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BBC Sounds. Music, radio,

0:58

podcasts. Hello,

1:01

I'm Cathy Clugston and this is Gardner's Question

1:03

Time from BBC Radio 4. So

1:06

grab those secateurs or sit back

1:08

and relax, however you like to listen, and

1:11

enjoy the next 45 minutes of great tips,

1:13

advice and dubious horticultural

1:16

humour.

1:18

Hello and welcome to Gardner's Question

1:20

Time from Worley Woods in Smedwick,

1:23

just four miles west of Birmingham city

1:25

centre. For a long time it was

1:27

thought that Smedwick meant Smith's place

1:29

of work, but more recent interpretations

1:32

suggest the name means the settlement on

1:34

smooth land. Well, I'm not sure everybody

1:36

wants a smooth garden exactly, but

1:38

let's see if we can iron out a few problems today.

1:41

Our hosts are the Worley Woods Community Trust,

1:44

many of whom are here in our audience at Abbey

1:46

Junior School.

1:49

APPLAUSE The

1:53

school backs onto the 100 acre

1:55

Worley Woods. This huge open

1:58

wood and parkland was designed by the last...

1:59

great English landscape designer of the

2:02

18th century Humphrey Repton and

2:04

it's the most complete Repton landscape freely

2:07

open to the public in the Midlands. Now

2:09

when it comes to English garden designers of note,

2:12

whose list would not include Matty Wilson? As

2:14

for pedigree and heritage there's none finer than

2:16

houseplant aficionado and swivel bank

2:19

and smoother than the smethic landscape it's

2:22

Oxford Botanic's

2:22

Dr Chris Thoregood. Please welcome your

2:24

gardeners question time panel.

2:34

Now we often talk about no-dig

2:36

gardening on the program if you're not quite sure

2:38

what we mean by that and we'll be getting

2:40

stuck into it later but now who

2:42

has our first question here in smethic?

2:44

Good afternoon my name is Robert French

2:47

I have the colony for hedge two meters tall two

2:49

meters deep when is the best time

2:51

to prune it or trim it please. What

2:53

have you been doing thus far Robert?

2:56

When I felt I had the energy I'd go

2:58

out and do it but so various

3:00

times.

3:01

Robert what sort of conifer is it?

3:03

Well when I purchased it it was cheap and cheerful

3:05

so whichever one that was doing.

3:09

So the cheapest in the shop and swivel bank? It would

3:12

grow very tall if I let it. Okay

3:14

Robert you've just literally explained to the audience

3:16

why we use botanical Latin. Given

3:20

those hints I

3:21

think we could probably assume

3:23

it's too precious by Paris. I

3:25

thought that was it. And in the

3:28

variety cheap and cheerful.

3:31

It

3:33

gets a lot of bad press but it's fine

3:35

if you prune it regularly. It's

3:38

generally cut during the summer I would say

3:40

usually late summer which gives it a chance

3:42

to re-grow itself

3:44

before it goes into the winter so it sort of covers

3:46

itself with

3:47

some fresh growth along the sides.

3:48

So have you cut it at all

3:51

yet this year? No.

3:52

So the question is are you going to risk doing

3:55

it late or leave it and

3:57

do it next year? You're in the

3:59

Midlands. we could get a cold winter.

4:01

I

4:02

think

4:03

I would probably leave it and

4:05

then get onto it sort of mid-summer next

4:07

year and give it a sheer then, but

4:09

don't leave it any later because you know what they're like.

4:13

As with all hedges remember that you want

4:15

to make the base slightly

4:18

wider than the top, which is very

4:20

important because then the light as it falls

4:22

will hit all of the areas that need

4:24

to regrow. If you keep

4:27

a hedge vertical on the sides

4:29

then a lot of it can, well sometimes

4:32

it dies back because it's not getting light on

4:34

the new growth points and the worst thing

4:36

is when it sort of champs it the wrong way so you've

4:38

got a wider top than the

4:39

base. It'll be a different trim to what it's had

4:41

before, it comes down square at

4:43

the moment. Does it? Well just you don't have to make a violent

4:45

sort of

4:46

pyramid, just very

4:49

slightly so that all those little shoot tips

4:51

are getting the light. What would the rest

4:53

of you do? Would you go now in

4:56

November or would you leave it? Yes I was wondering Chris

4:58

if you know

4:58

there's a few little bits of pop-up, is it all right if you sort

5:00

of snips them off? It is Robert. I mean

5:02

are you happy with the dimensions of the hedge

5:05

and and it's looking healthy? Oh yes.

5:07

Yeah because there are some hedges where there are

5:09

some rules you want to follow. You know you wouldn't trim

5:12

a beach hedge at any time. If

5:14

you trim a a U hedge it's quite regenerative.

5:17

What you can't do with the hedge you have is hard

5:19

prune it, so if you go too hard too deep

5:22

too quickly what you'll see is this

5:24

really ugly bare hardwood and

5:26

it simply will not regenerate and

5:28

you'll ruin your hedge. So I think what you're doing Robert is

5:30

fine.

5:31

Matthew Darragh what you would do with the Leilandi

5:33

hedge?

5:34

Jane saw at the base. No

5:37

you wouldn't. He would, I

5:39

think he would. If Matthew Fottage were here he

5:41

would be waxing lyrical about the free-standing

5:45

Leilandi eyes at Wysley which are truly

5:47

magnificent you know when they're grown as trees

5:49

they do look incredible actually but you don't see

5:51

them very often. Good.

5:56

I think the one most important thing that a little

5:58

bit of advice I would give you you is

6:01

always avoid the bird nesting season. And

6:03

the bird nesting season really starts in

6:05

March and sort of ends about mid-summer.

