Your Garden Coach NZ
Guiding keen new gardeners to become confident vegetable growers no matter the size of your garden or your skill level.
We aim to share tips and tricks to help you grow healthy, nutrient-rich vegetables.
Based in the Central Otago region of New Zealand.
Happy gardening
Your Garden Coach NZ
Autumn Episode 25
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In this weeks episode we talk to Charlotte from Kings Seeds. A family-owned small business, run with expertise and passion. We’ve discovered our values align well with Charlotte and her team. We both aim to bring encouragement and support to home gardeners.
Charlotte gives us a few suggestions as to what seeds we can start both in the vegetable and flower garden, some of her favourite flowers, and we have a competition for you. A Seasonal Gift basket that Kings Seeds have put together for us. Be sure to listen and enter.
Also, Kings Seeds are offering a $20 gift voucher every week.
Our vegetable of the week is the humble onion - fairly easy to grow and much appreciated in most home-cooked meals. Discover how you can feed your onions so they, in turn, can feed you.
It’s Autumn Equinox today 20th March, at precisely 4.06pm - What is the Autumn Equinox? and how can you celebrate this special event?
Tea of the week Rose, Lavender, and Cardamom, a relaxing tea.
Sow and plant until 22nd then cultivate your soil, add lots of lovely nutrients to replenish those that have fed your summer vegetables.
Time to plant Brassicas, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Broccoli.
Cauliflower, Celery, lettuce, silverbeet, snow peas on your windowsill, and the last sowing of Spring onions for the season.
Book of the week - The Allergy-Fighting Garden, how to create a garden for those who suffer with allergies
Victoria from Cromwell asked how we care for herbs over winter…
Glossary - Evapotranspiration, the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere.
Be sure to enjoy your garden tasks and reap the many rewards.
Happy gardening
Ali and Jen
You can contact us at coach@yourgardencoach.nz and follow us on socials @yourgardencoachnz
Welcome to Your Garden Coach Podcast. Our aim is to guide and support your vegetable growing journey. Whether you're a complete beginner or a competent grower, and no matter the size of your kitchen garden, there will be something for everyone. Your Garden Coach hosts Alex Soper and myself, Jen Anderson, aim to share tips and tricks required to successfully grow your own produce and feed healthy, nutrient-rich vegetables to your family. In each episode, we'll take a look at some of the main tasks for the coming week, so be sure to listen to the most current episode before you catch up on previous episodes. If you're wanting to start a kitchen garden at your home, we're here to help. Happy gardening. In today's episode, we've got the interview with Charlotte Connolly from King Sees. Why? Well, we're going to tell you more about that. You'll it's a very special interview. Chances for you to win too. Main topic today is going to be onions. The ones that make you cry, but they're pretty much needed in most meals I cook. Gardening by the Moon, we'll take a look at our tasks for, of course, this coming week. And as I said, that competition will have seasonal giveaways from King's Seeds. So, Ally, at this time of the season in the year, what's happening in your garden?
SPEAKER_03The walnuts have started to drop onto the floor, onto the ground, and they're everywhere.
SPEAKER_02Tell me, have you ever eaten pickled walnuts?
SPEAKER_03I have. I love them. Oh my god. But you're supposed to pickle them when they're green.
SPEAKER_02I've just had my auntie here from Cairns, Northern Queensland, and she saw a found a big jar, giant jar of them. She says I couldn't buy them because she says I would not get through them in my time and I couldn't take them home, what a waste. But she is a pickled walnut gal, and I had never ever heard of them. What do you pickle them in? I don't know. I've never pickled them myself. I might have to Google them.
SPEAKER_03And I always forget at that time of the year. So it's when they're green and when the nuts formed, but it's still soft.
SPEAKER_02Ah, I wonder if I get some from you. I'm gonna Google it and try and make a little container, a jar, and somehow get it to my auntie in northern Queensland. I liked your positive outlook there, Ellie. That was real good. I'm just you're trying to picture it. Yeah, no, that could go horribly wrong. So walnuts are a plenty.
SPEAKER_03Walnuts are a plenty, yeah. We've got loads. We've got four uh 113-year-old walnut trees on our property. Wow. That's history. Yep. And one of them is on the roadside, so we get lots of people stopping to collect to forage, which is great. But if that is you, could you just make sure you park carefully, please? Because that's a hundred kilometre an hour road and it makes me worry.
SPEAKER_02But she doesn't mind you foraging on the ground. Not at all. Don't pick them off the tree though. Do you have to wait till they drop?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, wait until they drop.
SPEAKER_02So now we move on to tea away from walnuts, unl unless it's a walnut tea.
SPEAKER_03No, it's not walnut tea today.
SPEAKER_02But what that would be like. What delights have you delivered me today?
SPEAKER_03So slurp up. Today you're drinking rose lavender and cardamom pod.
SPEAKER_02Wow, quite the mix. It looks pretty.
