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.
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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 fruit we have grown in our garden that originate from South America. I will start with feijoas, tamarillos and passionfruit. What these three fruits in our garden have in common is that they are very prone to pests and diseases. Feijoas We have five feijoa trees planted in our urban garden in Auckland. The varieties are Unique, Wiki Tu, Kaiteri, Golden Goose and Kakariki. If you’re planting feijoas, it’s always good to plant more than one variety to allow for cross-pollination and a greater yield. Doing this also ensures that you will have a continuous supply of fruit during the feijoa season, as they crop at different times. Feijoas used to be incredibly easy to grow but a couple of years ago, we started having problems with the guava moth. You can read more about this, including how to remedy the problem, in the blog post I wrote about this subject recently here. Tamarillos A few years ago, we had two tamarillo trees in our garden that I grew from seed. They produced very well after eighteen months, but soon after that both trees died. Since then, I have replanted some trees but lost them, twice. I have officially given up. Tamarillos are very sensitive to the cold and frosts will kill the plants. I sprayed liquid frost cloth on the leaves and stem to try and protect the plants, but this doesn’t work if the frosts are particularly severe, which they were. The other common problem associated with growing tamarillos in New Zealand is an insect called the tomato potato psyllid (TPP), which you can read more about by following the link to the post above. Passionfruit When I first started gardening a decade ago, passionfruit used to be very easy to grow. Nowadays, they are very prone to fungal disease, which you can read about in the blog post I wrote, by following the link above. Guavas We have a number of red and yellow guava trees planted in large containers. They are the size of cherries, not the really large guavas you would find in places like India. They are very easy to grow and incredibly prolific. Cape gooseberries A few years ago, I propagated cape gooseberry plants from seed and sold them in my plant nursery. I planted a couple in our garden. They usually over winter and sometimes self seed, so the plants survive year round and crop in autumn. The key point is to only pick the fruit when it is completely ripe. The exterior is a papery husk which should be like the colour seen in the picture. Pineapples Pineapple plants are very difficult to source and can be quite expensive. I have seen large plants at the garden centre for over $100 each. In the early years after I started gardening, a woman in a gardening group I belong to on Facebook kindly gave me four plants. Her father grew them and amassed quite a collection of plants over the years, but was moving to a retirement village. She was relocating to another part of the country and wanted to give the plants to other gardeners, which was very kind of her. I still have the original plants, plus a few more by planting pups which sometimes grow from the side and also by propagating a plant from the top when we harvest any fruit. You can see this in the photograph below. I grow our pineapples in containers as they thrive in heat and the temperature is a bit warmer than the ground. I wouldn’t say we get a great crop. In our conditions, they are shy to fruit but every couple of years we are rewarded with a small, juicy pineapple from one of our plants.
I have been in two minds about writing this post (no pun intended as I do suffer from schizophrenia which literally means split mind in Greek, where the word originates from). I have always tried to make my blog and newsletters accessible to everyone and don’t want to come across as forcing anything upon anyone, other than gardening maybe. I just can’t help but notice how many references there are to gardening and agriculture in the Bible. I wasn’t raised with a religion, but in my mid-teens I became very interested in learning about what people believe and why. I was searching for answers to questions and looking for more meaning in life. I started reading the Bible in my early 20s. I have exhausted the CEV (Contemporary English Version) which was given to me as a gift from a Christian friend I met in French when I was at university, who is now a French teacher. A few years ago, I started reading the NIV (New International Version), which was given to me as a gift for my 21st birthday from my best and dearest friend who I attended school with, who is also a teacher.