6:08

It is illegal under the countryside and wildlife

6:10

act to disturb an active bird's nest.

6:13

So that's just a general bit of hedge

6:15

pruning advice for everybody actually

6:18

just to avoid that season. And

6:20

as Chris says, don't cut them back too hard

6:22

because if you do cut them back, as my

6:24

old college lecturer from years ago used

6:26

to say, if you cut a conifer head back

6:29

too hard they get Welsh disease, they die

6:31

back. Oh,

6:34

groans, thank goodness for not in Wales. Thank

6:37

you Robert. Thank you. Let's move along.

6:39

Hello there.

6:40

Hello, I'm Dorothy Williams of

6:43

Smethwick Local History Society.

6:46

Living near Warley Woods, I'm

6:48

beset by wood havens.

6:51

How can I deal with this please? Okay,

6:54

what are wood havens please,

6:55

Dr. Chris Thorogood? Wood

6:57

havens, this isn't a weed that we

6:59

often hear about on this show actually. Wood

7:03

havens is interestingly actually

7:05

a member of the Rose family. You wouldn't think

7:08

to look at it would you? It has little yellow flowers.

7:11

It's a little bit of a weedy looking thing when

7:13

it's in leaf. The thing I love about

7:16

it, and it has other names, one of them is her Bennett

7:18

actually I should say, the thing I love about it

7:21

is its fruiting structures. Have

7:23

you seen those, Dorothy? They look like little

7:25

sea urchins, little spiny red

7:27

sort of pink cushion like structures. What

7:30

happens is the little acheins,

7:32

they scatter everywhere and then the wood havens,

7:35

it can sort of encroach into places that you don't

7:37

want it, particularly shady areas.

7:40

This is a weed that you'll get in woodland

7:42

fringe areas as you know and under

7:45

trees and that sort of thing. It's

7:48

rarely something that you can't tackle.

7:50

You're looking like you disagree,

7:52

Dorothy. Have you tried just pulling

7:55

them up? Just pull them up, absolutely.

7:57

They just keep on coming back. case

8:00

what I would do then is when you see

8:02

the little yellow flowers appear in in the

8:05

summer at that point I

8:07

would be snipping them off every time you see them

8:09

just stop it from producing those little pincushion

8:12

like heads because those are

8:14

just sort of reproducing more and more and more

8:16

of the woodaven so I would

8:18

sort of trim it as soon as you see it in flower

8:21

and just pull it up whenever you can and it

8:23

might honestly be something where it's

8:25

something that you sort of have to live with a bit and it's

8:28

not the worst weed in the world honestly. I

8:30

quite like it. Try a bit of a trim first

8:32

or at least you'll get on with that. Thanks very much.

8:34

Thank you. Who's next? Hi

8:36

my name is Chris Collins and I would like

8:39

to know why I can't grow poppies in

8:41

my garden.

8:42

Right can you tell us

8:44

a bit about your garden? It's quite a clay

8:46

soil

8:47

but I have tried numerous things I have planted seeds

8:50

my father-in-law has even grown me poppies

8:52

to transplant and they still die. Okay

8:55

it does seem like one of those plants that pretty much grows

8:58

anywhere, Matthew Wilson.

8:59

It's a big old family. Which one in particular

9:01

are you trying at?

9:02

I think I want a bog-standard common

9:04

garden field one that grows on wasteland,

9:08

motorways,

9:08

anywhere in the garden. There you are.

9:11

You see now and there you know

9:13

question asked and answered you need

9:15

to move to the side of a motorway because

9:18

field poppies

9:21

and what do we think of when we think of field poppies? We think

9:23

of Remembrance Day, we think

9:25

of the famous poem in Flanders

9:27

Fields, the poppies grow beneath the crosses

9:29

row on row just so that we get a line

9:31

there. Good thing you kind of remember it. And

9:34

the brain finally clicks in and the

9:36

other thing is that we obviously

9:38

associate poppies with Remembrance

9:41

Day and the First World War battlefields

9:44

but they're a plant that are deeply rooted

9:47

in our history. Celtic

9:49

tradition has it if you picked a poppy

9:52

flower it would cause a thunderstorm

9:55

and they so they call them thunderflowers. Right.

9:57

So you know there's a long connection going all

10:00

the way back to when they were first introduced

10:02

into this country, in effect from Mesopotamia,

10:05

which is where all of these cornfield annuals come

10:07

from. People think they're native, they're not.

10:10

They need soil disturbance

10:12

in order to germinate. Typically,

10:15

you might be able to get them to grow for a year, and

10:18

then they would fail

10:20

or fade if the soil isn't being

10:23

continually disturbed, which is why, of course, they're associated

10:25

with cornfields,

10:27

not and cornfields. So

10:29

that kind of partly answers a

10:32

sort of longevity question, but it doesn't really

10:34

answer why you can't grow them at all.

10:37

So then I'd have to ask where abouts

10:39

are you growing them? Where

10:42

in the garden? Just

10:42

flower bed at the side of the lawn.

10:44

Sunny? Yeah. All

10:46

day? Yeah.

10:53

Sorry. You mentioned the soil is clay.

10:55

Is it poorly drained? Yeah. Does

10:58

water sit on it? It does when we have heavy

11:00

rain, yeah. That's probably it then. Okay. I

11:02

mean, it would be a reason anyway.