SPEAKER_03It is pretty. Rose is so good, and I felt we both needed a little bit of TLC today.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03So what I've done is I've crushed three cardamom pods. I've added them to the pot with a ro a full head of rose petals.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And remember, spray-free roses. And I've put some lavender in there as well. I may have put a bit too much lavender in today.
SPEAKER_02It's quite strong. It smells strong. I'm not sure if I like the smell of this, but it'll have a wee taste.
SPEAKER_03It tastes very medicinal. It does taste medicinal. It's yummy. It's actually um very soothing. It's full of antioxidants. It improves sleep, reduces anxiety, may help with blood pressure too. Especially if you sit under the shade of a nice tree and five minutes, please.
SPEAKER_02Not today while we're broadcasting. This cloud has come over and I think it's going to bucket down.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but but it'll come right. It'll come right. Everything does, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um that cardamom contains potassium, so that's anti-inflammatory. And it it may reduce blood pressure, so don't use this if you're taking blood thinners or blood pressure medication.
SPEAKER_02Very important.
SPEAKER_03Just to point that out. But if you're not taking those medications, this will aid digestion.
SPEAKER_02Fantastic. I think I'd like to go a little easier on the lavender.
SPEAKER_03Fine.
SPEAKER_02Possibly.
SPEAKER_03So we'll reduce that by half next time. So how much of each did you put in again? Um one full rose when it was fully open.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03And I think I put about six or seven heads of lavender, English lavender.
SPEAKER_02Okay, the actual like a head that you take. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's a mixture. I don't know. Currently, Ellie, I have a staph infection that I am uh dousing myself doing like a bleach bath. And on my skin is all I can smell is bit bleach. So that potentially could be that could be changing the taste. Yeah, a little bit. Or even the smell of it coming from because it's on both hands. Right. So I could be I might have to try and get a straw. But it all in all is actually it's quite a pleasant drink.
SPEAKER_03It is a nice relaxing drink. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One for Jenna.
SPEAKER_02Oh yes, Jenna from last week's little chat. And she was, ah, actually Jenna, yeah. Give this one a go and see how it and it might help put baby to sleep too. Oh. Coming through breastfeeding. Right, as we move along from T Ali, what is happening in our garden at the moment?
SPEAKER_03Well, actually it's a special day today. Today is the autumn equinox, 20th of March at 4.06 pm, precisely.
SPEAKER_02That's when the autumn equinox hits.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02And exists. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere is also known as the March Equinox, as it does tend to fall in March. Makes sense.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03It's um derived from the Latin meaning equal night.
SPEAKER_02So it's when does that mean equal day, equal night?
SPEAKER_03Equal day, equal night. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Is this what brings because I've found in the last few mornings quite dewy. Is this due to that? Or is it?
SPEAKER_03Well, officially, this is when autumn starts in the southern hemisphere.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03So as opposed to the first sixteen, seventeen, yeah. That's why I always say on the first of March, oh technically, you know it's not really autumn.
SPEAKER_02But it's not really autumn. It's still a bit of summer.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm. It just feels like, don't you think, it feels like it's time to go and collect pine cones for your winter fire starter. So I found this wonderful website talking about the autumn equinox in New Zealand. It's www.brendonmoses.com. And he has some lovely stories and traditions from the Maori culture, metaphors for shedding the old and preparing for the new, a time for letting go of what no longer serves us and making space for new possibilities. So it's a good cleansing time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03On his website too, he has a list of ways that you can actually observe and celebrate the autumn equinox, which it's it's a pretty special time. It's when the sun's directly above the equator. Get up at sunrise as the sun just begins to rise, and mark a point which indicates the direction of the rising sun. Do the same at night as the sun falls, and then do the same on the winter solstice and for the next equinox and solstice. And these indicators will give you the range of light fall at your home property and provide you with really good data on where you can best plant your garden crops. So you're looking at where the sun your maximum amount of sun. Yeah. So although it's today as we go to air, you will have missed getting up first thing in the morning, but do it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02Give it a go.
SPEAKER_03So this the moon is waxing, which means it's a great time for sowing and planting until the 22nd. Same as last week. Um just take your cuttings. It's the most prolific period for planting everything except root crops. Keep your liquid fertilizer going still. And we're almost at that really, really optimum stage for planting your fruit trees. So get those ready and get them in the ground soon.
SPEAKER_02I have two still sitting in my vegetable garden from where we went to the States, and those ones I got for $20. The peaches. So now I need to get Stacy to dig a hole in the hill.
SPEAKER_03Yep, yep, get him to do that. It's a high sap run, so don't prune. Now, if you are a keen moon phase follower, during the first quarter moon, the moonlight becomes stronger and that gravitational pull is decreasing. That means it's a great time to plant everything above ground. And then uh in this week, we've got the 23rd to the 26th of March is your cultivate time. So that's a bit of a rest time. So before that, you can get your Brussels sprout seedlings into the ground, lots of them. They're gonna take about 26 to 31 weeks to reach maturity. But here in central Otago, we would have planted them in summer for that to be able to harvest in winter. So if you're planting them now, they're going to get going.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then as soon as it gets cold, they're going to slow down.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03But then we will get a nice crop come sort of October time.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Which is so this it's fine.