I focused on history and law at university, but I am perhaps most fascinated by philosophy and religion as subjects, even though I didn’t study them formally. People have different values and ways of looking at things, and sometimes they cannot always be reconciled. Both philosophy and religion underpin a lot of conflicts, not just between countries but also between individuals, even if it may not seem that way. For me personally, it is interesting that since I developed schizophrenia a decade ago, I discovered gardening in parallel because it has been such good therapy for my condition. It also really brought to life what I have been reading in my spare time over the past 20 or so years. 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 some flowers we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from South America. Begonias I enjoy growing both tuberous and fibrous begonias, which are both native to South America. I grow tuberous begonias in 18 litre square black plastic pots filled with container mix and keep the plants in a protected area, as they like to be sheltered from wind. I won’t write much about fibrous (bedding) begonias, as I recently wrote a blog post about growing them from seed, which you can read here. There are pictures in the post as well. Hippeastrums I also grow hippeastrums in containers and keep them in our patio, as they too like being in a sheltered area. I use round 9 litre containers for these plants. You can source bulbs from mail order bulb suppliers or at your local garden centre. Here are a few photos of plants from previous years. Note that some varieties are even named after cities in South America, which is a testament to their origins. Petunias
I love growing petunias every summer. You can get so many varieties nowadays, including special petunias which are sold in a 1 litre pot, like Night Sky and Queen of Hearts. Last summer, I grew petunias from seed for the first time and was very pleased with the results. I sowed the following varieties. All of these are available from the Egmont Seeds Commercial Catalogue, which is available from Egmont Seeds upon request (it is different to the home gardener’s catalogue which is on the website).
The process for raising seedlings was very similar to the way I raised bedding begonias from seed (see above for the link to the blog post I wrote about this subject). I started sowing petunias from seed in early spring (September for us). I sowed one or two seeds in each cell of a 198-cell seedling tray and kept it in a large incubator on my heat pad to germinate. Once the seedlings germinated, I moved the tray into our greenhouse so the plants could grow a bit more. Once they were large enough, I carefully transplanted the seedlings into a 72-cell seedling tray, which has larger cells. Towards the end of spring, I moved the trays from our greenhouse to the patio, to harden them off. Exposing them to outdoor temperatures gradually, in a controlled manner like this reduces the shock when the plants are finally exposed to the great outdoors. By December, the plants were large enough to be planted outside. Here is a picture of some of my petunias in bloom. 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 some plants we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from Africa. Watermelon Years ago, I used to be able to grow watermelons (and other types of melons) successfully in our garden in Auckland. Sadly, this is no longer possible due to climate change as our summers start later every year, are shorter and temperatures are considerably cooler than in previous years. Here is a picture of a watermelon which I grew three years ago. It is a variety called Charleston Grey and was grown from seed. Okra We love okra and enjoy growing it every summer. Like snake beans, I plant okra in late December and it usually crops in late autumn (April and May for us). I have experimented and discovered that okra performs better when planted in containers. I use 9 litre black square pots filled with potting mix. Okra is self-pollinating and does not require help from bees. The plants produce a beautiful flower in the hibiscus family, which turns into an okra pod. Once plants start forming flowers, I recommend keeping an eye on them regularly so you can pick okra as soon as they are fully developed. If left on the plant for too long, they become quite tough to eat and are not very nice. Broad beans We enjoy growing broad beans in spring. They are incredibly easy to grow, delicious to eat and the plants are good for fixing nitrogen in the soil. We shell and freeze surplus broad beans. I recommend blanching them first for best results. Tropical impatiens I grew tropical impatiens from seed for the first time last spring. I sowed the seeds in a punnet filled with some seed raising mix and covered them with some more mixture lightly. I propagated them on my heat pad as temperatures can be quite cool in spring, especially at night. Once the plants had germinated, I moved them into our greenhouse to grow a bit more before potting them up into six cell punnets. Once they had outgrown them, I potted each plant into an individual 10cm plastic pot and left them in our patio to grow. In late summer, I potted each plant into a larger pot. As it started to get cooler towards the end of autumn, I moved the plants into our greenhouse as tropical impatiens are sensitive to the cold and I didn’t want to risk losing the plants, especially as I had put so much effort into caring for them. Here is a picture of the fourteen plants that originated from a packet containing approximately 20 seeds. The variety is called New Guinea Divine Mix and is available from Egmont Seeds in New Zealand. If you live overseas, check your local mail order seed suppliers to see if they have this variety. 