Tui's Top 5 Easter Tasks

We are fast approaching Easter and with this comes Easter holidays! This is the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time in your garden. Plant last minute veges for winter to ensure a continuous supply of fresh harvests; pick tasty autumn fruits to transform into delicious chutney's and sauces; fill your garden with bulbs for beautiful spring blooms and involve the children in some garden planting fun.

Shopping list

1. Veges to Plant

To ensure you have a continuous supply of fresh vegetables over the cooler months fill your vege patch with beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers, cavolo nero, celery, kale, silverbeet, spinach and spring onions. Before planting, replenish the soil with a new layer of compost, Tui Super Sheep Pellets and Tui Vegetable Food and plant in Tui Vegetable Mix. Also keep planting herbs to freshly snip and add flavour to your meals. Coriander, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme can all be planted now.

2. Fruit to Pick

Fresh homegrown fruit is not only a tasty snack but many autumn fruits can also be made into delicious chutney’s and sauces. Picking fruit is also fun for the children over the holidays. Pick grapes, apples, feijoas, Chilean guava, pears, rhubarb, walnuts, passionfruit, and late peaches.

3. Flowers to Grow

Brighten up your backyard for the coming months by sowing flowers like bellis, polyanthus, violas, primula, pansies, flowering kale, poppies, wildflowers gazania, dianthus. Plant garden beds and autumn hanging baskets with: bellis, lobelia, polyanthus, violas, snapdragons, wildflowers, sweet william, cineraria.

It is also not too late to get your bulbs in for spring flowering! Plant new bulbs such as tulips, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and lilies and fertilise existing ones with Tui Bulb Food. Watch the Tui Time Bulb Growing Guide for more information.

4. Cover Crops

Cover crops are relatively quick to grow and provide an economical solution to replace lost nutrients in the soil in a completely natural way. Sow after your spring and summer crops have been harvested and in areas that are not going to be used over winter. Cover crops are reliable, sustainable tools used to manage soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds and soil/plant diseases.

5. Quick Wins for Kids

Get the kids involved in the garden this Easter! Planting crops that give quick results is a great way to keep them enthusiastic when getting them started. 'Quick win' crops ensure children will see results within only a couple of weeks.

Crunchy, colourful and ready to harvest a month or so after sowing, radish is an easy crop that flourishes with only the simplest of care - plant in a warm spot on Friday and start to see them germinate on Monday.
Snow peas can be eaten straight from the plant, and do well in the cooler months. Plant as seedlings rather than seeds.