SPEAKER_02I'd like to actually, I think I'd like to try Brussels sprouts. I I I never, never in my wildest dreams, would I have ever thought those words would have come out of my mouth, Allie. I was a complete hater, and I think I've said this in one of our early episodes, wasn't until I went to Kika restaurant here in Wanaker, they cooked them to a way I'm like, actually, I could enjoy these. And I now actually put them, and my kids, funnily enough, enjoy them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So it's never, yeah, ever thought so. I might actually give that a wee whirl. I think you should. I mean, they love a good frost, and if they are cooked properly, not to a pulp as they were when we were kids.
SPEAKER_02Boiled.
SPEAKER_03They'll give you um valuable greens over winter and into spring. So yeah, give it a go. Cook them really, really well. I like to um blanch them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I then I cut them in half after they've cooled down, and then I'll stir-fry them.
SPEAKER_02Ah, see, I put mine in the either st either in the pan or in the oven and add with bacon and balsamic dressing glaze.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, nice. Nice.
SPEAKER_02Um, there's so many ways you can so it goes crispy crunchy almost like when you um put kale, make like kale chips. It's yeah, it's going away from that soggy. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02I think we all have a story about Brussels spraying.
SPEAKER_03I think we do. I think we do, but we need to change that. We will change that on this podcast, Jen.
SPEAKER_02That's exactly what we that's what we plan to do. That is our our apparus. That's our mission. What is the Mendum apparatus or something or other? Well, it's in Latin. Can tell I never took Latin.
SPEAKER_03Modus operandi. Okay, moving on, Allie. Stop digressing. So if you've got really well cared for Brussels sprouts, you should expect to harvest about 60 to 100 sprouts off each uh each plant.
SPEAKER_02Possibly by then you might be sick. Never want them again.
SPEAKER_03How are those pumpkins coming along, everyone? Mine are looking at the phone. Don't look at me. I didn't want to be a good one. I didn't plant any this year, no. Mine are looking good, but they're not quite ready yet.
SPEAKER_02How do you know when a pumpkin's ready to pick?
SPEAKER_03The uh stem, the little stalk at the top, is going to go brown, the vine's gonna be wilting. Yeah, they just sort of sit there and go, pick me, pick me. Keep sewing your salad veg inside now. You could if you've got that windowsill um plant pot, whatever, whatever system you're using, um, keep those greens going. We should be able to go right the way through the season. Th through the year, I should say. To get your salad greens. Yeah, keep your salad greens going. Um sugar snap, peas, and those sorts of things. Yummy, yummy, yummy.
SPEAKER_02What do we need to know about onions being our vegetable of the week?
SPEAKER_03There's a lot to know about onions. Um I've taken some excerpts from the Abundant Gardener, Yotam and Neva Kay's book. Have's have you all got your copy of that yet? If you haven't, get it. Brilliant. Here's something to aspire to. Yotam and Neva use onions every day in their cooking. So they plant, for their own use, 365 onions every year, which takes up another nine square metres of growing space. Exactly. Crazy, isn't it? Yeah. They plant a month or so after the shortest day. But you can sow onions anytime between February and September, though down here in central Otago and those who live in other really cold regions, you should consider some pr winter protection for your onions.
SPEAKER_02So what is that? A cover cloth? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. They take about a hundred to a hundred and eighty days to mature. But don't be surprised if they do take a bit longer in those colder areas. Onions like full sun and well cultivated soil, so prior to planting, add plenty of manure and compost, but do go easy on the on the nitrogen content because onions will become weak and prone to pests. So yeah, it's it's a misconception that they need a bit of nitrogen. Uh your main crop onions are sown in late winter, early spring, and they'll be ready to harvest in late summer to autumn. So I took mine out ten days or so ago, I suppose. And oh, super pleased with them. They look really good and they do gummy.
SPEAKER_02Do I take mine out? Because mine haven't got very big. Yeah. And they're and as we talk, I think it was last week we spoke about I think I buried mine a bit of too deep. Um, I need to do it a little bit shallower.
SPEAKER_03Potentially, yes.
SPEAKER_02And so though, yeah, like m my father and all his have risen and popped above the ground. Mine are not. So should I now take them out?
SPEAKER_03You are your green tops hanging over now? Yes. Yes, yep. So take them out and leave them out on the ground to dry up. They'll take a bit of that moisture will come out. Okay, I'll I'll talk to that in in a few minutes if that's all right.
SPEAKER_02No problem.
SPEAKER_03Um, onions sown in autumn won't be ready until the following summer. So these are the onions that require the winter protection, as we talked about before. When you're ready to sow your onions, make small furrows in your seed tray by laying a pencil down flat. The furrows should be five centimetres apart, and sow your seeds in each of those furrows about um half a centimetre apart. The seedlings will stay in the trays for ten to twelve weeks until they're the thickness of a pencil lead, not a pencil, a pencil lead. Yeah, they're quite thin. Um and it's certainly possible to sow direct if your garden is weed-free. But I like weeds.