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 some edibles we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from the Middle East. I didn’t come across many edible plants that are native to that region, but that is not to say that a wide range of veggies are not grown there these days. My excellent GP is from Iraq. I have sometimes given him bunches of flowers from the garden and produce. He told me that he is actually a farm boy and grew up in a rural area. He also really likes gardening and has planted a lot of fruit trees on his property in Auckland. Peas We enjoy growing both regular peas and snow peas. As peas climb, they benefit from some support. I use plastic trellis, which is nailed to a six foot fence. More recently, I have come across a dwarf variety called Tom Thumb which can be grown in containers and do not require staking. It can be harvested immature as a snow pea or left to pod up and harvested as a regular pea. Peas can be sown in autumn and spring. I recommend sowing seeds direct to the ground as peas resent being transplanted. It is also a very fiddly job and you risk damaging the roots in the process, which might cause the plants to die. I recommend harvesting peas as they become ready, in order to encourage further cropping. Spinach Spinach is native to the Middle East and is a staple in our veggie garden. It is very nutritious and easy to grow. It performs better in cooler conditions and tends to bolt to seed as it gets warmer towards spring. Figs We have a few different fig varieties which I planted in large containers in our mini orchard, which is in a garden bed along the pathway as you walk up to our front door. Figs can be grown in the ground, but be very careful as the trees can become enormous. If you plant them in containers, the roots are restricted so the growth is somewhat contained. In saying that, the roots have travelled through the holes at the bottom of the containers and settled into the ground, which is covered with weed mat and bark (but there is soil underneath the weed mat). In the past year, our trees have become very large so in autumn I spent an afternoon pruning them back so they are more manageable. Sometimes when fruit trees become so large and have not been pruned, they don’t produce as well. Since I pruned the trees back heavily this year, they might not crop that well next summer but hopefully we will be better off in the long run. 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 some flowers we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from Japan. As a gardener, when I think of Japan, the cherry blossom comes to mind first. After that, there are a lot of great things that I associate with Japan which I noticed when I visited Tokyo many years ago, including the strong yen, the amazing rail network linking the country, the Olympics, Toyota, Mt Fuji, cameras, sushi, sake, Japanese tea, kimono, martial arts, origami, beautiful paper products, Asics running shoes and Takashimaya (before I discovered gardening, I used to love shopping!). While researching the origins of different plants, I discovered that there are three plants in our garden that are native to Japan. The photos I have included in this post are of plants in our garden. Hydrangeas Hydrangeas are very easy to grow and make a great cut flower. The foliage (leaves) is very attractive and often prized in its own right in arrangements. They come in a range of colours, including blue, purple, pink and white. Hydrangeas can be grown in pots and some varieties are bred for this purpose. Camelia There were two established camelia trees on our property before we moved here when I was in sixth form. As we didn’t plant them, I’m not sure what these varieties are but here are photos of the flowers on our trees. Tiger lily
I love growing lilies. They make a great cut flower and last well in a vase. I discovered a species called the tiger lily. It is very unusual looking, partly because the flowers face downwards. The bulbs are hardy and multiply prolifically. We have a few orange bulbs in our garden but tiger lilies come in other colours too, including yellow and white. 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 the favourite flowers and edibles we have grown over the years which are from overseas. In this post, I would like to cover some edibles we have grown in our garden that are thought to originate from China. Wombok cabbage Two years ago, I grew wombok cabbage for the first time. It was incredibly easy to grow and matured much faster than regular cabbage. I grew the following four different varieties from seed:
I sowed the seeds in a punnet filled with some seed raising mix, covering them lightly with a little more seed raising mix, in autumn and left them in our patio. When the seedlings germinated and had grown a bit, I carefully pricked them out and transplanted them into seedling trays filled with some potting mix, so they could grow a bit more before being planted outside. I always line the seedling trays with some newspaper as they contain holes in the bottom and that prevents the potting mix from falling through. I was amazed at how quickly they grew! I planted my seedlings outside in early March and they started to become ready in May on Mother’s Day. This is what I gave mum as a present, along with a bunch of jonquils from our flower garden. Mum prefers receiving things from our garden rather than purchased presents. She also enjoys making a home cooked meal with produce fresh from our garden rather than dining out, both on Mother’s Day and generally. Snake beans I really love growing snake beans, which are native to China. They are sometimes called yard long runner beans. They do require incredibly hot weather in order to grow well. Last summer wasn’t a good year for them at all, but they have done very well in previous seasons. Because our summers start quite late and the plants are very sensitive to cold weather, I always plant seedlings outside after Christmas just to be on the safe side. In order to do this, I need to germinate seedlings on our head pad in late November or early December. They usually grow and develop in January and February. By March, the plants start flowering and beans form. We are