07/11/2025
And Eggplants on sale too!
PLANT SALE
We have decided to have plant sale tomorrow at the Growers and Makers Market at the Claris Conference Centre :
Tomatoes: 4 for $10 (usually $4 ea)
Cucumbers: 2 for $5 (usually $3.50 ea)
Most Flower Punnets (except zinnias, marked with asterisk below) : 4 for $15 (usualy $5 ea)
All healthy plants but need to be planted soon, will not keep in good condition to the next market in two weeks time.
Also remember we have a permanent special on our Basils 6 for $15 - any mix of Thai basil, Sweet Genovese and Purple Basil
Remember 9.30 start!
Read on to see what we are bringing tomorrow!
(Note our next market will be on Sunday 23 November at the CCC with Icehouse Ventures).
Flowers (those marked with * on sale)
o *Alyssum*: very attractive to beneficial insects such as lacewings and parasitic wasps which will keep aphids and caterpillars in check. Masses of white flowers year round, drought tolerant, self seeds
o Anise Hyssop: a lovely semi perennial with spikes of mauve/blue flowers very attractive to bees. Perfect cottage garden flower. Individual pots
o Carnations Picotee Mixed : very sweetly scented, striped in shades of pink, edible and beautiful! Individual pots
o *Cosmos Sensation Mixed*: tall free flowering daisy wild flower in various shades of pink and purple like all daisies, loved by beneficial insects including butterflies all cosmos very drought tolerant
o *Cosmos White “Gazebo”*: another lovey cosmos, makes a welcome break in all the colour of a summer garden to set it all off
o *Coreopsis tinctoria*: tall, airy plant smothered in bright yellow and red single daisy flowers, very pretty, loved by the good bugs and will flower all summer long, very drought tolerant.
o *French Marigolds*: brilliant orange and mahogony flowers on plants that will flower right through to autumn. Loved by bumblebees. Roots deter nematodes. Great to plant near tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Will grow to about 30 cm high
o *Orange Cosmos*: super summer flower that keeps flowering on and on, bright shades of orange and yellow. Tall, attracts beneficials. Tough and drought tolerant.
o Regal Pelargonium: gorgeous tough plants with flowers in shades of pink and purple.
o Rudbeckia Prairie Sun: incredible summer flower, flowers on and on through the heat, huge yellow and deep gold open daisy flowers which never fade, almost an everlasting flower. A personal Fave!
o Scabiosa Black Knight: a very attractive black purple pom pom flower with white stamens, also known as Granny’s pincushion. Semi perennial.
o *Sunflowers*: these are grown from our microgreen sunflowers! Tall sunflowers many of which branch with several golden flowers per plant. Adored by bees and bumbles! And a fabulous cutflower. Deep roots great breaking up soil pans and at the end of the season thick stems create lots of biomass for compost heaps
o *Viola “Johnny Jump Up”*: a cute miniature version of a pansy, edible, and will self seed (hence the jump-up) will happily settle in among anything from lettuces to roses
o Zinnia Dahlia Mixed: large flowers in brilliant bright jewel like joyful colours. All zinnias are loved by bees and butterflies, and make fabulous cut flowers. Highly drought tolerant.
o Zinnia Queenie mix: a very romantic, antique/pastel range of colour blends, simply gorgeous. Dahlia-like blooms. All zinnias are loved by bees and butterflies, and make fabulous cut flowers. Highly drought tolerant.
o Zinnia Queeny Pure Orange: there is something about orange flowers in a veggie garden! The colours of green and orange are so stimulating and alive! A very uplifting colour which will ban the blues.
o Zinnia Giant Wine: tall plant with huge deep purple flowers, fab cut flower and tough as old boots
• Herbs (6 basils for $15)
o Basil: Sweet Genovese basil seedlings great in pots as well as in the garden : the herb that spells summer! Pizza, tomatoes, pesto mmmhmmm. Individual pots
o Basil Dark Opal: beautiful deep purple basil . Individual pots
o Flat leaf parsley gigante - will produce for a whole year if planted now. Gigante is a fab variety with very sweet leaves and long fat stalks that are great added to stocks. The traditional variety for making tabouleh. Parsley is very mineral rich. Individual pots
o Curly Parsley: tightly curled dark green goodness
o Lovage: a very strongly celery flavoured herb which is super-useful for soups and stews; known as the Maggi Herb. Slow growing perennial. Individual pots
o Thai basil Siam Queen: a beautiful herb with anise tones perfect in curries and strifries . Individual pots
o Chives: multiplying herb that will bunch up all summer, great added chopped to soups, eggs, salads. Dormant in winter (great time to divide) then will spring up again in spring
o Garlic Chives: another multiplying oniony herb that will grow and multiply all summer and produce pretty edible white flowers in autumn, loved by bees. Keeps growing in winter.