SPEAKER_02We know that. I don't, Allie.
SPEAKER_03And when you are transplanting, when it's time to transplant, allow about 15 centimetres between the onions in all directions, and that'll give them enough space to spread their roots out.
SPEAKER_02So was an onion an above ground or a below ground?
SPEAKER_03Well technically it comes into the below ground.
SPEAKER_02Right, yeah, because the roots go that way, but you're f yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's a tricky one. Onions can be grown in containers that are about uh at well at least 20 centimetres deep, but they do tend to dry out very, very quickly in those containers. So if you are growing in containers, just keep an eye on those moisture levels. Stick your finger in, do the moisture test. Onions are actually light feeders, but the occasional dose of fertiliser, homemade, of course, um, about once a month will give them a boost. Keep them well watered but not soaked, and pop some pea straw mulch around them, and that will definitely help to retain moisture in the soil and reduce the weeds. So, how do you know when onions are ready to harvest? Aha!
SPEAKER_02This is answering the weeds that I just did.
SPEAKER_03That's right. When they start to dry and the foliage then wilts. Don't be tempted though to just pull the onion out from the ground just by yanking on the stems because chances are you could damage the onion. Use a garden fork, get in underneath, loosen the soil, give it a bit of a jiggle around. You're not turning the soil over, you're just giving a bit of a loosen up. And then um gently pull the onion out and leave it on the ground for a week or so to dry. It's called the curing process, and that reduces the moisture levels in the onion and makes for safer storage. They're not going to rot as quickly.
SPEAKER_02What's popping into my head is that you don't probably want to leave it in your garden that is constantly getting irrigated. So take it somewhere a little drier.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes, yes. And that's why you see some people actually have wire um onion frames and they'll just poke the onion through like a imagine a um a grid.
SPEAKER_02Oh, and so you hang it upside down so the onions on top and the foliage is hanging below.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And then let them dry out a little bit in a well-ventilated place. Nice. Recks, those racks are a great idea in the garage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And then you can store them however you like. Some people tie them like a in a plate. Yeah, yeah, and and others just um cut the roots off the bottom, cut the long stem off the top, and store them carefully.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And a darker piece of common sense.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um some of my favourites, um, the most successful one, my Italian long keeper. It's a bit larger than the Puka Coe long keeper and tastes quite yummy. These are best sewn in the spring and early summer for harvesting now. So this is when I was very happy with my crop this year. Um, try looking at the organic range of onions from King's Seeds. Florentine red, but you can sow that now and in spring. The Stuttgart Long Keeper, again, you can sow that now. They have excellent bulk tolerance, and as we talked about that before, those dramatic changes in temperatures, lots of water, then no water. So if you've got those inconsistencies, yeah, yeah, keep an eye on that. Um, the red ampostable. Now I've not tried these. Um, this is an heirloom red onion, best sewn in spring and early summer. So if you're looking through your King's catalogue, now is the time to mark that one off to uh get in ready for spring. Kings have so many varieties of onion for you to choose from, so do let us know which is your favourite.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, I didn't know there were that many varieties and there was a difference in their flavours. Now, Jen, French onion soup, hard to beat on a cold day.
SPEAKER_03I still use Alison Holst's recipe that I first made in 1988. Always make cheesy croutons to go with it. But I always plan to have an at-home day the following day.
SPEAKER_02Oh, is onion make your flatulent. Talking about Alison Holst, actually, who was oh who I grew up having in my household of books and cooks. Well, she wasn't in my household, but she was in a way in the books. But I just thing popped up on the professional country woman Facebook page. Oh yes. Introduced into the Hall of Fame for 2024 uh was Annabelle Langbein, Fleur Sullivan. Do you have ever been to Fleurs? I have most definitely Moraki is where Stacey and I got engaged. Um, and Alison Holst. There you go. Yeah. So they were recognised as pioneers who have greatly influenced and continue to influence the way we look at food and drink and pave the way for us to continue the legacy.
SPEAKER_03Oh, they're lovely. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_02No worries, I'm a sharing caring kind of gal. Anyway, French onion soup is going to be a very good go-to coming into the winter.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_02I had one when I was in Canada in the mountains, and they made it. You said you made croutons, cheesy croutons. They actually made it that it sat over top.
SPEAKER_03That's what I do. Yeah. I get a French stick loaf of bread and make my little cheesy croutons and then float the whole, the whole top of the bowl is full of cheesy goodness.