11:05

Poppies can be mown to the ground

11:07

by slugs very quickly. That's one problem,

11:09

especially when they're at seedling stage. But

11:12

it may simply be that the soil

11:14

is just too waterlogged for them to

11:16

really get established. Do you have anywhere in the garden

11:19

where you've got a gravel path or a

11:21

gravel drive or something like that? Or

11:23

could you make a gravel bed? But I could make a gravel

11:25

bed somewhere. Because to be honest,

11:29

you know, poppies, field poppies, papavarias,

11:32

they're opportunist plants. And

11:34

they will find a way to

11:36

pop up in all the places where you haven't planted

11:38

them. And they will die where you planted

11:41

them. That's just their MO, you know. So I

11:43

would say if you've got a gravel area, I

11:45

would throw some seeds down on there. Forget

11:47

about it. Not make too much effort. And you'll probably find

11:49

that they'll actually establish.

11:51

Fantastic. Thank you very much. I'm even more determined

11:54

to grow them now. Thank you.

11:56

As I used to say a long time ago in this program, Chris, the answer

11:58

lies in the soil.

13:59

control against caterpillars. So

14:02

sweet corns, I think, are very easy. That's

14:04

a good crop to grow. And again, that's something that

14:07

you leave until you can put them out when it's frost

14:09

free, but you've got to get that

14:11

window so that they've got enough

14:13

time to crop. And then

14:14

of course, you've got courgettes, which are really, really

14:16

easy. I had a fantastic crop this year when you

14:18

just got to the end of it. And so they,

14:21

again, are the ones, you know, you start those so

14:23

they can go out when it's frost free outside.

14:26

So it's just a question of getting this little, get your favourites,

14:28

get things that are easy and not going to be attacked by

14:31

too many things and get them into the soil

14:33

at the right time as you go along. And

14:36

then, you know, as you move into the summer, you can do

14:38

some more chardon perpetual spinach in July,

14:40

which will take you right through winter

14:42

to the next year. And eventually

14:44

by trial and error, you will have

14:46

a lovely little calendar of your own. The

14:48

timing, the timing is all and

14:50

having a bit of a plan. Thank you

14:52

very much. Thank you. Absolutely.

14:53

Thank you. And thank you, panel, more from

14:55

our audience of gardeners here in Smethwick near

14:57

Birmingham very soon. But now let's dig

15:00

a little deeper or not, as the case

15:02

may be. You may have heard us talk here on

15:04

GQT about no dig or the no

15:06

dig method. But what do we actually

15:08

mean? Surely digging is one of the fundamental

15:11

practices of gardening. If we don't dig,

15:13

how can we plant new things? Well,

15:16

to celebrate no dig day, Anne

15:18

Swivenbank met a man who's been celebrated

15:20

for his measured aversion to digging for

15:23

decades.

15:28

I'm visiting South Somerset, rural

15:30

South Somerset. The sun is shining and I'm surrounded

15:33

by productive vegetable beds, quite

15:36

narrow ones with masses of crops in them. And

15:38

I'm standing here with Charles Dowding. Now

15:40

experienced gardeners or pretty much any gardener

15:43

will immediately think no dig

15:45

when they hear the name Charles Dowding. Charles,

15:47

you can't be credited with inventing

15:50

no dig, but you can certainly be credited with

15:52

spreading the word, can't you?

15:54

Yeah, massively. It's really good out there now all

15:56

over the world. And largely thanks to

15:58

social media, actually, which is...

15:59

can just traverse the ocean so easily.

16:02

So

16:02

what is the principle of no dig? What

16:04

does it actually

16:05

mean? Well, it's about

16:07

not disturbing the soil

16:09

where appropriate, which means you can do a bit

16:11

of digging if you need to. For instance, I get asked

16:13

on youtube like well with no dig how do you plant

16:15

an apple tree? Yeah, okay, you can

16:18

dig a hole. And so, you

16:20

know planting that kind of thing, whatever you need to do, disturb

16:22

the soil as much as you need to, or

16:25

as little as you need to. And then in general,

16:27

you're just not disturbing anything because

16:29

the aim is to keep the life of the soil

16:31

happy undisturbed so it can do

16:34

its work and multiply without

16:36

interruption. And then the other aspect

16:38

of no dig is feeding that life. So that's

16:41

with organic matter on the surface. It's basically popping

16:43

nature. It's how nature works undisturbed for

16:45

organic matter landing on the surface. And then

16:48

the variation is for vegetables, which

16:50

are more demanding plants, I would say mostly

16:52

highly bred. And for those

16:54

that's where the compost comes in. So you short

16:56

circuit the organic matter production

16:58

if you like and make more. And I'm putting

17:01

on about three centimetres of compost, new compost

17:03

once a year on all my beds, whatever

17:05

they're going to grow.

17:06

But when I'm starting from scratch and I've got

17:08

a piece of sort of virgin clay soil in front of me, the

17:11

urge to dig is so overwhelming. I start

17:13

by digging and then I go no dig. So

17:16

how do you get past that sort of urge

17:18

to dig?

17:19

Well, I can only speak for

17:21

myself. I certainly don't have a nose to dig, but

17:23

in your case you do need

17:25

a fair amount of compost if you want to plant straight

17:27

away. So just to be clear on that, if

17:30

you didn't want to plant straight away, say you

17:32

started no digging in the autumn, you

17:34

could use as little as five centimetre

17:36

of compost on cardboard, which might

17:38

be like I've got a bit here. So I've just

17:41

put some cardboard right on the weedy

17:43

ground.

17:43

So you would cut it first so it's low and

17:45

then you

17:45

put your cardboard down and

17:47

then on that you're just pushing. What I'm dropping

17:50

on here is three-month-old

17:53

only compost. You can see it's not perfect

17:55

looking at all. It's slightly lumpy. That's homemade

17:57

compost in this case, worms as well.

