I have recently started reflecting on where the 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 flowers in the garden which come from Mexico. In this post, I will focus on our favourite edibles which also come from Mexico. Avocados There are so many great edibles in our garden which are native to Mexico, but the avocado is at the top of my list. This is going back quite a few years, but I remember an economist in NZ saying that young people would never be able to buy a house if they kept spending $20 eating avocado on toast in cafes. I have never been to Mexico, so I have no idea if cafes serve avocado that way and how much it costs. Maybe a Mexican economist has said pretty much the same thing about their younger generation, even if he or she didn’t refer to eating out and avocados, which might not be as expensive over there. Back in 2017, we planted the first dwarf avocado variety made available in New Zealand, which is called Cleopatra. It is a Type B avocado. Cleopatra is supposed to be self-pollinating, but I also planted a semi-dwarf Type A variety called Esther. I’m really glad I did that because since then we have been getting much more fruit. Tomatoes Tomatoes are a staple in our summer garden. Large varieties such as Beefsteak haven’t performed well in recent years, due to shorter and cooler summers which start later every year. The plants need to be grown in the ground and take a long time to develop before fruit forms. After that they require a lot of sun in order to ripen as the fruits are large and take a long time to change from green to red. These days, I prefer growing cherry tomatoes that have been bred for container planting. The plants are short and bushy and the small fruits ripen quickly. We sometimes even harvest cherry tomatoes before Christmas, which is nice. Don’t let the compact size of the plants fool you. They are actually much more productive than tall cherry tomatoes grown in the ground, in my experience. Even despite the floods and cyclones last summer, we ended up having way too many and shared the surplus with friends. Peppers I usually grow peppers (capsicums) in 35 litre black containers in order to save ground space for root crops which require depth (such as potatoes and sweet potato) and crops which need room to sprawl (such as pumpkins and melons). I noticed that peppers actually grow much better in containers than in the ground in our garden anyway. Chillies While the Jalapeno comes to mind when thinking of Mexican cuisine, there are so many different chilli varieties that exist with varying levels of heat. I got to know a guy who lives on the North Shore that loves growing superhot chillies, because he came around to purchase some plants when I was running a nursery from home a number of years ago. He always shares weird and wonderful chilli seeds with me and I usually give him other veggie seeds to round out his garden. Some chilli growers like making sauces but we always freeze them and use them free flow as required in cooking. Potatoes Until I did some research, I didn’t realise that the potato was native to Mexico, but sometimes things are not quite where you think they’re from. I love growing potatoes. They are incredibly easy to grow and you can’t beat the flavour of homegrown spuds. Potatoes can be roughly divided into two groups, early and main varieties. As the name suggests, early varieties mature early in the season and are usually waxy in texture, making them ideal for boiling. They tend not to store that well. Main crop varieties take longer to mature and are often floury in texture, making them perfect for baking and roasting. My favourite early variety is Liseta and my favourite main variety is Summer Delight. That is the conclusion I came to after growing a lot of different varieties over the years and comparing their performance. Both Liseta and Summer Delight are high yielders and produce lots of large potatoes. They also have a fantastic flavour. But that is a matter of opinion. Other gardeners might disagree with me because they have had a different experience growing them or prefer other varieties. I’m not sure if those varieties are available overseas but I’m sure you will find something that suits local conditions, if your climate is suitable for growing potatoes. Sweet potatoes I didn’t realise sweet potatoes were native to Mexico either. We didn’t have a good harvest last summer due to cooler than usual temperatures and the floods and cyclones in Auckland. But the previous year, we had a bumper crop. I also wrote a blog post sharing my tips for growing kumara, which people can read if they are interested. If you follow the link, you can see a picture of our entire harvest at the top of the page. Corn I love the well-known Mexican dish esquites which requires corn. Unfortunately, it’s not something that I have great success growing in our garden. While cobs reached a decent size in some seasons, they were nowhere near as large as what you would find at the supermarket. Corn is pollinated by the wind. It needs to be planted in blocks rather than rows, otherwise pollination will be patchy and you might end up with lots of gaps in the cobs. Getting the spacing right can be a bit tricky. If you plant seedlings too far apart, they won’t be pollinated properly by the wind as they need to come into contact with one another. If you plant seedlings too close, the cobs will be quite small. Squash According to my research, squash is native to Central America and Mexico. Our favourite squash is the butternut, which has a wonderful flavour. Butternut squash is extremely versatile and can be prepared in so many different and tasty ways. One of our favourite dishes is stuffed butternuts. The picture below contains homegrown butternut that has been stuffed with feta cheese (a favourite) and herbs from the garden. Above that is some sweet potato, also from our garden. This was prepared by my mother. I am a terrible cook. The extent of my skills in the kitchen is limited to making avocado on toast. Although this post was dedicated to edibles that are native to Mexico, I really love marigolds which also originate from Mexico and I covered in my previous post. I wanted to finish this post by sharing a photo of one of my favourite varieties which is called French Vanilla. Marigolds are a great companion plant in the veggie garden and are thought to help keep pests away from edibles. I grew these ones in a plastic trough. You can’t see them in the photo as they are too little, but I planted climbing beans (also grown from seed) along the fence line which the trellis is attached to and they complement each other nicely.