SPEAKER_02If you're gonna do it, do it well. Right. Okay, now we're going to introduce you to a very important woman, uh, very important to us here for our podcast. Uh, and we caught up with her earlier. So, Charlotte Connolly from King Seeds. Let's have a listen to what is going to now happen as a the coming together of, I suppose, two fabulous entities. Absolutely, your garden coach and Charlotte from King Seeds. Let's have a listen. Well, I'd like to welcome today Charlotte Connolly from King Seeds, just new to King Seeds, uh, a business that was born actually the year after I was. 1978. They had their 45th birthday last year. So uh I hope she's not too nervous about taking on big shoes, but I think potentially she's going to get in there, make it bigger, make it better, and the fact that it is a New Zealand business is why we are one of the reasons we're so excited to have Charlotte on with us. Um, Charlotte, welcome, King Seeds. Nice to meet you. And uh let's get into it. Tell us a little bit about you, your backstory. What why on earth and when and how all the bits and pieces of you becoming King Seeds?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, hi morning. Um yeah, I'm really pleased to be on your podcast. Obviously, been a bit of a listener now for several weeks and learning lots myself as well, too. So thanks for having me. Yeah, look, um, I guess my journey to King Seeds, I was born on a sheep and kettle farm down in the Hecateramea Valley, down a bit in New York. So my mum obviously had a very extensive garden, both vegetable garden and also flower garden. So as a little girl, I always had my own garden and really got involved and made potpourri and commandables and all those fun things we used to do when we were young. So always, I guess, had a love for horticulture and gardening and things. And then yeah, as I got older, I decided I wanted to go to Lincoln University where I studied uh a bit of horticultural science. So I guess just carried on like fostering that love for plants and things. I literally studied and majored in winemaking and grape growing, so um I was perhaps healing a bit more geometric. Um And then I did some research for the New Zealand Olive Association. I still have been judging the New Zealand and also the Australian Olive Oil Awards now for over 20 years. So that's more a bit of a passion project. Ended up working for a company called South Pacific Seeds, who they um sell and do seed multiplication of vegetable varieties here in New Zealand. And I did that for 20 years. Became their general manager at the yeah, very young age of 23. Really loved it. Loved the seasonality of that vegetable industry and horticulture. And there was always something new. Obviously, got a lot of really great travel opportunities to visit breeding companies and stuff overseas. Yeah, and so carried on in that way. Obviously, in the later part of that, have my children and it was sort of during the COVID lockdown period and when I had, you know, a baby and a preschooler, and one just started school, and Stuart and Barbara Martin, who were the owners of King's Seeds, I had gotten to know them through an industry role that I had representing the seed industry. And he rang me up one day and just said, look, what I, you know, they were looking at their succession plan. They're in their early 60s, they've got three daughters, but none of them were interested in taking on the business. Their focus was it was a family-owned business, it always has been. They were the second family to own it, and they really wanted to carry on that legacy. So that was really important to them. And yeah, they asked my husband and I whether we would be interested to buy into the business and for me to take over the management. So we explored that opportunity, and obviously, given they're located in the Bay of Plenty, we weren't too unhappy about that move out of that. Um we were rural, rural South Auckland, but still moving away from there. And so yeah, I guess the rest is history. We've been here for two years now. Um my husband still works in Auckland, so we haven't solved that problem. So I've been, yeah, running the day-to-day management. Jared and Barbara are still involved in the business and um supporting me. But yeah, it's just sort of in that handover phase, I guess. So no, I'm really enjoying it.
SPEAKER_02You haven't found a position for your husband at King Seats?
SPEAKER_01We c we keep talking about that. We haven't quite worked out whether we could actually work together or not.
SPEAKER_02Very good point.
SPEAKER_00He's a lot more confident about it than I am. Yeah, no, that's definitely an option at some point, potentially, but I think it's like anything. Um, it's important that it sort of scratches both your itches, if you know what I mean, and and gardening and seeds and everything's my passion. Yeah, I guess it would just be important that if he came into that, that he shed that as much as well, too. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_02Are your kids showing any signs yet of the love of gardening and all the joys it brings?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, look, they definitely do. We've got three boys that are four, seven, and nine, and they fight a lot, as you can imagine. But it's the the one thing when I'm out gardening with them for some reason, they're like perfectly good. They love it, you know, whether they're trimming hedges or raking things up for me or planting and things. So it's actually when I get a bit fed up with them at times when you've got cabin fever that I'm like, right, let's go out into the garden. Mac our eldest, he did his speech last year at school all on um king seeds and about how plants were good for the world and all these things. So I'm sick of that. It was um very sweet. He talks a lot about coming into the business and things, but we had them recently they sold some flowers that we had from our display gardens. And once they'd sold out of flowers, I'd given them some catalogues to give away, but they decided they needed to start selling those.
SPEAKER_01No, because I saw this great money-making venture. I was like, Oh, I have to draw the line here.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. I love it. Allie is telling me she's said there's some good news happening with you and us here at Your Garden Coach. So, Ellie, uh, you've been holding me in suspense. I'm not quite sure what you're going to talk about. So, what is happening and what's the secret you've been keeping from me?