17:59

But if you wanted to plant straight

18:02

away in this ground, you could do it, but

18:04

you would need, I would say between

18:06

four and six inches up to 15 centimeter

18:08

compost. But that only applies if

18:10

you want to plant straight away. So if you

18:13

haven't got that amount to start, then you've just got

18:15

to wait a bit more. Because what needs to happen is the

18:17

cardboard will deprive everything

18:20

of light and therefore plants will die under

18:22

it and you then end up with clean ground. Light

18:24

you can see there. This bed that

18:26

we're standing beside, we made in January. So

18:29

earlier on in this year, basically, and

18:31

it's already growing, what has grown potatoes,

18:33

it's growing celery and carrots and cucumbers.

18:36

Yeah, it's just everything is possible.

18:39

Can I have

18:39

a rummage? I want to see if there's any

18:41

cardboard. I'm

18:42

all my hands and knees now scratching.

18:44

Because this one

18:46

is not adding huge amount. Pretty much gone,

18:48

hasn't it? That cardboard. Yeah. And

18:51

the plants have really got their roots down in there. Well,

18:53

there are some perennial weeds, the

18:56

bindweed that's here. There's quite a bit. And

18:58

we need to keep removing it with a

19:00

trowel. Because otherwise that

19:03

will come back.

19:03

So you've been no digging since

19:06

the 1980s and possibly beyond. What

19:09

have you learned? And what have you seen change

19:12

in the way that people are adapting

19:14

to this?

19:15

I'm learning a lot all the

19:17

time and I'm loving that. So I've

19:19

been learning how to use

19:21

less compost, use less raw materials to

19:24

get really good results. I've compared

19:26

it down to the minimum. But having said that, I'm

19:29

also not going too far that way because I'm learning

19:31

a lot also about cropping ground really intensively.

19:34

And I'm running trials, dig, no dig, comparison

19:36

beds. So that's fascinating. I'm learning about how digging

19:39

does disrupt the soil. And we get about 12% less

19:41

yield over 10 years of running that trial from

19:44

digging actually. So no dig is

19:46

showing how effective it is at keeping carbon

19:49

in the soil. I mean, that's one thing that's come out

19:51

of that as well.

19:51

Yeah. Because for me,

19:53

one of the big barriers, if you like, for

19:55

some people, is finding enough

19:58

good compost.

19:58

Yeah, I totally get that.

19:59

that well I think I'm using less yeah I'm using

20:02

less in the long run I think it's this confusion which

20:04

I haven't been clear about I would say in the past enough

20:06

that it really helps to have more

20:08

in the beginning and that's why I'd recommend to anybody

20:11

to buy some compost from like green waste

20:13

compost mushroom combers old animal manure there's

20:15

quite a bit of it around you know if you just ask around

20:18

in your locality that's a really good starting point and

20:20

then maybe you'll be able to make enough for ongoing when you need

20:22

less yeah

20:22

so there's no shame in using that sort

20:24

of input to start off

20:26

well I would say not at all because you know like

20:28

here look at this bounty I'm using no feeds

20:30

or fertilizers I'm using no slug pellets I'm

20:33

not using anything else basically so not

20:35

I've not got any wooden sides on the bed so no

20:37

really that the the cost the

20:39

input cost is very low I would say the carpools

20:41

free if you do that way over there I'm using bit

20:43

of black plastic which I keep reusing every

20:46

year that's another way of mulching

20:47

Oh Charles it's been fascinating and

20:49

we've had a really good chat I'm looking forward

20:51

now to just walking around it's so beautiful

20:53

here I want to see all the crops and

20:55

you've got some lovely buildings and polytunnels

20:57

and quite a little flowers as well

20:59

yeah yeah it's a real garden isn't it very

21:01

beautiful yeah

21:04

Ants, Withern Bank talking to no-dig

21:07

aficionado Charles Dowding and

21:09

audience let's take a quick vote on this if you still

21:11

enjoy taking a spade to the soil say dig

21:15

and let's hear the no-digger say no dig

21:20

oh I say almost tipping in to

21:22

majority they have a no-dig gardeners what side

21:24

are you on Anne? Well I am a no-digger

21:27

but I am not paying enough attention to my

21:29

compost making I'm all set to create some

21:31

new compost bins I think because that's

21:34

the key to it. Chris

21:36

dig or no

21:36

dig? So I wouldn't call myself a no-dig

21:39

aficionado but I am a bit of a weed aficionado

21:42

so I really like the weeds in my garden

21:44

and I get very curious about what they'll

21:46

be and we've already heard about a lovely one which was

21:49

Wood-Aven's Dorothy's giving me another look.

21:52

Side-eye from Dorothy. But actually I

21:54

don't like digging up the weeds until I can

21:57

see what they are because sometimes all sorts of interesting

21:59

things can can pop up in your borders and in

22:01

your lawn. So I think not for a particularly

22:04

virtuous reason, but I would call myself a no

22:06

dig person, yes. As I think would you Matthew

22:08

Wilson? No dig, no dig, no dig. No

22:11

dig, no dig. Yes. There

22:13

you have it.

22:13

You're listening to Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4

22:16

and BBC Signs. I'm Cathy Clugston

22:18

and with me on the panel today are Dr Chris Norragood

22:21

and Swithin Bank and Matthew Wilson. And

22:23

we're with an audience of gardeners in Warley

22:25

Woods in Smedok near Birmingham. Hello.

22:34

Great audience here today. Who has

22:36

our next question please?

22:37

Good afternoon, Joe Craddock from

22:39

Birmingham and yes, so I've got

22:41

bags and bags of compost that I've built

22:43

up over this year and now

22:46

what do I do with it? So it's got compost

22:49

from tulips to tomatoes to

22:52

cosmos and it's now all in bags.