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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. 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
This year, I’m excited to be growing an even larger selection of tomatoes than usual. The reason for this is that I wanted to conduct a growing trial, similar to the one I am doing for basil, which you can read about here. Tomatoes and basil are a perfect combination and complement each other really well, so they make a nice pair of growing trials. Tomatoes are one of our favourite summer veggies and every year we look forward to growing our favourite varieties. This year, I am excited to be growing many new varieties, some of which were given to me by Egmont Seeds and Franchi (distributed by Italian Seeds Pronto in New Zealand), for whom I am a brand ambassador. Here is a list of varieties which I am growing this year. This is not an exhaustive list. There are so many interesting and unusual varieties out there but I have had to narrow it down to encompass a variety of tomatoes, as well as our fondness for cocktail size tomatoes which are great for salads in summer. Of note is the number of container/hanging basket varieties which I will be growing this year. I hope to compare and contrast how they perform. Hopefully my suggestions will be useful to gardeners who are short of space or enjoy container gardening, as I do.
I will be following up on their progress throughout the season so keep an eye out on my blog. Varieties I am growing this season Beefsteak varieties Beefsteak (plants purchased from Kings Plant Barn) Big Beef (Egmont) Big Boy (Egmont) Better Boy (Egmont) Costoluto Fiorentino (Franchi) Red Pear (Franchi) Steakhouse (Egmont) Low acid Roma (Egmont) San Marzano (Egmont) San Marzano Redorta (Franchi) Cherry tomatoes Baxter’s Early Bush Cherry (Kings Seeds) Gold Nugget (Kings Seeds) Honeybee (Kings Seeds) Lady Bug (Kings Seeds) Orange Cherry (Kings Seeds) Rapunzel (Egmont Seeds) Red Cherry (Franchi) Sweet Hearts (Egmont) Sugar Plum (Kings Seeds) Suncherry (Kings Seeds) Sungold (Kings Seeds) Sweet 100 (Egmont) Sweet Gold (Egmont) Tommy Toe (Egmont) Yellow Pear (Egmont) Medium sized tomatoes Black Krim (McGregors) Cluster Saxon (Egmont) Dr Walters Special (Egmont) Jaune Flamme (Kings Seeds) Midnight (Kings Seeds) Moneymaker (Egmont Seeds) Mortgage Lifter (Yates) Principe Borghese (Franchi) Yellow Plum (Kings Seeds) Potentate (Plants purchased from Kings Plant Barn) Container/hanging basket tomatoes Balcony (Egmont) Birdie Canary (Egmont) Container Choice Red (Kings Seeds) Patio (Egmont Seeds) Patio Choice Yellow (Kings Seeds) Siderno (Kings Seeds) Tidy Treats (Egmont) Topsy Tom (Egmont) Tumbling Tom Red (Egmont) Tumbling Tom Yellow (Egmont) Window Box Red (Kings Seeds) Progress report I’d like to highlight a couple of varieties which have really stood out for me so far. One is the variety Steakhouse from Egmont Seeds, which was given to me by John McCullough. Apparently these beefsteak style tomatoes can grow up to 1.3 kg. As such, they need decent support so they have a wooden stake on either side of them, just like the fruit trees in our garden. As they grow I’ll tie them to the stakes with some old pantyhose. If these really do grow as large as they are said to, they would be perfect for making stuffed tomatoes. By far the most healthiest variety of all my tomato seedlings is the heirloom variety Red Pear from Franchi Seeds, which was kindly given to me by Gillian Hurley-Gordon of Italian Seeds Pronto. Note that this variety should not be confused with the cocktail tomato which shares the same name and which Egmont Seeds used to stock (now they only stock Yellow Pear). This is another beefsteak variety, perfect for sandwiches and homemade hamburgers. Another top performing variety in the garden so far is Topsy Tom from Egmont Seeds, which have been planted in twelve hanging baskets suspended from our washing line (see picture above). As always, Tumbling Tom Red, also from Egmont Seeds, has also done reliably well and is growing healthily in our hanging baskets on the concrete slab outside our front door. It’s hard to say what vegetable I like growing the most. It’s a bit like choosing your favourite child. I think tomatoes would be one of my favourite vegetables in the summer garden. They are fairly easy to grow, relatively disease resistant and taste great. Nothing beats the classic tomato sandwich: juicy red tomato, perhaps with a leaf or two of lettuce and a slither of mayonnaise between soft, fresh slices of bread. Simply divine!
