Selwyn Times: October 03, 2018

32 Wednesday October 3 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
SELWYN TIMES
Gardening
Pot up your petunias
• By Henri Ham
OCTOBER MARKS the middle
of spring – the most popular
planting season of the year. Many
of you will have your summer
vege crops of lettuce, peas,
courgettes and tomatoes top of
mind right now. And rightly so.
But have you thought about
which flowers you’d like to pot up
in your garden this summer?
For a colourful injection of
beauty into your pot plants
and garden you can’t overlook
petunias. Petunias have a cheerful
flower that can bloom nonstop
from summer through to late
autumn.
They are also incredibly diverse.
Petunias come in an amazing
range of colours, shapes and sizes.
They can have a single or double
layer of petals, being ruffled or
smooth. Many have a gramophone
shaped flower. Petunias are
ideal for bedding, borders, pot
plants and hanging baskets.
Larger petunias (referred to as
grandiflora) can grow up to 80cm
across (if you really let them go)
and have huge flowers spanning
15cm. Their impressive size make
a real statement but with this
comes more responsibility. The
large flower means if it is planted
in an exposed place, it will get
hammered from wind and rain.
And you need to deadhead them
to encourage more flowering.
The medium-sized varieties will
grow between 25 – 50 cm high,
with flowers that span 5cm. Flowers
on the smallest petunia plants
only span 2cm. They are great for
path borders and cutting gardens
too.
I recommend mixing a few of
the smaller varieties and combining
them in pots together. Petunia
mini picobella and duo red and
white are early bloomers suited to
pots. And they don’t need much
deadheading.
I recommend two new varieties
– duo burgundy and double mix.
So get in now to plant something
truly unique in your gardens this
summer.
BLOOM: Duo burgundy is a new variety of petunia, it has strong
colour.
Planting-wise petunias are
pretty easy. They like a sunny
well-drained, fertile spot. Plant
seedlings between 15 to 40cm
apart depending on their size.
Individual guides come on their
labels. If your planting plot is partially
shaded, plant them slightly
closer together.
Watch out for snails and aphids
on petunias. If they stop flowering
sooner than you expected aphids
could well be the cause. Petunias
can also catch diseases. One
method to reduce your chances
of disease is to avoid overhead
watering.
In about six to eight weeks your
pots should start to look perky
with petunia colour.
Trying turnips and
cooking kohlrabi
• By Henri Ham
VERSATILE:
Turnips can
be used
in cooking
much like a
potato.
ARE YOU keen to step it up in
your vege garden this year and try
something new? Then let’s talk
about turnips.
Turnips are basically so old
I’m re-trending them as new. But
they’re one of those vegetables
that may not be the first to spring
to mind when plotting your
garden. So this month I’m reintroducing
turnips.
Turnips actually come in many
different varieties. Purple top,
orange, amber and baby globe.
There is also a stock white turnip.
It produces a smooth, semi- globe
shaped root with a tangy taste.
It’s great for eating raw in salads
or lightly steamed with plenty of
butter and salt.
Turnips can be used in cooking
much like you would use a
potato. I like to cube turnips up
and throw them into stews. Or julienne
them (cut into raw matchsticks)
and use them as a small
side salad on my dinner plate.
Now that you’re reacquainted
with turnips, let me introduce you
to another member of the brassica
family - kohlrabi.
This unusual-looking vegetable
combines several features of its
relatives. It resembles a swollen
broccoli stem but grows in the
shape of a turnip, sitting just above
the ground. And like cabbage, its
skin can be purple, red or green.
Given its resemblance to other
members of the brassica family,
it probably won’t surprise you to
learn kohlrabi translates in German
to ‘cabbage-turnip’.
Its flesh is always pale green
and crisp like an apple but it tastes
more like a cabbage, although
sweeter and milder. And it also
grows large edible leaves.
Kohlrabi confuses many as
it looks like it should be a root
vegetable, however, it hovers just
above the ground. Thanks to the
way it grows and the fact it has
multiple arms (leaf stems) protruding
from it, it’s often referred
to as an alien vegetable.
But be it alien or broccoli revolution,
kohlrabi is certainly worth
growing and eating. Try it boiled,
roasted, mashed or raw. Just like
turnips, it is a great addition
grated into coleslaw or chopped
into sticks for salad.
And no part of the plant is
wasted with kohlrabi. The leaves
can be sautéed or used as a tasty
alternative to cabbage, kale, silverbeet
or spinach.
Growing both turnips and
kohlrabi is pretty straight forward.
They both like fertile soil, in a
sunny well drained spot. Vege
plots always benefit from a good
digging over – and mix in mulch
and some compost.
Plant your turnips 20cm apart
and harvest when they are 5-15cm
in diameter (they will sit above
the ground slightly). This will
happen 30-60 days after planting
your seedlings.
Plant kohlrabi 25cm apart and
harvest it when the swollen stem
is about 8cm in diameter. This will
take 45 – 60 days. They can taste a
bit woody if left too long.
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