22:54

Should I do anything with it? So do you mean, Joe,

22:57

this is used compost that you've

22:59

grown things in? That's right, used compost that's

23:01

now saved and yeah.

23:03

Great question. So you've saved

23:04

it, things have grown in it, you've saved the compost. What

23:07

should you do with it? Chris, what do you think?

23:09

I recycle compost quite

23:11

often. It depends what the plant is. There are some

23:13

plants that are quite hungry feeders and they want

23:15

fresh compost. There are others that

23:17

are a little less fussy. Anne

23:19

and I were chatting before the show about our favourite

23:22

house plants, cacti and succulents and things like

23:24

that and they don't mind poor soil

23:26

and so I sometimes recycle compost.

23:29

Obviously I'm vigilant for pests

23:31

and diseases. I wouldn't want to recycle a

23:34

pest and you

23:36

do find them sometimes so just be careful of that. But

23:38

then I mix that with grit and sand and that makes it perfect

23:41

for me, a sort of succulent or cactus compost.

23:43

So if you grow certain house plants

23:45

that you want to repot you could

23:47

actually reuse the compost.

23:50

I think it goes sort of dry and powdery and you mix

23:52

it with some grit and sand and it makes a perfect cactus

23:54

and succulent face. The

23:57

other thing you can do with it is use it as a mulch

23:59

as well. So if you want to suppress

24:01

weeds, rather than digging them all up, you can use old

24:03

compost as

24:07

quite an effective mulch to suppress

24:09

those and stop them in their tracks. So that's something

24:11

else you could think about doing with it. Excellent.

24:14

Anne, what would you use your

24:15

old compost for? Yeah, Pelagoniums would be another

24:17

really good thing. I'm just about to pot

24:20

up

24:21

a weird Pelagonium. These

24:23

are often called Geraniums, but it's a species

24:26

one called Tristy, and it grows in the winter.

24:28

And so it's just coming into growth, and it will flower

24:30

in the winter. And it has night scented

24:32

flowers, which is really nice. So you go up to

24:35

them and have a little sniff on the windowsill. And

24:38

that is like a succulent, really. So that needs

24:40

really gritty compost. And so I have got

24:42

some old gritty compost, and so that will be mixed

24:45

with a little bit of fresh compost. And

24:47

it doesn't want much nutrition, so that's perfect.

24:50

But I would also use it for something like storing

24:53

dahlias. So if you've got dahlias in the ground,

24:55

and you will be lifting those pretty soon, as

24:57

soon as they get the first frost, and

25:00

the tops are frosted down, that means

25:02

they will have absorbed everything into their tubers,

25:04

and that's the time that you lift them. And

25:06

then if you're going to store them over winter, you need

25:08

to cover them with something light and

25:11

dry, and that's where your old compost

25:13

is absolutely perfect. And you would do

25:15

those in boxes and then put them somewhere frost free. And

25:18

so they're just prevented from drying out. And

25:20

also if you're lifting things like bananas or

25:22

canners that you need to keep over winter, you

25:25

could use the old compost for that as well. And

25:27

also if you're putting up bulbs, like

25:30

tulip bulbs, for instance, in large containers

25:32

in the garden, the bulb is already all

25:35

there, ready to go. You don't really need

25:37

to give it anything extra. So you

25:39

just need to provide a growing medium.

25:41

So again, you could save a lot of money by

25:44

just getting half of a new

25:46

compost and half of your old compost.

25:49

But you said some of it had been used

25:50

for tulips already. That's right.

25:52

But yeah, you wouldn't reuse that for tulips.

25:55

You'd have to have separated it so that you

25:57

don't use it. I suppose that's the golden rule.

25:59

You don't use it.

25:59

the same set of plants again. Okay

26:02

great tips thanks hope that's helpful Joe.

26:05

Let's move along who's next. Hello

26:07

I'm Viv Cole I'm from Warley Woods Community Trust

26:09

thanks for coming to visit us. The

26:12

community trust will be celebrating 20 years of

26:14

managing Warley Woods in 2024. What

26:17

tree or trees would you add to our woodland?

26:19

Celebratory trees. Celebratory

26:22

tree for Warley Woods. What kind of things

26:24

do you have in the woods now? Oh we've got

26:26

everything so it's predominantly a beech woodland with

26:29

an oak area but we've also because it

26:31

used to be the parkland around a house

26:33

we've got a winter garden with

26:35

conifers in as well. We are

26:37

trying to plant things like sort of beaches

26:40

and oaks succession plants but again we're

26:42

aware of climate change and in 80 years

26:44

when this tree comes into its prime

26:47

then that might not be the right thing to be planting

26:49

as our long standing trees.

26:52

Okay so we want the tree for the celebration next

26:54

year. Let's start with you Matthew Wilson.

26:56

Yes I mean the issue

26:58

of trees and longevity

27:01

and thinking ahead to where

27:03

we might be in 80 to 100 years time which is

27:05

a sort of horizon that you want to think about for a tree is

27:08

quite challenging and you mentioned that

27:10

it's predominantly beech wood and obviously beech woods

27:12

are one of the woodland types

27:15

that are probably most under threat

27:18

because they are beech are very shallow

27:20

rooting and they tend

27:22

to suffer in very long

27:25

hot dry herids. So

27:27

it is a big question but there

27:29

are some trees that are still thriving

27:32

and doing well and there are some that are less

27:35

troubled by diseases which is another

27:37

issue. Yeah it's a bit depressing now. It's

27:40

a terrible idea. It's

27:42

a celebration. Yeah sorry

27:44

yeah so maybe you

27:47

could talk a lot to the big nursery

27:49

tree nursery people in the UK and mainland Europe

27:51

and they're all saying sort of similar things. Things

27:53

like Katsuras which I love the Cercydeafionum

27:56

Japanese Katsura that's going to be in trouble because

27:58

it'll the leaves will be there. start frying.

