Homegrown pumpkins taste so much fresher and nicer than store bought ones. In your garden, you can also grow unusual varieties which are not found at the supermarket. Pumpkins are very versatile in cooking. Pumpkin can be used in soups, added to curries, served with roasts, used as a gourmet pizza topping and added cold to salads. Squash are all different and can be used in a variety of ways, but we normally just have them steamed with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. I hope that with the help of the information in this guide, you’ll be able to grow some of your own pumpkins and squash successfully this season. Traditionally, pumpkins and squash can be planted outside in New Zealand by Labour Weekend, which is a long weekend with a public holiday falling on the Monday after the weekend (like a Bank Holiday in England). Labour Weekend usually falls towards the end of October. This year, Labour Weekend starts on 21 October. While it’s natural to want a head start on the season, my advice is to not be in a rush to plant out seedlings. There is often a dramatic difference between day and night time temperatures at this time of the year and the weather can still be quite temperamental. Young seedlings are particularly tender. Once they’ve been hit by a sudden cold snap or exposed to consistently low temperatures, they never really recover. It’s therefore a good idea to wait until the beginning of November to plant pumpkin and squash seedlings into your garden, when temperatures are warmer. This way, the seedlings you plant out will be a bit more established and strong enough to survive any setbacks along the way. In saying that, it does depend on where you live. New Zealand’s climate varies dramatically from region to region and I do have to remember that not all of my audience lives in Auckland or even New Zealand for that matter. My personal gardening experiences are limited to our urban homestead in the Auckland region, so please take this into account when considering my advice. On the same token, what grows well in my environment may not necessarily thrive in your own microclimate. So please don’t blame me if things go wrong and the varieties I’ve recommended don’t grow well in your garden! Sowing pumpkins and squash from seed It’s much too early to think about planting pumpkins and squash outdoors. It’s still way too cold! However, I wanted to write a guide to growing pumpkins and squash now because you can start sowing them under cover from seed. It’s really easy to grow these curcubits from seed and it allows you to grow unusual varieties which aren’t found in garden centres. It takes about six to eight weeks from the time of the germination of a pumpkin or squash seed to produce a plant that is large enough to transplant outside. Pumpkins and squash can be started from seed indoors in October or even earlier if you live in a more temperate zone and have a hot house to protect them from the cold. Pumpkin and squash seeds need warmth in order to germinate. I germinate seeds in punnets or egg cartons filled with seed raising mix from Gardn Gro. I like Gardn Gro’s seed raising mix as it is very fine in texture, enabling seeds to push through the mixture easily as they rise to the surface. I place the punnets and egg cartons inside plastic incubators which you can purchase from garden centres. I then place the incubators on a heat pad indoors and spray plants with water once daily or twice if the seed raising mixture is very dry. If you don’t have a heat pad you can also use your hot water cupboard which will also provide seedlings with a warm environment so they can germinate successfully. How to care for pumpkin and squash seedlings For new gardeners, those who don’t wish to start their pumpkin and squash seedlings from seed or if you’ve simply left it too late, plants are available for sale in nurseries from September onwards. Palmers stock a great range of these seedlings. Awapuni also sell high quality, large grade pumpkin seedlings delivered direct to your door. If you order 7 or more bundles of seedlings, delivery is free. I plan to sell a variety of different pumpkin seedlings in my own boutique nursery later in the season. Keep an eye out for details in my newsletter, on Neighbourly and my Facebook page as to when they become available. During October and November, I will also circulate updated lists of available stock in my plant nursery to subscribers of my free weekly gardening newsletter. To be added to my mailing list and receive these notifications, please email me at anitakundu.nz@gmail.com. I’ll probably be selling seedlings a bit later than stores because I’m merely a home gardener, germinating and caring for seedlings in our patio at home without the help of the horticultural technology that you would expect to find in a commercial operation. Without a hot house, I simply don’t have a head start on the season like large-scale nurseries. To compensate for this, I do try and offer seedling varieties which are unusual and can’t be found in garden centres or online retailers. This is a good thing as it enables me to collaborate with other businesses in the industry and promote their brands. You can achieve a lot by working with other people in the same field (no pun intended), as opposed to simply trying to compete with them. To read my further thoughts on this issue, please click here. Whoever you decide to buy plants from, take care to keep plants undercover until early October as zucchini are frost sensitive. The weather can be temperamental in spring and the nights are often still quite cool. From then on, start “hardening them off”. This is the process of exposing plants to the outdoors incrementally, for example, for two hours in the middle of the day for the first week, increasing to four hours per day for the next week. Continue