KG494 Print Combined

Edible flowers
The sweet violet, Viola odorata, is an edible perennial. Pop a pretty flower
on top of a blob of whipped cream on your favourite piece of cake or
pudding or crystallise some in sugar to use on those high tea treats. These
gorgeous, old-fashioned plants do self-seed and their rhizomes will spread
underground over time so they may become a bit of a nuisance if they are
not controlled. If you don’t have the room to let them grow where they will,
grow them in a container garden and in pots where they get plenty of shade
over spring and summer and keep the media moist, not wet.
From: Suzette, Richmond
GROWING VIOLETS
One of my favourite flowers is the little, deep-purple, highly fragrant violet – the one
with the heart-shaped leaves that makes a great ground cover. I grew some in my
own garden by pulling up rooted stems from a healthy plant in my sister-in-law’s
garden. However, this wasn’t as successful as I had hoped because, not knowing
any better, I placed it in full sun in rough, gravelly soil. The leaves slowly turned a
light green and became very veiny. At the end of last summer, I carefully dug it up
and moved it to an area where the soil was much better, under a tree that loses its
leaves in winter. Sure enough, it is now looking much happier and I can’t wait for it
to flower.
From: Ron, Waihi
MOVING HOUSE & TREE
We sold our house in March and I wanted to
take my two-year-old KiwiApple ‘Scallywag’
apple tree to our new home. I carefully dug it
up straight after we had harvested the apples,
but sadly, after I replanted it at our new place,
the leaves died and fell off and the whole tree
wasn’t looking too good at all for a few weeks.
So, on the advice of my Dad, I gave it plenty of
liquid seaweed fertiliser on its leaves daily and,
sure enough, I can now see some new growth
coming through on the tips of the branches. I will
remember this trick next time.
From:Vicky, Whangārei
SISTER TO THE RESCUE
I found lots of different-shaped bulbs in my garden, but I had no idea what they were
or how tall or short they would grow, so I just lay them out to dry and then stored
them all away. Then my lovely sister made me a poster showing lots of examples of
bulbs and their sizes and the flowers that each one produces so when I go to plant
them I will know what bulbs to plant where. Thanks Sis.
Feed the disturbed roots
While we can’t always coincide the
moving of a young tree with its dormancy
during winter, there are steps we can
take to give it the best possible chance
of survival. Start by leaving plenty of soil
around the root ball when digging it out
and then soak the roots of the young tree
in a seaweed liquid mix for at least four
hours before replanting it. Three days
later, remove two thirds of the leaves from
the bottom up. The roots will then have
less leaves to feed. For the next five days,
water the ground around it and spray the
remaining leaves, top and underneath,
with a seaweed liquid mix. And lastly,
cross your fingers and toes!
gardener.kiwi
kiwigardener 91