Garden Information from Twigland

Pick Fruit Year Round

Twigland's monthly fruit planner provides a handy ready reference to fruiting plant selections that will see you picking fresh fruit from your own garden year round ... more

Pest & Disease Control in Fruit

There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh fruit straight from the garden. Add to this the satisfaction and sense of achievement, the savings, the knowledge that your fruit is free of nasty pesticides and you have some very powerful reasons for growing your own. Here we recommend pest and disease control through the use of good practice, resistant varieties and low toxicity environmentally friendly products - Fruit Pest & Disease chart. Then read on ... more

Pest & Disease Control in Vegetables

There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh vegetables straight from the garden. Add to this the satisfaction and sense of achievement, the savings, the knowledge that your vegetables are free of nasty pesticides and you have some very powerful reasons for growing your own vegetables. Here we recommend pest and disease control through the use of good practice, resistant varieties and low toxicity environmentally friendly products - Vegetable Pest & Disease chart ... more

Potatoes & Seed Potatoes

Potatoes are high in fibre and protein, rich in vitamin B and C, as well as iron, they are a meal in themselves. They are inexpensive to grow, and there is nothing more satisfying than pulling them out of your garden, instead of a shopping bag. ... more

Weed Control

Perhaps the main reason we control weeds is because they give the house and garden an untidy, uncared for appearance. However, in the garden they compete with plants for light, moisture and nutrients. They can totally smother and kill small less vigorous plants. In addressing weed control, it is important to consider - in what situation is the weed growing. Hence this page discusses each situation in the home garden. For very specific weeds, have a look at our "Which Weedkiller to Use in Home Gardens" chart, and then read on for a guide to more general guidelines ... more

Citrus

Citrus have always been popular. They are vitamin rich, great tasting, and through careful variety choice provide fresh fruit from winter through to early summer. This long fruiting time makes citrus so valuable when other fruit is more expensive. They are also very attractive trees with their glossy green leaves, fragrant blossom in spring and coloured fruit in winter ... more

Dahlia

Dahlias come in all sorts of colours, shapes and sizes. They're easy to grow and flower for months on end over summer. ... more

Garlic

A universal cooking ingredient and easy to grow. ... more

Gladioli

Summer colour year after year - wide range of colours and stunning impact from mid-summer. An ideal cut flower, they look a good indoors as out. ... more

Lilies

Lilies are flowering plants grown from bulbs that come in a myriad of shapes, forms and colours. They are summer flowering and can be grown in the garden or in pots. They're available in a spectacular range of flower colours, including, white, pink, yellow, orange and red and are favourite in the Christmas garden ... more

Potatoes

Potatoes grow best in a warm sunny position, and they're easy to grow with good yields leading up to Christmas and through summer ... more

Asparagus

An all-time favorite vegetable - tender, juicy brilliant green, bursting with delicate creamy flavor - and healthy to boot, full of nutrients and vitamins - and free of cholesterol. ... more

Camellias

Sasanqua camellias are the earliest flowering variety producing single or semi-double slightly fragrant flowers and well-suited to hedges and espalier. They have small leaves and are sun tolerant and slightly drought tolerant. ... more

Container Gardening

Growing in containers opens a whole new gardening opportunity - excellent for small spaces with pots and containers add colour and interest as well as the plants ... more

Herbs

Herbs have been used foir centuries - to flavour cooking, as additions to salads, as decorative landscape plants and for medicinal purposes ... more

How to Plant

Success with plants is assured and relatively easy provided a few basic steps are followed especially at planting time. This page sets out step by step how to plant for best results. A little extra time and money at planting time pays off ... more

NZ Native Plants in the Garden

There is always a good feeling about planting NZ Native plants. They may not always have the colour or majesty of some European exotics, but for reliability, suitability, foliage colour and texture, they are unbeatable ... more

Shallots

Shallots are available in stores from May, and can be planted right through to spring ... more

Watering

Water is probably the most important factor in plant growth. Without water plants cannot function and will die. Water is required to replace that transpired out through the leaves. The nutrients in the soil are dissolved in water and transported up into the plant. For optimum growth the water should be freely available in adequate quantities ... more

Citrus - Tips for success

Cultural requirements, pests & disease guide and popular variety descriptions ... more

Cyclamen in brief

The bare essentials and a link to more detail ... more

Which Fertiliser to use

Trees and shrubs will survive satisfactorily with little or no feeding. However, if they are fed, especially in the first year or two, they will thrive. Fruits, vegetables and flowers definitely respond to feeding, resulting in much more pleasure and satisfaction from your efforts. This page will assist you to choose the right fertiliser and advise where and when to use it ... more

Fruit Trees - Deciduous

The bare essentials ... more

Lawns

The bare essentials ... more

Organic Gardening

Many well established gardening practices such as composting, mulching and crop rotation are the basis of gardening natures way. Organic gardening is a technique that avoids the use of all synthetic fertilisers and pesticides ... more

Roses

Originating from China, the earliest modern rose was the tea rose. With centuries of breeding, modern roses today, flower continuously from spring to autumn. There are single, semi double and double flowered forms in every colour imaginable, many with fragrance beyond belief ... more

Anemome

Easy to grow and so rewarding looking gorgeous over summer. They're perennials and die down over winter to burst forth again in spring and flower in shades of white through pink and rose to carmine. There's a range of flowers forms too - single, semi-double and fully double ... more

Ranunculus

A spring time garden and cut flower favourite. An easy to grow bulb, planted from mid-summer to autumn produces colourful blooms early in spring ... more

Seed potatoes

Potatoes grow best in a warm sunny position, and they're easy to grow with good yiels leading up to Christmas and through summer.
When choosing varieties it is a good idea to select varieties according to your needs and to give a spread of maturity with the late ones being stored for the winter.

... more

Seed Raising

There is nothing like the satisfaction of raising your own plants from seed or establishing new plants from cuttings. Additional benefits of course, are the cost saving and being able to grow your favourite plants which are not always available at the garden centre when you want them. Raising seed is easy if you follow the simple steps outlined ... more

Begonias

Summer flowering sub-tropical plants in a many colours ... more

Cyclamen

Cyclamen have long lasting fragrant flowers and are excellent for cool shady positions in the garde and are ideal for courtyards, ferneries, small gardens, entranceways, patios and decks. ... more

Daphne

Daphnes are renowned for their highly scented flowers during autumn and early winter.

Daphnes cam be planted any time from early autumn to late spring. Autumn is ideal as it gives plant time to establish before drier summer months.