SPEAKER_03Well, a lovely conversation with Charlotte of a month or so ago, finding out that we're on the same sort of page with wanting to educate and support people in their garden ventures. And we we realized that we had a bit of a that our values aligned. So Charlotte's actually very kindly come forward and offered to support us with um some gifts for our listeners. Oh, awesome! Yeah, yeah. So, Charlotte, do you want to um just lead in and let people know what we've come up with?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so look, obviously, um, when I came across your podcast, I guess what impressed me was just yeah, what you're doing in that space to educate people and probably to take the overwhelm away a bit. We look at it all the time in our business around how can we get more people growing from seed. And I think, you know, obviously we know a lot of people are really busy and things like that, but for a lot of people it's just knowing where to start. So I think it's fantastic with what you're doing. And so, yeah, Ali and I had this great conversation, and I guess I'm really passionate. We have this saying at work, growing is for everyone, and we really want to try and make that right through urban, rural New Zealand. And so, yeah, I guess with this collaboration, um, we thought that we could help by doing that by giving away some of our seed collections. So uh we have these seed collections where we choose all our top sellers um that are specific for a season. So, what we're trying to do again is just take a bit of the pain out of it by saying, Well, look, we know these are really great varieties, we know they work well, they're well, everyone's buying at this time of the year, and you know, they're right for sewing now. So, again, it just takes a bit of that guess workouts, and then also too, we're going to do some giveaways, I think, each week of a gift card so people can make their own selections and things too. So, yeah, we just see it as a really important part of I guess fostering that gardening community that we can grow here in New Zealand.
SPEAKER_03So that's great teamwork with King's Seeds and your garden coach. And we're really looking forward to putting some questions out there, getting you thinking, and writing in with us with an answer. So hold hold your horses. We'll come back to you on that one. Um, that's great, Charlotte. Thank you. What we'd really like to know now is what your goals for the future are for King's Seeds.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. Well, obviously, my husband keeps telling me I've just got to woe back a bit. I'm sort of a bit of an A-type personality. We want to try and get more people growing from seed. Obviously, I think gardening in general and whether you're doing it from seedlings or seed, it's is irrelevant. I guess the thing with seed is it's a lot more cost effective and also too can take out a little bit of that plastic waste side of things as well, too, which we're important about in terms of sustainability and things. Yeah, look, the range is something I'm really focusing on at the moment. So I've got the great job this year where I get to choose all the new products, which is super exciting. The flower range is something that I'm really working on at the moment. We want to have some exciting, beautiful flowers. Obviously, there's a lot more people doing like cut flower gardens and selling flowers at their garden gate or at markets and things like that. So we really want to support those people. In terms of the vegetables, it's always really hard to come up with new vegetables because it's kind of like only so many broccolies and pumpkins and whatever else. But also to I guess my focus there is just making it uh easier for people to understand what varieties they would choose for specific situations. So because I think, you know, in our catalogue, you know, we might have 12 beans or something. And I think if you're new to gardening, you're like crikey, what what bean do I grow? So we just want to try and yeah, identify that and just make it a bit, yeah, simpler, I guess, for people to make choices for their growing situations. And I guess the urban market's another one for us. I have this big thing where I think it doesn't matter if you're on the tenth story of an apartment that you should still be able to grow. And I think sometimes people think, oh, because they haven't got the quarter acre sort of block or anything like that, that they can't grow. But you know, people can do sprouts, they can grow microgreens, they can grow in containers. It's actually really amazing what you can grow in a small area or even without any garden at all. So that's a real focus for us too, is just trying to take away some of those barriers to why people think they might not be able to garden.
SPEAKER_03Recently I've been looking at which hardy annuals I'd like to plant this season, and you've made it so simple. Simply go to the heading, look at flowers, click the drop-down menu, and click what to sew now, what to sew in autumn. And there's a huge array of those hardy annuals that really like to be planted now so that they can establish their roots before winter, rest over winter, and then they just burst forth in the spring. So I'm I'm looking at the bishop's flower, the ami Magus, the taller one, and the ami Vesnaga, which is a bit smaller and slightly tighter heads, beautiful in the garden. Then we can list off a whole, I don't know how many hundred of flowers, 250 flowers you can actually be sewing now. Um, gypsophila, or laya, dorcas, that's the ornamental carrot, which is beautiful. An ornamental carrot.
SPEAKER_02What do you do with an ornamental carrot, Ellie? It's the flower we're looking at, Jen.
SPEAKER_03Sorry. And the stocks, beautiful stocks. So all of those um lovely, lovely hardy annuals that you can be planting now. And as I said, kings have made it so simple to find out what you should be planting, which is great.
SPEAKER_02All right, Charlotte. So tell us what are some of your favourites in the garden?
SPEAKER_00So I quite like aquilegius. That's a variety that you can sew at this time of the year, and particularly great if you've got some shady areas in your garden and things too. I'm a bit of a white and green girl, so I quite like our um lime saw bay and the white barlow. And I'm actually still desperately trying to get a hold of. We had a variety called Pink Petticoat a few years ago, and I'm still trying to get seed of that. It's um yeah, a gorgeous sort of blush pink with sort of tinges of lime too, which is really gorgeous. So hopefully we might be able to get that back in the catalogue this year.
SPEAKER_03The lime sorbay looks beautiful. We're looking at the catalogue now. Page 12, right on the bottom. It's stunning.
