Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Q – I planted a lemon seed ten years ago but have had no flowers or lemons – am I the only lemon this tree will ever see?

Chris – No is the simple answer.Ìý If you have a commercial variety you often will have a plant that is much larger than the environment you are growing it in.Ìý The chances of getting a lemon from a seed you’ve grown yourself are slim until get you get beyond twenty years and you’ve carried out the right pruning techniques.Ìý

Bunny – Lemon trees respond well to pruning so you can control its size that way

Bob – I’ve grown lemons and ortaniques from seed but they didn’t fruit for 19 years (lemon) and 23 years (ortanique) so just persist!

Ìý

Q – Six years ago I grew a pineapple plant and last September I got a tiny pineapple from it – will it grow another one or should I get rid of the plant? I grew it in a pot about a foot across and put a lot of chicken manure on it.

Bob – I normally grow in buckets and they grow to a good size.Ìý What you could do is cut off the little pineapple and replant the top.Ìý Your old plant will produce side shoots - if they’re low down, drop them into a bigger pot with compost until the base of the new shoot is covered.Ìý The side shoots crop much quicker than the original plant.Ìý Do use a big container… and maybe not quite so much chicken manure.

Ìý

Q – [Sir Gareth Edwards] Having spent my career supressing the red rose of England can the panel suggest a vigorous, disease-resistant, well-perfumed white rose to grow in the garden?

Pippa – Iceberg and Seagull – both lovely roses and disease-resistant.

Chris – Try Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ – very short flowering period, beautiful fragrance.Ìý For climbing I would go for Mme. Alfred Carriere – delicate white rose

Bunny – Iceberg could be susceptible to blackspot in Wales. I think Desdemona is better – modern but old-fashioned look

Bob – Old Malmaision rose called Boule de Neige (Ball of White)

Ìý

Q – I’m growing courgettes in a builder’s bag in the polytunnel.Ìý They were thriving, I was watering them every day, they plants were coming but as they touch the soil they go fungal and mouldy.

Pippa – This can happen when plants are watered from above or the conditions are humid.Ìý First thing to do is to remove all the infected fruitlets.

Bob – use tap water rather than butt water and don’t splash the soil onto them.Ìý If you can get straw or dried bracken crunched up works well [as a prop].Ìý Newspaper is okay but if it gets wet it makes things worse.

Ìý

Q – I was inspired by the ornamental grasses here and so I grew a bed from seed but unfortunately the bunnies are having the grasses for dinner before they can grow to a nice height.Ìý We’re on a disused quarry so not much soil before we go into solid limestone so I can’t put a fence up.Ìý Can you suggest another way of discouraging the bunnies?

Bob – You could get a fence up – driving holes into limestone shouldn’t be impossible.Ìý I think a fence is the answer – get a contractor to do it.

Chris – You don’t necessarily need to keep rabbits away from the entire garden so try fencing in such a way that you encourage them to other areas of the garden.Ìý You can also conceal it within other structures – so plant an ornamental hedge and run the wires through the hedge.Ìý A fence doesn’t need to be ugly.Ìý

Ìý

Q – Celeriac – how do I grow it?Ìý I’ve also had problems with slugs eating them.

Chris – Bob’s description is the best I’ve heard so I’ll let him answer this…

Bob – It needs permanent moisture – rich conditions – and you need to peel off the lowest leaves as the plants form.Ìý This encourages new leaves to grow.Ìý Good spacing as well. One of the best slug deterrents with celeriac is to put soot around them – this discourages them and it feeds the plant.

Bunny – Also, timing of sowing is important.Ìý Sow them in modules inside in February and this makes a huge difference.Ìý

Ìý

Q – We’ve had pigs in half-acre paddock with a view to clearing it to produce a wild flower meadow.Ìý Unfortunately, it’s been taken over by Soft Rush, how do we get rid of the soft rush?Ìý It’s waist-height.

Bob – I’d be tempted to keep it.Ìý Soft rush has more insects on it than almost any other wild flowers apart from thistles and docs.ÌýÌý Also, the pig manure is a problem because wild flowers want low fertility and so you may need to grow several crops of something that will take it out.Ìý Something like sunflowers or sweet corn.Ìý

Bunny – If it is the Carex rush it cannot compete with mowing so that could be an easy way to get rid of it

Ìý

Ìý