28:02

Liquid amber I think is probably a good,

28:05

still a good choice because that seems pretty resilient.

28:08

That has lovely maple light leaves, great autumn

28:10

color and a very pungent aroma to the leaves

28:12

when you crush them. So liquid amber styrofoam,

28:15

that's pretty resilient I think. You

28:17

might want to look at things like some

28:20

of the cedars which come

28:23

from quite hot, dry environments.

28:26

So Atlantic cedar, cedars

28:28

Atlantica which is associated very much with the

28:30

kind of early

28:33

to mid Victorian stately homes. You often

28:35

see the moorlauds has a 200-odd year

28:37

lifespan so that could be another option. You're

28:40

doing the right thing and thinking of succession planting

28:42

and changing things. Yeah

28:44

and a few nice suggestions in there. Anne

28:46

what about you? Well

28:47

I don't think there's any need to have to stick

28:49

to native trees in all the areas.

28:52

I think you'll know your part very well.

28:54

It is an old Humphrey Repton design and

28:56

certainly, I mean he was active in the 1700s I

28:58

think wasn't he late 1700s? He was, yeah

29:01

1700s. So he would have had access then and also moving

29:02

forward

29:07

to exotic trees. It's just

29:09

a question if you may have some wilder areas which

29:11

are all native and so that would maybe want to stay

29:13

like that but then in other areas more

29:15

park-like. So you've got some exotic

29:18

trees and that's where you could extend

29:20

the range a little bit. Talking

29:22

about horn beams and thinking

29:25

of beach and horn beam I was wondering about the Hop

29:27

Horn Beam which is Carpineus

29:29

petulis which is a good big

29:31

tree. There's the Tulip tree isn't there?

29:34

That would be a nice one to try, the Lyriodendron.

29:37

And if you think it is going to get hot and dry

29:39

I would say the Golden Rain tree, Colruteria

29:42

piniculata is a tree that

29:45

seems to quite like a really

29:47

hot dry summer. It's more likely to

29:49

produce its rain of golden flowers

29:51

and its inflated seed pods if

29:54

it does get those nice situations. It

29:56

grows very well at Kew and Kew has quite

29:58

a hot dry climate. that might be

30:00

a nice one to try. Chris, what would you add

30:02

to this list?

30:03

I think as you're celebrating 20 years

30:06

of managing wally woods, I think it might

30:08

be a nice idea to plant 20 trees if that's

30:10

not too greedy and that gives

30:12

you the option to plant a small collection

30:14

of them together which I think would be a lovely

30:17

way to celebrate and so a couple

30:19

of possibilities of trees that work well

30:21

in groups. One would be cherry trees of course

30:23

and then you'd have the lovely cherry blossom in the

30:25

spring. The other might be a Himalayan birch

30:28

and they look absolutely stunning

30:30

when they're planted together because they have these, they're

30:32

like silver birches but they're ice white

30:35

when they mature and underneath that you

30:37

could plant for example native blue bells

30:40

and the blue bells with the white trunks of the of

30:42

the Himalayan birch as a group I think would just be

30:44

a terrific way to celebrate that

30:46

fantastic achievement so congratulations.

30:49

And if you like the sound of those trees or any of the plants

30:51

mentioned by the panel today we will be listing

30:53

them as ever on the Radio 4 website

30:56

just look for the GQT pages and

30:58

if you'd like to get in touch with a question that's very easy

31:00

just email gqt at bbc.co.uk

31:05

Let's take our next question. Good afternoon,

31:07

I'm

31:07

Avril Heathgrave and I live locally

31:10

in Bearwood.

31:11

I have in my garden a magnolia

31:13

rose variety bush.

31:15

It's got lots of buds on it but

31:17

they're being eaten before they can

31:20

flower so can you tell me what's causing

31:22

this and how can I treat it? Oh

31:24

yes I see.

31:26

There we go, let me get two photos.

31:29

Thanks so much. Is this a recent thing

31:32

Avril? This just happened? Well I've only

31:34

moved to the house 12 months ago. Okay.

31:37

So I'm just going through each bit

31:39

of the garden with the time and

31:42

when I viewed the house

31:44

this bush

31:45

is glorious

31:46

and I'm really disappointed. Yeah

31:49

something's eating it. When

31:52

were these photographs taken in

31:54

early October? Right so it's

31:56

a magnolia this is what was confusing me I thought

31:58

magnolia the evening flower in the spring.

32:01

It's having a second flowering by

32:03

the looks of things, yes that explains it because

32:06

normally in spring when they flower there's not that many

32:08

pests around but now you've said

32:11

it was doing this in October, in

32:13

my garden slugs and snails were

32:15

very virulent and they were right up

32:18

eating my bean plants and the

32:20

snails were literally living and breeding I think

32:22

in the in the tops of the canes. So

32:25

it's either caterpillar damage I think

32:28

or slugs and snails have crawled up there.

32:30

How high is the other pink

32:33

flower buds I'm looking at? About

32:35

three foot. Oh right okay so it's only

32:37

quite a small

32:37

one.