SPEAKER_00And I also like quite structural, like um the Echinops and Orangeum as well too. And I know they grow down uh well down in your area. I've got a cousin in Bannockburn, and I know she's had them in her garden there too, so I think they do well with that sort of overwintering and things. But you know, it's fascinating sort of when you look at them, just the structure and the symmetry and things like that too. And you know, they do well. You can put them in cut flower, otherwise you can dry them as well, too. But and I guess you can't go past gypsofler. I actually we got married in Wanaka, and my mum sewed a whole lot of gypsofler at um their place in Wanaker for our wedding, but not realizing that it was actually uh flowers' second season from sewing. So every year now on my wedding anniversary, she text texts me to tell me that the gypsofler looks amazing.
SPEAKER_01But of course, we had none for our wedding. So anyway. Whoops.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, so I think there's lots of options there that um yeah, people I think sometimes when it gets cooler, people think they can't keep sewing flowers. Um, but it is quite nice just to keep um, yeah, a few sort of sewn through these months so you've got some pops of colour.
SPEAKER_03So if you're looking at um sewing some nice hardy annuals, pop onto King Seeds website, under collections, flowers, and autumn, and you should find them. A whole long list of them. Absolutely fantastic.
SPEAKER_00We're also actually we're just loading up a blog right now on what to sew for March, April, May, and that's covering off vegetables, um, flowers, and herbs. So that's another good way if people sign up to our blog or just want to go online to our website and have a look in the blogs there. It can give people some good idea too of what they should be sewing each month.
SPEAKER_02All right, let's get to the point now where our listeners can win. So, what we're gonna do is for our seasonal prize pack, which is of course autumn, what we would like you to do is tell us what Charlotte's favourite flower is. It's really, really simple, and all you need to do is email your answer to coach at your gardencoach.nz. So from now on, we're gonna have a weekly voucher, Kingseeds voucher, for you to win. And what you need to do, what all we want you to do each week to be able to be a part of that competition is just flood your social media of your garden life, whatever it is to do, you, your pet, your kid, your husband within your garden, but put it on your social media, and all you need to do to get yourself in the drawer for that voucher from King Seeds is just to literally tag us, your garden coach, underscore NZ, and of course, King Seeds. NZ. So easy. So Charlotte, what is the value of the seasonal package and what's in it?
SPEAKER_00Um close to $120, and it's got in it one of um the sustainer grow wool garden blankets and their 10 of their propagation pots, which are all 100% New Zealand wool, 100% New Zealand made. And then we've got our autumn um vegetable uh veggie patch uh seed collection there as well. We've got a couple of um propagation trays. So yeah, I think it should get someone well on their way to getting their autumn garden established.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that is that is absolutely brilliant. And just a wee um add-on, Charlotte has been so kind that if anyone goes in and orders anything off the King Seeds website, if is there's a product like a discount section at the at the end, is it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so at the checkout, if they enter the discount code COACH, all in capital letters, coach, then they'll get 10% off their um order when they're checking out.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're an absolute superstar. And Allie and I here at York Garden Coach cannot wait to uh get this collaboration going along with King Steve.
SPEAKER_00Thanks so much for having me, guys.
SPEAKER_02Right, Allie. You know, since I've met you, I've started doing odd things like research and garden stuff. Did you know? I don't know, you may already know this, but I did not. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers. I'm not sure about the other colours, but green peppers, they are commonly thought of as vegetables.
SPEAKER_03That's right.
SPEAKER_02Right. Would you think that?
SPEAKER_03I would say they're vegetables.
SPEAKER_02Well, guess what? Because their seeds are on the inside, scientifically, they're actually fruits.
SPEAKER_03We'll go figure. I did know that about tomatoes, but I wasn't so sure about the cucumbers and peppers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was I was it was one of those things that you Google it when you're around a dinner table and that conversation comes up, toilet paper over the top or toilet paper uh on the other way, or is it vegemite or is it marmite? And then it comes to the discussion is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? There you go. And you Google it. And every time I do, and then I go to have that discussion again. I can't remember what the answer the answer was. But this time having actually having a look, it came up with um yeah, the cucumbers and green peppers are classed in that section either. Too. Yeah. Well, there you go.
SPEAKER_03Put some peppers in your fruit salad.
SPEAKER_02See, I'm not a big fan of peppers, so I do grow them for my family, but I'm not a it's one of those like coriander thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's you've got to like the taste. Too much. So let's move on to our book for the week. What have we got?
SPEAKER_03Well, firstly, we should say that the King's catalogue, shouldn't we? Definitely. Are you classic that is a book? It has to be a book of bedtime reading.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. Allie. That ain't no fifty shades of grey. Actually, it's fifty shades of green. It is fifty shades of green for sure. I would never have thought I was going to go bed into bed in my light reading would be the King's Seeds catalogue. But here we are.
SPEAKER_03I think there's a growing population of people reading the King's Catalogue at bedtime. The other book I've got out of the library this week is The Allergy Fighting Garden. How to create an allergy fighting garden. One for you, Jen.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, I like the sound of that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So it just goes through each plant and tells you, you know, what its benefits are. And just yeah, it's great.