to bring the plants indoors at night. By the third week of October, it should be safe to leave plants outdoors overnight. Pumpkin and squash varieties If you’re planning to grow pumpkins and squash from seed, you’ll find that they come in an impressive array of shapes, colours and sizes. So many different varieties to choose from! Like me, you’ll have a hard time deciding what to grow in your garden this summer. The most traditional variety of pumpkin that you’ll find year round in most supermarkets in New Zealand is called crown pumpkin (Whangaparoa Crown and Pumpkin Crown F1, Egmont Seeds). Also popular in home gardens here are the Australian heirloom varieties Jarrahdale and Queensland Blue (Egmont Seeds). Triamble (Egmont Seeds) is another great heritage variety which stores very well due to its thick skin. But our favourite grey heirloom traditional pumpkin would have to be Blue Hubbard (Egmont Seeds). This variety of pumpkin is extremely large and has a hard shell which makes it ideal for long storage. The flesh is yellow-orange, sweet and fibre-free. I also really like the heirloom Italian variety Tonda Padana (Franchi Seeds), which is beautiful and has alternating vertical grey, orange and green stripes. I highly recommend growing the heirloom variety Marina di Chioggia (Franchi Seeds), which yields large knobbly fruits that are deep blue-green in colour. Both Tonda Padana and Marina di Chioggia are simply beautiful on the outside and have delicious orange flesh on the inside. Butternut pumpkin is one of our favourite varieties because of its lovely orange flesh and rich, sweet taste. Try growing Rugosa (Franchi Seeds) and Buffy’s Gold (Egmont Seeds). If you like making pumpkin pie, a good choice is Sugar Pie (Egmont Seeds). If you want to grow pumpkins purely for size and as a novelty, especially if you have children, try growing Atlantic Giant (Egmont Seeds). There is something for everyone! Our favourite varieties of squash include Gem Squash (Pumpkin Squash Gem Squash Hybrid, Egmont Seeds) and Spaghetti Squash (Tivoli F1). My mother comes from South Africa and she introduced me to Gem Squash a few summers ago. These incredibly prolific squash are small, round and dark green in colour. We enjoy them steamed with a bit of butter, salt and pepper. Every summer, we also grow Spaghetti Squash. The stringy flesh is similar to spaghetti in texture. Spaghetti squash can be baked in the oven and the flesh can them be scooped out and cooked slightly in a pot with butter, lots of garlic, salt and pepper. Simply delicious! Another variety of squash worth growing and which performed well in the garden last year is Golden Nugget (Egmont Seeds). We also enjoy growing Kumi Kumi every summer (Egmont Seeds). Kumi Kumi is a green ribbed squash which can either be used fresh from the garden or stored over the winter once it has matured and the skin has turned hard. To order seeds from the very extensive Egmont Seeds range, visit http://www.egmontseeds.co.nz/. To find stockists for Franchi Seeds or to order Franchi seeds directly from the New Zealand distributor Italian Seeds Pronto owned by Gillian Hurley-Gordon, visit http://www.italianseedspronto.co.nz/. How to care for pumpkin and squash plants Pumpkin and squash need at least 6 hours of sunshine per day, so be sure to plant seedlings in the sunniest spot in your garden. Before planting pumpkin and squash seedlings, take the time to prepare the bed properly so plants receive adequate nutrition. Dig the area over that you wish to plant your seedlings in. Mix plenty of compost and some sheep pellets into the ground. I highly recommend Gardn Gro’s Wonder Nuggets, which are 100% organic and function as an excellent fertiliser. Rake the ground so that it is nice and level. Add some tomato fertiliser to each plant’s hole at the time of planting, to give plants a strong start to life. Be sure to water plants every day, preferably early in the morning or in the evening. In November and December, plants are in their most active growing phase. Try not to get too much water on the leaves, otherwise your plants may develop powdery mildew. Liquid feed melons weekly to encourage the growth of healthy leaves and the formation of flowers, which will develop into fruit after they have been pollinated. Pollination of pumpkins and squash Pumpkins and squash need to be pollinated in order to develop fruit. As the flowers on pumpkin and squash plants are quite large, you’ll find that bees will do all the work for you. Personally, I wouldn’t bother going to the effort of pollinating them by hand, unlike melons which benefit from hand-pollination, which I covered in a previous blog post. Harvesting your pumpkin and squash Generally speaking, pumpkins and squash need a very long growing season in order to mature and for the flesh inside to sweeten. With the exception of Gem Squash and Kumi Kumi, which can be picked young and fresh, it’s advisable to leave pumpkins and squash to die on the vine and then harvest them in early autumn. I normally harvest my pumpkins and squash in March or sometimes even in April. While this may seem like a long wait, don’t forget that there will be plenty of other veggies to harvest in the garden during the summer, such as zucchini, tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums and chillies, and potatoes. As mentioned above, pumpkin and squash can be stored over winter. After harvesting them, clean and wipe the pumpkins and allow them to dry properly. Store them in a cool, dry place. Make sure they’re not touching each other so that the air can circulate freely. Inspect your pumpkins and squash from time to time for rot. We find that pumpkins and squash store very well for around six months, but it is possible to store them properly for longer than this. |
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