Traditionally, tomatoes 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. Labour Weekend usually falls towards the end of October. Sowing tomatoes from seed It’s too early to think about planting tomatoes outdoors. However, I wanted to write a guide to growing tomatoes now because it’s not too late to start sowing tomatoes from seed. In fact, the timing is perfect. It takes about eight weeks from the time of the germination of a tomato seed to produce a plant that is large enough to transplant outside. It’s really easy to grow tomatoes from seed and it allows you to grow unusual varieties which aren’t found in garden centres. Tomatoes can be started from seed indoors in July and August. In the past, I have started tomato seedlings as late as September, but they will produce a crop later in the season, towards the end of February. For a continuous supply of tomatoes from January through to April, successive sowings are recommended. Tomato seeds need warmth in order to germinate. I germinate seeds in punnets filled with seed raising mix and place them 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 twice daily. 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. How to care for tomato seedlings For new gardeners, those who don’t wish to start their tomato seedlings from seed or if you’ve simply left it too late, plants are available for sale in nurseries from August onwards. Take care to keep plants undercover until early October as tomatoes 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. Tomato varieties Generally speaking, varieties of tomatoes fall into a couple of different categories: (i) “determinate” or “indeterminate” tomatoes; and (ii) “hybrid” or “heirloom” tomatoes. You may have heard of the terms “determinate” and “indeterminate” in the context of tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes are also called “bush” tomatoes. They usually grow to a compact height. Determinate tomatoes stop growing when fruit sets on the terminal or top bud. The crop ripens around at or near the same time (this normally occurs over a two week period). The plant then dies. Indeterminate tomatoes are also called “vining” tomatoes. They will grow and produce fruit until the plant dies from frost. Indeterminate tomato varieties will bloom and set new fruit which will ripen at the same time during the growing season. You may have also read or heard of the terms “heirloom” and “hybrid” tomatoes. Heirloom seeds have been saved and handed down from generation to generation. They will come true to type, meaning that the off-spring will be identical to the parent plant. You can therefore save seeds from your own plants. Hybrid seeds are produced by crossing two different varieties. Hybrid seeds will not necessarily come true to type, meaning that it may not be worth saving seeds from your plants. A common misconception is that hybrid varieties have been genetically modified. Rest assured that this is not the case. Another misconception is that hybrid varieties are inferior to heirloom varieties because the latter are said to have more flavour. The truth of the matter is that modern hybrid varieties are often more disease resistant than heirloom varieties and therefore often perform better in the garden. Popular varieties that perform well in New Zealand include Beefsteak, Moneymaker, Mortgage Lifter, Grosse Lisse, Potentate, Sweet 100 (a variety of cherry tomato) and Red Russian. These varieties can be found in garden centres throughout the country every spring. Last summer I grew Principe Borghese and Red Cherry from Franchi for the first time, which performed marvellously well and were extremely tasty. Franchi is a range of magnificent heirloom seeds imported from Italy and supplied in New Zealand by Italian Seeds Pronto, owned by my friend Gillian Hurley Gordon. For more information and to order seeds or find stockists, visit http://www.italianseedspronto.co.nz/. Bored with traditional tomato varieties? Why not try growing something a bit different this summer. This season, I’m sowing Kiwi and Green Sausage, which appealed as they are both rather interesting and differ from the appearance of conventional tomatoes. Kiwi is a beautiful green tomato, with lime-kiwi colored fruits that have a great, sharp acid-sweet flavour. Like the name suggests, Green Sausage is a variety of tomato with sausage-shaped fruits with yellow stripes and have a kiwi-like green flesh. How to care for tomato plants Tomatoes need at least 6 hours of sunshine per day, so be sure to plant seedlings in the sunniest spot in your garden. Before planting tomato 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. Add some tomato fertiliser to each plant’s hole at the time of planting, to give plants a strong start to life. As fruits can be heavy and weigh plants down, some support is recommended. It is a good idea to stake and tie tomato seedlings at the time of planting to avoid injury to the roots of your plants later on. Be sure to water plants generously every day, preferably early in the morning or in the evening. In November and December, plants are in their most active growing phase. Liquid feed tomatoes weekly to encourage the growth of healthy leaves and the formation of flowers, which will develop into fruit. As your tomato plants grow, remove the laterals. These are the small side shoots which appear at a 90 degree angle from the stalk. Laterals produce only leaves; no flowers or fruit. Laterals are removed so the plant can put its energy into the formation of fruit rather than leaf growth. Harvesting your tomatoes It can take what seems like forever for green tomatoes to ripen but be patient! They need a lot of sunshine in order to turn red. Always remove fruit with a pair of scissors or secateurs rather than pulling them off the plant. Enjoy! |
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