busy harvesting the beans in April and May. That essentially means that while they are planted in summer, they only start producing in late autumn for us, but it may be different in other parts of the country and will mostly certainly be the case overseas, especially in tropical environments. Garlic When I first started gardening, it was so easy to grow garlic. I simply popped cloves into the ground on the shortest day, covered them with a little dirt and by the longest day when I lifted the plants, there were huge balls of garlic. Unfortunately things have changed and garlic has gone from being the easiest thing for me to grow to now being one of the most difficult things to get right. The reason is because of rust. I have tried lots of different sprays over the years in an attempt to prevent and control rust, to no avail. You can read more about my troubles with rust and growing garlic in my previous blog post. I haven’t included photos because the ones I wanted to use are the same as in that blog post. Onions Last summer wasn’t a good season for growing onions (as with a lot of edibles) due to the floods and cyclones in Auckland, but the previous season was exceptionally good. I grow both brown and red onions. Brown onions are used in cooking, while red onions are wonderful in salads (my favourite being Greek salad). As with garlic, I always hang our onion harvest on our washing line for a few days so the bulbs dry and cure (in other words, the skins thicken), so they store better. Afterwards, I place the onions in trays and store them in our greenhouse to continue drying. Peaches
Back in 2017, I added a mini orchard to our garden, including some dwarf peach trees. They are planted in large containers. I planted a few different varieties so they can cross-pollinate with each other and produce a better yield. The other advantage to doing this is that they crop at different times, allowing for a continuous supply of peaches in late summer and early autumn. In recent years, they have started cropping really well. Here is a picture of some peaches harvested from our garden. 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 some flowers in our garden that are thought to be native to China. Vireyas Until I started researching the origins of some of our favourite plants in the garden, I didn’t know that vireyas are native to China. These plants can be sensitive to the cold and never performed well in the ground in our garden. A staff member at a garden centre in Auckland that I have gotten to know well over the years because I am a regular there suggested growing vireyas in containers instead. Since doing that, they have thrived and require very little care. We have several varieties in our garden and I have included a picture of each plant below. Magnolia A long time ago, the council planted a magnolia tree on the berm outside our house. In late winter and spring, it produces the most beautiful pink flowers. Because we didn’t plant it ourselves, I am not sure about the variety. Orchids Orchids are thought to originate from China. They are of course the national flower of Singapore. There is a wonderful collection of orchids at the Botanical Gardens there. I have been to Singapore three times and on each occasion I visited the Botanical Gardens because I have always loved parks and gardens, even before I started gardening. That was my favourite feature. I discovered that orchids seem to like being kept in a shady, sheltered site. One year, I moved our plants from the patio (where my nursery is for raising seedlings) to underneath our banana tree as I ran out of room for all my seedlings. They didn’t flower that well when they were kept in our patio but the plants have thrived in their new location and produced the most beautiful sprays of orchids. Earlier in the year I divided our plants, which was long overdue as I have never done this since purchasing them nearly a decade ago when I first started gardening. I repotted them using orchid mix. I highly recommend using this mixture which is formulated for growing orchids, as opposed to regular potting or container mix. We did get one flower this year but it might take a few seasons for the plants to recover from the shock of being divided and repotted and to start flowering again. Asters I grew asters from seed for the first time two years ago. I sowed the following varieties, all of which are available from Kings Seeds in New Zealand:
After a disastrous first attempt at growing asters from seed, I sought advice from Gerard Martin, the owner of Kings Seeds. He advised me to sow the seeds in punnets in mid-December and leave them in our greenhouse, as conditions can still be quite temperamental even in early summer. I placed the punnets in a plastic Sistema Crate. At night, I covered them with a lid but during the day when it was hot I left the lid off. The seedlings germinated really well. When the plants were large enough, I carefully pricked them out of the punnets and potted them up in trays, which I kept outside in our patio. I highly recommend protecting aster seedlings from snails and slugs. That was something I neglected to do the previous summer and was one of the reasons why my seedlings failed to grow. Here is a picture of some of my seedlings in our nursery. When the seedlings were large enough, I planted them outside in one large garden bed. By then, it was early March. The timing was perfect as I had just removed our pumpkins, which had died off the vine early, in late February. This is how the bed looked when the plants were in flower. I have also included a couple of close ups of the flowers. As the name of the varieties I grew suggests, the plants were supposed to be tall. For some strange reason, they ended up dwarf, which was a bit disappointing as they were not suitable for picking. However, they added a lot of colour to the garden at a time of the year when a lot of plants have finished flowering. We did notice that bees were very attracted to the flowers, which was also good.
