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Q – I have moss everywhere – does it harm potting and bedding plants?

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Pippa – It’s not going to harm anything but if it forms a dense carpet it can allow moisture to accumulate too much.Ìý It will restrict seeding too.Ìý

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Q – Between my fence and the neighbour’s hedge a wild hop has sprung up.Ìý Because it is between the divides we can’t get to it.Ìý How can we get rid of it?

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Christine – Get under the fence and then attack the roots

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James – Boiling water or vinegar will kill the roots of the hop without being damaging enough to affect the hedge

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Q – Our allotment is a wilderness.Ìý How can we restore it without using old carpet?

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Pippa – What is making up the wilderness?

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Q’er – Waist-high couch grass, dandelions, buttercups and nettles.Ìý We have 320sqm (3445 square feet) of allotment.

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Peter – Pigs or goats if you’re allowed

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Pippa – It’s a big area to dig out.Ìý Get potatoes in the areas you’ve cleared because they grow rapidly, offer some shading, and they offer a reward at the end of it!

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Q – Is there any chance of me getting a good crop of tomatoes on my patio in Coleraine?

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Pippa – You might need to get some protection like a mini lean-to greenhouse.Ìý I would also worry about Phytophthora

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Matt – Try the Tree Tomato (Cyphomandra betacea).Ìý It’s not actually tomato but it would still be nice.

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Feature:

Salvia

Brillantaisia subulugurica

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Q – What special memory will the panel take away from Mount Stewart?

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James – The Cordyline indivisa that I saw here ten years ago

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Christine – I’ll have the Beschorneria that are out on the terrace

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Matt – Clianthus puniceus (the ‘Lobster Claw’)

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Q – In recent years I have been losing the growing tips on my Fuchsias to a pest.Ìý What is causing this?

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Pippa – I thought it might be Fuchsia gall mite but actually I think it is capsid bug.Ìý

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Q – Next month we’re being encouraged to give up single-use plastic.Ìý How can we do this as gardeners?

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Pippa – You can use tomato boxes as propagating lids and plastic bottles as bird scarers.Ìý Stop using plastic naming tags too.

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Q – In the stone walls here I can see small, reddish daisy-like flowers.Ìý I’ve tried this at home but haven’t had any success.Ìý What can I do differently?

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Matt – It is a Mexican Daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus).Ìý Plants will self-seed where they are happy to be, for example I have foxgloves at the base of a yew hedge.Ìý

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Christine – Sow them straight into sand for the best start.Ìý Then after they’ve got going use something like plasticine or a nylon stocking to insert it into the stone to give it a bit of grip.