SPEAKER_02Especially with a son who has asthmery type stuff with lungs. Uh Lily with her celiac. Me with this going through my system constantly of the um the staph infection, it'd be quite actually a seriously quite a book.
SPEAKER_03You should get that out after me.
SPEAKER_02After you. It could be that good. I might have to buy my own. Um glossary. What are we? What's our gardening term of the week?
SPEAKER_03This is a really long word. Evapotranspiration. It's the It's the process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere. So in plants that we are concentrating on, that means the rate of any dew or droplets of water present on leaves and stems, and the water content of the plant, and how quickly that actually evaporates. So scientists refer to the combination of evaporation and transpiration as evapotranspiration.
SPEAKER_02You lost me an evapo. But very interesting to know. It is now time for questions from the listeners. And today it's Victoria from Cromwell. Hi Victoria. Now, this is what she has written. I have to put this first part in because it makes us feel so good about ourselves. I love your podcast and have a gardening harvesting question. If you're taking questions, of course we are. We love, and this is why we've put this section in. We just love the listeners' questions. I've recently moved to Cromwell, and I'm not sure what will happen to all my herbs over winter. Will they die back? And is it best to harvest in autumn and dehydrate to use overwinter? The herbs in question are parsley, rosemary, chive, sage, oregano, or oregano, or depending where you're from, and thyme. Thanks. So Allie, what is the answer to Victoria's question, please?
SPEAKER_03Really good question. And this is why the podcast is here, so that we can help people who are new to the district.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03And obviously those of you up and down the country too. In this district, rosemary, sage and thyme will overwinter, no problem at all. Yep. No problem at all. They're not growing, but they're not dying either. Chives, parsley, and oregano will die back and then they'll regrow in spring. They survive quite nicely. I do have one patch of parsley though, that's just hidden in amongst the lavender, and it seems to get through the winter. I don't know why. But I'm glad. Sheer luck. It is, it is. So there we go. Hope that helps, Victoria. Thanks for your question.
SPEAKER_02So you don't need to do anything is your answer. They will survive.
SPEAKER_03So your chives and your parsley and your oregano, yes. Give them a dehydrate and save them for wet use over winter, but everything else is fine.
SPEAKER_02So cut them all back and use them, you're saying.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dehydrate them.
SPEAKER_02Instagram of the week account. Have we got one?
SPEAKER_03Um well we're on a theme this week, so we're going with King's Seeds.
SPEAKER_02Ah, right. I've got the the catalogue and we've got what is the Instagram page?
SPEAKER_03At King's Seeds.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, that's simple.
SPEAKER_03And Charlotte's doing a great job. You'll learn a lot. Get on there and have a look.
SPEAKER_02At KingseedsNZ, Instagram of the week. Check it out. And any events, local events happening, what's going on in the gardening world that people can partake in?
SPEAKER_03Yes, I had a lovely chat with Eve from the Wanaker Public Library last night, and she reminded me that they're having a seed saving workshop and a seed swap on Thursday, the 21st of March. So that's between 5 30 and 7, and they've got delicious homemade goodies to share and enjoy. So I think we should pop along there.
SPEAKER_02I think that's uh that's how I'm gonna spend my wedding anniversary because my husband will be hunting.
SPEAKER_03Well, there you go. Now Eve was saying that the um seed saving library has been really well used and they're actually quite depleted of stock. So bring on those seeds. Bring your seeds down and replenish the stock. So but good to know that people are actually borrowing, as we said before, borrowing and then replenishing.
SPEAKER_02Replenishing later on. Yeah. Um and if you're not sure you don't know how to bring those seeds in, then head along to this night to know what to do about that. How you actually you've got seeds, but what do you do?
SPEAKER_03How do you make them how do you dry them and make sure that they're they're right.
SPEAKER_02Put them back into the yeah, they're not gonna rot or anything like that. So 5 30 till 7 on the 21st of March. There we go. I think that's us. So actually, if you do have anything you'd like to advertise and get us to advertise and talk about, please do just uh get in touch with us via email coach at your gardencoach.nz. And I think that's a wrap for us this week, Ellie.
SPEAKER_03It is just to say thank you for the lovely emails that keep coming through. We we we really do need them just to keep us going.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes, you know, it's quite crazy. Sometimes both of us actually get a little bit of imposter syndrome. So your emails get us back out of that little clump and go. Actually, what we're doing is the whole idea of getting people inspired to get back into their garden to recreate or to start creating and live a nice, healthy life.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Okay, until next week. Happy garden gardening. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Your Garden Coach. If you've enjoyed this and give down the advice out there, please give us a five-star rating at helps the algorithm, reach more or experience. Remember to like and subscribe to the UFO episode and you'll find more details at the podcast notes below. And to us any got a coach. We're also growing up with www.yogatacoach.zip. And if you'd like a personalized kitchen got a console picture with the fabulous Ellie, email coach at yoggatacoach.zip. Ellie's got it open at you via www.sygaton.co. And you can put stuff visit on the option.
