Tui Tips for a Healthy Garden

To maintain a healthy garden follow these simple tips:

When planting

• Take care to choose the right plant for the right position in your garden, and plant seasonally appropriate varieties. See the Tui Planting Calendar for more information.
• Choose varieties that have a natural resistance to insect pests and diseases.
• Add generous amounts of organic matter like sheep pellets and compost to replenish soil nutrients before planting.
• Rotate crops - don't plant the same crops in the same place each year, as diseases can be harboured in the soil. Read our Crop Rotation Guide here.
• Plant a variety of crops together rather than bulk planting a single variety - see the Tui Companion Planting Guide for more information.

Caring for established plants

• Replenish nutrients used by plants during the growing season. Keep adding organic matter like sheep pellets and compost to your soil, and feed your plants with a general fertiliser or one specially blended for your plant or crop.
• Keep your garden well watered. Regular deep soakings are better than shallow watering. Water early in the day or later in the evening, taking care to water the soil not the foliage where possible, to limit encouraging disease.
• Mulch your garden. This suppresses weed growth and helps keep soil moist.
• Remove any diseased plant material, and either burn or bin – don’t compost to avoid spreading disease.
• Keep on top of weeding as weeds can harbour overwintering insect eggs and fungal spores. Weeds also use nutrients from the soil that your plants could be using.
• Clean and disinfect all gardening tools, especially cutting tools, to prevent the spread of disease.

If your garden does get invaded:

• Unwelcome insect pests: try blasting small infestations off with the hose, or ‘digital control’ – squashing them.
• Disease: try removing affected plant material to prevent spreading.