32:39

So that makes me even more certain

32:41

that it's probably slugs. In my

32:43

garden I would be blaming slugs and

32:45

snails. I have never seen the like of them this

32:48

year. They've been

32:49

extraordinary. The good news

32:51

is Avril because you'll get this is a second flusher

32:53

flower so this is not its actual flowering season

32:57

you should have plenty more buds on it

32:59

and they will open in spring when there won't be

33:01

lots of slugs and snails to shimmy

33:03

up and eat them

33:04

and so at the proper time of year when you

33:06

should be getting magnolia flowers you'll have

33:08

magnolia flowers and you won't have to write to the

33:11

estate agent and say you

33:13

sold me a dud how dare you.

33:16

I have seen an

33:17

incredibly tiny

33:19

little slugs. Yeah I think that's

33:21

what it was.

33:22

Because there are even tiny

33:24

slug or snail holes in the leaves and

33:27

that's certainly very similar to

33:29

some of the damage

33:30

I've seen. And the reason there's no trail

33:33

you know the slime trail that would be a telltale

33:35

sign of a slug or snail is because this damage

33:37

was done some time ago so it's probably just washed off.

33:40

Well we refer you to every previous edition of GQT

33:42

for advice on what to do by slugs and snails

33:45

but hopefully you're fine for

33:46

next year. Thanks Avril. Thank you very much. Let's

33:48

move along let's get some more questions in. Hello.

33:50

Hello I'm Julie Parry from Hail

33:53

Zone which is roughly three miles away from

33:55

Warley Woods. We back on to

33:57

the Leesos Canal and our garden

34:00

has a 45 degree bank at the top

34:02

of the garden which is level with the roof line.

34:05

It faces north west. What would you

34:07

recommend that's both colourful and low maintenance

34:10

for an enthusiastic aging gardener

34:12

novice? Enthusiastic

34:15

aging gardener novice. So a 45

34:17

degree bank. Yeah. And what kind of soil

34:20

do you have you know? I believe it's the

34:22

outside edge of the lisos canal

34:24

so it's been full of clinker

34:27

and debris I have

34:29

put in over the years. Compost

34:32

on compost on compost. My

34:34

plants tend to veer out

34:36

and over rather than grow upwards.

34:40

There is an eight foot high hawthorn hedge

34:42

at the back of our fence together

34:44

with a yew tree. So

34:47

yeah there's quite a lot of flippin' it. Got

34:49

a lot going on there.

34:50

Sorry I'm just off to get another

34:53

brief from a different client. Okay

34:57

Matthew let's start

34:59

with you then. So

35:02

how high is the bank? The bank

35:04

roughly is about eight foot high.

35:06

And then the canal's at the top of that. Yeah. And

35:09

it's in its poor soil and you said it's northeast

35:11

facing is that right? It's north west

35:13

facing. So it would get some sun.

35:16

Yeah from about two o'clock

35:18

until the sun sets.

35:20

Okay and is there anything planted on it

35:22

now?

35:22

I've tried everything. I've thrown seeds

35:24

at

35:25

it. Have you tried any sort of mediterranean

35:27

type plants? I mean that's the sort of

35:30

obvious route to go down. But

35:32

I suppose the other less obvious route to

35:34

go down might be to look at the sort of

35:36

plants that thrive in volcanic soils.

35:39

Because if you said it's got a lot of clinker then

35:41

that might be another route to look at. But

35:44

if you're going to go for the mediterranean

35:46

style plants then it is the silver leaf

35:48

plants. Things like well lavender

35:50

is an obvious one but perovskia,

35:53

although it's no longer perovskia, it's now salvia yangii,

35:56

white silvery stems, blue flowers,

35:58

santa. the selena's,

36:01

verbascum's, the mullane's, which will

36:04

weave their way through that planting. Some

36:07

of the low-growing euphorbias, euphorbia

36:09

shillingii, euphorbia mercinitis, karyopteris,

36:13

serratus stigma, willmottii, willmottii

36:16

anem rather, they will all thrive

36:19

in that sort of situation and

36:21

won't require a huge amount of maintenance. But

36:23

you need to get your planting density right ideally

36:26

and get the soil as good as you can before

36:28

you plant them, but then you shouldn't have to worry about them.

36:31

Take inspiration from Beth Chateau's gravel

36:33

garden, which is literally on two metres of

36:36

pure gravel.

36:37

Thank you. We're hurtling towards the

36:39

end of the programme, Anne, so if we could get a few quick

36:41

suggestions in. Yes, I

36:43

think if it was mine and you're not sure what's

36:45

going to thrive and what not, I think the eventual

36:48

aim is to get a lot of one thing or

36:50

repeat it, so it's not a muddle. But

36:53

you kind of don't want to go and buy five

36:55

of something when you don't know if it's going to grow or not.

36:57

So I think you perhaps ought to have a bit of a muddle

37:00

to start with, and when you find something

37:02

that works, you're going to propagate it. So

37:05

if you have Escalonia red

37:07

L or pink L, which is a really good

37:09

small slope-ish growing Escalonia,

37:12

it will take some while to get from sort

37:14

of two foot to five foot, but

37:16

it's very good. It's got good big pink flowers

37:19

on it. If that does well, it roots really

37:21

easily from cutting, so you take those in the femur

37:23

and just get loads of it and put it everywhere. If

37:26

you grow five Lomis italica, same thing,

37:28

it's a silvery-leaved pink-flowered Jerusalem-seiji

37:31

type of plant. It's kind of semi-woody.

37:34

If that thrives, again, take

37:37

loads of cuttings in the summer, root them

37:39

in little seed trays and pots, and you pop them

37:41

up first and then get them to a size and plant

37:43

them out into a big group. Oh,

37:45

Lotus hersutus, the hairy canary

37:48

clover from

37:50

Spain or Portugal, I think it comes from. So

37:52

another really useful little

37:55

shrubby plant. It's only small, sort

37:57

of two to three feet at most, silvery-ish.

