Natural Gardening Guide

Whether you’re growing vegetables, herbs and fruit, or luscious foliage, trees and shrubs, here are some useful tips for easy and cost effective ways to keep your garden naturally healthy. 

tui performance organics

Tui Performance Organics harnesses the power of nature to deliver outstanding results through ingredients you can be sure are true to nature, just like the garden you're keeping.

Organic ingredients that get great results - Tui Performance Organics range has everything you need to prepare, plant and nourish your garden naturally.

Tui Performance Oragnics features packaging containing recycled material, and is all recyclable. These products are designed to give great results without adding anything un-natural to your own environment.

 natural fertilisers 

Tui Performance Organics fertiliser pellets combine fast acting natural sources of nutrients with slow release feeding to support rapid and consistent growth – the natural way. Made with 100% BioGro certified organic ingredients for an organically great garden that gets results!

• Tui Performance Organics All Purpose fertiliser pellets are suitable for all garden plants, vegetables, flowers and herbs, containing seaweed extract to stimulate root development and improve overall plant health.
• Tui Performance Organics Tomato & Vegetable fertiliser pellets contain added calcium to help you grow healthy, luscious tomatoes, vegetables and herbs.
• Tui Performance Organics Citrus & Fruit fertiliser pellets  are boosted with magnesium to grow healthy fruit and lush green growth all year round.

Discover the range here

Water

• Put a filter on hose taps to help purify the water that goes onto your garden.
• Use Saturaid Granular Soil wetter on lawns, garden beds and in pots to reduce water use by up to 50%.
• Collect rainwater in barrels for use in the garden.

Choose native varieties

• Native plants have adapted to local soil conditions over thousands of years and have few problems with pests.
• Attract wildlife and birds into the garden. Flax, kowhai and kaka beak will draw many nectar loving birds including our favourite, the tui. Discover more tips to attract birds into your garden >
• Native plants are easy to grow, requiring less fertiliser and water.
• You can also use native grasses in your lawn.

Compost

• Compost your vegetable waste instead of putting it in the landfill. Compost enriches soil fertility with rich organic matter and improves water retention. Top up your supply with Tui Performance Organics Compost when required.
• A five percent increase in organic material quadruples the soil's ability to store water. This is a significant amount especially in hot, dry landscapes.
• Keep a bag or barrel of dry leaves next to your compost pile to cover up kitchen scraps - this will prevent the attention of critters and flies. If they persist, bury the kitchen scraps deeper inside the pile.

Worm farming

• Worm farming is a fun way to turn your organic waste, like kitchen scraps, into rich fertiliser for your garden in the form of worm castings and worm tea.
• The Tui Worm Farm is ideal to sit in your garden or on your balcony. You’ll also need about 1,000 (250g) worms to get started. You will get the best output from Tiger worms.
• Add the worms to the top tray of the Tui Worm Farm and then you can add your raw and cooked food scraps to the surface area.
• Your worms will eat the food scraps and turn them into nutritious worm tea and worm castings, which you can use as a natural fertiliser for your garden.
• Alternatively the Tui Worm Tower can be dug directly into your your garden bed. Add your worms and kitchen scraps into the Tui Worm Tower and the worms will travel back and forth through the feeding holes, eating the scraps and delivering nutrients directly to the soil. Discover more with our Beginners Guide to Worm Farming and learn how to set up your Tui Worm Tower here.

Natural pest control

• Control slugs using beer! If you can give up a small amount of your favourite ale – leave a wide jar in the garden that will attract slugs that will crawl in and drown. Alternatively use Tui Quash, a revolutionary low hazard formula which effectively controls slugs and snails, and is safer to use around children, pets and wildlife than alternative metaldehyde or methiocarb based slug and snail baits.
• Spray aphid infested stems, leaves, and buds with very diluted soapy water, then clear water.
• Mites and other insects: Mix two tablespoons of hot pepper or cayenne pepper with a few drops of soap into two pints of water. Let it stand overnight and then spray.

Natural disease and weed control

• Use one tablespoon of baking soda dissolved in a litre of water to attack powdery mildew and oxalis.
• Rotate crops on each garden area between seasons, so diseases won’t build up in the soil. Follow our crop rotation guide >
• Spot spray weeds with common full strength household vinegar, on a sunny day.
• To get rid of weeds in hard to reach places like between cracks in concrete by pouring boiling water over them.
• Create your own soil pH! Mulch acid-loving plants with a thick layer of pine needles each autumn. As the needles decompose, they will deposit their acid in the soil.

If you have any other natural gardening tips, we'd love to hear them below!