Pizza Garden Guide

Setting up your pizza garden

Choose a spot for your garden that is close to your kitchen or pizza oven so you can easily go from garden to table, picking fresh tomatoes and herbs to add to your pizzas.

A raised garden bed is a great option to plant plenty of pizza ingredients. Even if you don't have a lot of space, you can grow tomatoes and herbs in pots and containers. Check out our Upside Down Tomato Planter hack for a fun way to plant tomatoes.

For tomatoes in the garden add a layer of Tui Tomato Mix, specifically formulated with extra potassium to encourage a plentiful harvest of big juicy fruit. For herbs add a layer Tui Herb Mix, rich in nitrogen to promote green, leafy growth and continuous harvesting. Then mix in Tui Sheep Pellets. If planting in pots and containers fill with Tui Tomato Mix or Tui Herb Mix.

Top Tomatoes for Pizzas

Saucy tomato types – ideal for relishes, sauces, pickles and preserves.

• Money Maker tomato – a reliable, flavoursome tomato.
• Early Girl tomato – a prolific cropper that produces early maturing dark red fruit.
• Russian Red tomato – reliable in cooler climates, with good flavoured round fruits.

Salads and sandwiches – big fleshy varieties that are not too juicy.

• Beefsteak tomato – a super large and tasty fleshy tomato.
• Grosse Lisse tomato – a tall growing variety that produces medium to large fruit full of flavour.
• Taupo tomato – a robust plant that produces a high yield over a long period.

A sweet deal – sweet tasting tomatoes.

• Gourmet Campari tomato – one of the sweetest and most flavoursome tomatoes.
• Dew Drop Cluster tomato – produces small to medium sweet fruit.
• Sweet 100 tomato – a cherry tomato that grows up to 100 flavoursome sweet tasting tomatoes on each truss

Follow our guide to tasty tomatoes

Garden-fresh herbs for a flavour punch

• Parsley – one of the easiest herbs to grow year-round, parsley can be chopped and sprinkled over your pizzas for extra flavour and colour.
• Thyme – packed full of flavour and aroma, thyme is a herb that pairs perfectly with tomatoes for pasta and pizza sauces.
• Basil – a relatively quick and easy to grow herb, basil partners well with tomatoes, and a scattering of fresh leaves provides the finishing touch to pizzas.
• Oregano – can be harvested year-round. It is essential to a great pizza sauce, bolognese and anything to do with tomatoes!
• Rocket – a quick-growing herb with a distinctive sharp, peppery flavour, rocket leaves work well over the top of pizzas for a fresh peppery finish once out of the oven.
• Rosemary – popular for its aromatic and decorative qualities, rosemary is a herb that can be chopped and sprinkled over pizza dough prior to cooking.

Follow our guide to garden-fresh herbs

Nourish

Plants also get hungry! Feeding them will replenish nutrients as they grow and will mean more food for your pizzas and meals.

Use a fertiliser specially blended for what you are planting such as Tui Tomato Food for tomatoes, or use an all purpose variety such as Tui NovaTec Premium which herbs love and is suitable for pots and containers.

Add layers of Tui Pea Straw Mulch to help keep their roots moist and to keep your garden weed free.