37:59

little whitey flowers, pea-like

38:02

flowers, and quite nice little bronzy

38:04

fruits it produces as well.

38:06

And again, if it takes, take lots

38:08

of cuttings, then that way you'll

38:10

fill it in a really nice way with

38:13

lots of groups and repetitions

38:15

with stuff you know is going to work. Yeah,

38:17

great advice, Anne. Chris, a couple more for this

38:20

list?

38:20

It's an interesting situation,

38:22

Julie. It reminds me of a step, as

38:25

in S-T-E-double-P-E sort of

38:27

planting. So yes, Mediterranean

38:29

species, but also those that grow on sort of

38:31

shale, scree, things like that. I

38:34

love the suggestions we've heard already, and just a

38:36

few to add might be aringiums, because

38:39

you say you like colour, and you've got that lovely

38:41

powder blue that you could bring in, and once

38:43

they're happy, and I think they will be in that situation,

38:46

they're like thugs, you know, they sort of, they'll

38:48

get everywhere and you won't be able to actually necessarily take

38:51

them out, but that might be something, and then some grasses

38:53

might do well in that situation as well, some of the

38:55

brieses, the stipers, and

38:57

salvies as we've heard. So thinking

39:00

those that like drainage, that like sun,

39:02

our eyes lit up when you said that it does get quite

39:04

a lot of sun from the afternoon, because I think that opens

39:07

up a whole range of options for you.

39:09

Thank you. Lots of suggestions, Julie.

39:11

I'm sorry to rush your panel, but I want to fill in one more

39:13

question. Hi there. Hi, my name

39:15

is Josie Kelly, and I'm from Hamilton

39:18

Road Community Allotments. My

39:20

question is, in the panel of view,

39:22

do they think that gardening is either an art

39:25

form or a scientific endeavour? Well,

39:28

an art or a science, I suppose,

39:30

does it have to be one or the other? Chris, what do you think?

39:32

Well, gardening

39:35

is a process, and so I

39:37

think about it scientifically, I suppose. I'm a scientist

39:39

and I think about it scientifically, but

39:42

on this occasion, I'd be more inclined

39:44

towards thinking of it artistically

39:46

and creatively. So I think of us as

39:49

like artists with a canvas

39:51

in front of us, and what can

39:53

we fill that canvas with in terms of colour? So,

39:56

you know, thinking of Julie's last question,

39:58

she has this plot and she wants to... know what colour

40:00

to put there. It's like an artist with an easel

40:02

in front of them saying, right, how can I fill the

40:05

composition? What should go where? Where should the

40:07

colour go? There's some science within

40:09

it and the science is important

40:11

around when to fertilise, when to prune

40:14

and to think in that process driven way.

40:16

But ultimately I see the process

40:18

of a garden forming as quite an artistic

40:21

endeavour. Interesting. You're a scientist and

40:23

also a magnificent artist. I'll see

40:25

if we look at your social

40:26

media. So you can be both at once. Do

40:28

you consider yourself an artist, a scientist

40:30

or a bit of both? Well, I suppose the right

40:33

plant, right place attitude

40:35

is more science than art,

40:37

isn't it? Because you're thinking about where

40:40

the plant will grow best before you're thinking

40:42

about what it will look like when it gets there.

40:45

And so possibly I'm more of a scientist

40:48

because I tend to label areas

40:50

of my garden in a thoughtful way that will

40:52

make me just understand what kind of plant wants

40:54

to grow there according to the type

40:56

of soil, whether it's raised slightly, the

40:58

aspect. So I've got a part

41:01

I call the exotic bed. And

41:03

the plants, I suppose they do have to fit in aesthetically

41:06

with each other, but they also are

41:08

sort of sharing a need for this good drainage.

41:11

And so yeah, it's 50-50. I reckon it's 50-50. Okay.

41:14

As a garden designer, Matthew, where do you sit

41:16

on this spectrum? Oh, well, it's everything, isn't

41:18

it? Everything everywhere all at once? Yeah,

41:21

it is. I remember having a conversation

41:24

with my mentor, Beth Chateau, many

41:26

years ago, and she said to me, you know, the best gardeners

41:29

are the ones who are interested in music, art,

41:31

architecture, colour, climate,

41:34

everything. Because all of those things

41:37

can inform how you then progress

41:39

to what you do in your own garden. There

41:42

are plenty of gardeners, great gardeners, great

41:44

horticulturalists who couldn't design their way

41:46

out of a paper bag. And I've met plenty of

41:48

great designers who couldn't garden their

41:50

way into a paper bag. So, you know,

41:53

the reality is it's a huge,

41:56

never-ending, wonderful endeavour

41:59

with so many great artists. so many different aspects

42:02

and opportunities and areas that you

42:04

can become really expert in.

42:06

Some of the greatest experts in plants are

42:08

amateur gardeners because they pour all

42:10

their energy into one genus or sometimes

42:13

one species and become absolute

42:16

authorities on it. If you want to take

42:18

it to the absolute heights that I think it

42:20

can go to, it's art

42:22

and it's science and it's graph. And

42:25

the graph bit shouldn't be forgotten either

42:27

because the graph bit actually can be a lot

42:29

of fun.

42:30

And on that wonderfully positive note we end

42:33

this visit to Smedic near Birmingham.

42:35

Thank you so much to everyone at Warley Woods Community

42:37

Trust and Abbey Junior School for

42:39

looking after us so well. For me, Kathy

42:41

Clugston, the panel, Matthew Wilson, Anne

42:43

Spidlenbank and Dr Chris Thoregurd and

42:46

all the GQT team, it's goodbye.