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 post, I covered edibles we love growing which are native to India. I try to keep my blog posts short, so they are quick and easy to read. I would like to continue with a few more of our favourite edibles which come from India. Before I cover them, I just want to make a few points that are applicable to this entire series of blog posts. There is sometimes debate about where plants originated from and I have come across conflicting information. Sometimes, plants are native to more than one country or region. Plants were discovered and introduced to other countries by explorers a very long time ago. It might be difficult to prove where plants are originally from, especially if primary resources no longer exist as evidence. As a history lover, I do find the background of flowers and edibles I grow in our garden fascinating. Thanks to explorers and trade, it is wonderful that so many different plants are available in so many other places nowadays. But it does perhaps explain why some things have failed to thrive in our environment. For example, the Musquee de Provence pumpkin I covered in my post about our favourite edibles which come from Europe has never done that well in our garden. The pumpkin in the photograph is the only one we have ever harvested despite faithfully sowing a packet of seeds every year for the past seven years. It comes from Southern France, which has a very different climate to Auckland, where we live. Lemons Lemons are thought to be native to India. The tree in our garden is a variety called Meyer, which originates from China though. It is a very common variety grown in NZ and does very well here. Having a lemon tree is very common in NZ, even if people don’t like gardening. They are very easy to grow, but expensive to buy. Sometimes you can only find small waxy lemons at the supermarket (which are fine if you need rind for a recipe) rather than varieties like Meyer which are large and contain a lot of juice. In recent years, the biggest challenge to growing lemons successfully is a pest called the guava moth, which I covered in my earlier post about pests and diseases in NZ. Eggplants I love growing eggplants every summer. They usually grow very well over the summer and crop heavily in autumn, but last year wasn’t a good season due to cooler than usual temperatures as well as the floods and cyclones in Auckland. I grow both long and round varieties. I always grow our eggplants in large black containers. The soil temperature is a bit warmer than the ground and it also saves ground space for growing other crops which require depth in order to perform well (for example root crops such as potatoes and sweet potato) and those which need room to sprawl (such as pumpkins, squash and melons). As times have become quite tough, I have started recycling my old potting mix rather than purchasing fresh potting or container mix for growing plants. I add a scoopful of a product called Pot Recharger, which I purchase from a garden centre in Auckland. But if you live in another part of the country or overseas, you may find that you are able to rejuvenate old potting mix by adding another product. I recommend a slow release fertilizer (typically sold in pottles) rather than a granular one (usually sold in bags), as the latter won’t disintegrate in a container and is designed to break down in the ground over time. Malabar spinach This is a fantastic vining spinach which is native to India. However, I discovered it thanks to my customers from the Philippines when I ran a plant nursery selling veggie seedlings I propagated from seed from home a number of years ago. They refer to it as aloobati. Malabar spinach thrives in very hot weather, so it didn’t do well in our garden last summer. The picture below was taken several seasons ago. As it is a tropical plant, I always start seedlings on my heat pad in mid-spring when the weather is a bit warmer. I usually soak the seeds overnight as they have a hard coating, which can make germination more challenging otherwise. I scatter the seeds in a punnet filled with some seed raising mix and cover them lightly with a layer of seed raising mix. When the plants have germinated, I move them to the greenhouse and allow them to grow a bit more before transplanting them into six-cell punnets. By that stage, it is much warmer and once they are established, I move them outdoors to our patio so they can harden off (acclimatize to outdoor conditions) before being planted outside. As a vining spinach, Malabar spinach benefits from some support. We grow ours against a plastic trellis, as you can see in the photo. At the end of the season, seeds will develop which can be saved for replanting the following year. I have also found that the seeds sometimes fall off the plant and self-seed in spring.
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