• Summer Greens
o Green Cos: hearting crunchy lettuce
o Mixed Cos: several varieties of cos in one punnet which should all head up at slightly different times to give you a spread harvest
o Mixed Leaf Lettuce: a really lovely range of leafy cut and come again lettuces in green and red, with one cos in the mix.
o Buttercrunch Lettuce: soft green leaves
o Silverbeet Erbette: new variety will produce all summer keep well watered, can be harvested young as cut and come again
• Summer Fruiting Veg
o Beans
o Bush beans Fin de Bagnol: divine, very fine long tender beans, super productive does great in a large pot
o Climbing beans Vitalis: also super productive and vigorous, with large flat very tasty beans 20 cm long, the best we have ever grown
o Yard Long aka Asparagus Beans: very long, narrow beans with a very different flavour to regular beans, picked when pencil thin
o Tomatoes: SPECIAL: any 4 for $10: big variety of bush and tall tomatoes, red, yellow and “black”, all very flavoursome and productive
o Sweet Peppers (all in individual pots):
o Marconi Red: a long tapering red variety, very productive and will fruit for months on end through to next winter. Needs staking.
o Estilo (F1): a hybrid long red pepper, slightly larger fruit than Marconi, sweet and very productive. Needs staking.
o Yugoslav Paprika Peppers from Koanga Seeds: we grew these for the first time last year and were smitten. The peppers are medium sized, thick-walled and have a distinctly triangular pointed shape, rather than long and tapering. The flesh is very sweet and rich flavoured. They are incredible roasted, and the skin is very easy to peel off. Also meant to be awesome fermented.
o Tolli’s (Koanga Seeds): An Italian Heirloom from the Tolli family delivering high yields of 5′′ long scarlet red bull horn shaped peppers with a superb crisp sweet flavour.
o Chillis (all in individual pots):
o Jalapeno Chili: hot and fruity , bullet shaped chili peppers, very productive
o Cayenne Long Thin: long thin walled chili with good heat, fab for sauces, drying and fermenting
o Cherry Chilli Large Hot: flattened round chillis 3-4 cm in diameter, prefect for stuffing (and then raosting!)
o Aubergines/Eggplants (all in individual pots):
o Black Beauty: large oval shaped eggplants open pollinated
o Black King (F1): a very large oval fruiting eggplant, disease resistant, needs full sun and rich soil.
o Early Prolific: small to medium sized early aubergine with satiny black skin
o Fiancee (aka Asian Bride) F1: long slender pink/white eggplant, very productive, early and more tolerant of cooler sites
o Florence Round Purple: an old favourite, a very beautiful, round, purple medium sized eggplant
o Zucchinis (all in individual pots):
o Black Coral, a powdery mildew resistant hybrid variety we have been growing for years as it is such a great producer producing for months on end, only developing powdery mildew very late in its lifecycle. Note the plant has silvery leaf markings and this is NOT powdery mildew😊
o Cucumbers (all in individual pots, on sale 2 for $5):
o Pasqua Lebanese cuc: another hybrid, that we grow for good reason: incredibly productive, delicious, thin glossy skinned cuc, disease resistant
o Crystal Apple: only a few of these this year
o Gherkin Homemade Pickles: a productive vine but worth getting 2-3 if you are planning on pickling so you have enough on hand for a pickling session.
o Marketmore: standard short cucumber, does fine sprawling, tough healthy plant
o Spacemaster: for smaller gardens, less rampant than other varieties
o Tasty Queen: Long slender Asian style cuc, very crisp, best climbing
o Tendergreen: ; large smooth skinned cuc , sprawler
Pumpkins, Squash and Melons (all in individual pots):
o Kamo Kamo: seeds from Koanga Gardens sourced from Ruatoria. The fruit are eaten young like a zucchini, or allowed to mature into an orange squash
o Delicata: small vining squash with stripes, sweet and early, great roasted, suits small garden
o Acorn Squash Table Queen Bush: another variety suited to the small garden, early rpoducing acorn shaped squash, produces 6/8 per plant. An old fav we used to grow for our veg boxes
o Sweet mama (F1): a very sweet dry kabocha type pumpkin on a compact vine
o Chucks winter: a fat large butternut with very sweet flesh, vining
o Ironbark: an Australian heirloom pumpkin known for its very thick, hard, and bumpy green skin and dense, sweet, orange flesh. Koanga. Vining
o Sugar Pie: a small sweet smooth fleshed squash which lends itself to pies.
o Cupola Squash aka Tahitian Squash: long curved large squash with swollen seed end, very sweet, super productive but needs space to ramble.
o Rockmelon Hales Best Improved: A very sweet and flavoursome orange fleshed rockmelon, will set several melons per vine which is not too rampant, well worth growing
o Watermelons Cathay Belle (F1): a hybrid sugarbaby type which is disease resistant (watermelons on Aotea often get fusarium) delicious sweet, red fleshed seeded melon about 2 kg.
Banana Suckers: Misi Luki and Gold Finger Banana suckers perfect time for planting
Garden Supplies
o Dusk slug bait
o Bt for caterpillars (saw first white butterfly this week, and the Diamond Back moths are in huge numbers this year)
o Neem granules to add to your tomato, pepper and bean planting holes for deterring Green Veg Bugs
o VAM: mycorrhizal fungus inoculant which will protect plants from disease and enable them to tolerate dry periods better
o Diatomaceous Earth: good source of silica to strengthen cell walls for disease and pest resistance
De-ionised battery water (let us know if you need any so we bring enough)
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Many thanks
Gerald and Caity
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