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Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens: Postbag Edition

Peter Gibbs and the panel are at Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens answering your horticultural queries.

Peter Gibbs is at Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens answering your horticultural queries with Christine Walkden, Bunny Guinness and Matthew Wilson.

This week, the team meet garden and nursery director David Ward and head gardener Ã…sa Gregers-Warg, who show them around Beth Chatto's gravel, water, and woodland garden, all the while sharing their advice on cultivating a moss lawn, growing an acorn from seed, and helping a plant through it's dormancy period.

In the run up to spring, Kate Clark joins the panel to tell us about the nationwide gardening competition for local communities, RHS Britain in Bloom.

Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Bethany Hocken

A Somethin' Else production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

Available now

42 minutes

Plant List

Questions and timecodes are below. Where applicable, plant names have been provided.

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Q – My garden has a dry, sandy soil and large flower beds. I’d like to mulch the beds in the spring, but we’re on a slope, so bringing in wheelbarrows with organic matter is difficult. I make my own compost, but there isn’t nearly enough. Is there any other method I can use to feed my beds this spring?

(4 minutes 40 seconds)Ìý

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Åsa –

Melianthus major

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Q – I garden on chalky soil and have struggled to grow melianthus major. I now grow them in pots. How and when can I propagate this plant?

(8 minutes 3 seconds)Ìý

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Matthew –

Dogwood

Rhododendron

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Q – My dog has started to graze on my numerous sprouting allium bulbs. Do the panellists have any remedies?

(10 minutes 23 seconds)

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Q – I have a wildflower area. I perform an annual mowing regime in October. Are there any perennial plants, perhaps prairie types, that I could incorporate, as well and that could cope with the mowing?

(14 minutes 1 second)

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David –

Meadowsweet

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Bunny –

Geranium

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Matthew –

Drumstick primula

Primula bulleyana

Candelabra primula Harlow Car hybrid

Iris sibirica

Lysimachia

Lythrum

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Christine –

Ajuga

Lamium

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Q – I have quite a mossy lawn, which I’m actually quite pleased about. How do I get my remaining grass lawn to turn into moss?

(18 minutes 17 seconds)

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Q – My son collects acorns on our walks. We planted some of them and three have germinated. They are currently kept inside on a windowsill that gets morning sun and is above a radiator. What do I do now?

(21 minutes 24 seconds)

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Q – I have a Caladium, ‘Heart of Jesus’ that I keep in my south-facing bathroom, outside of direct sunlight. It has now gone dormant. How do I manage the dormancy period and when do I replant the tubers in spring to get the best of the huge pink leaves?

(22 minutes 59 seconds)

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Feature – Community Development Manager, Kate Clark, tells us about this year’s RHS Britain in Bloom competition

(24 minutes 22 seconds)

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Q – I’m currently creating a natural woodland play area which will incorporate a playground for the kids. I’ve mapped out a path, but to make it more of a secret path, I need to block off the view all the way down. Could the panel suggest a large, evergreen shrub that could help do the trick, please?

(31 minutes 3 seconds)

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Christine –

Cherry laurel

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Matthew –

Trochodendron aralioides, Wheel tree

Chusquea culeou, Bamboo

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Åsa –

Christmas box, Sarcococca

Skimmea ‘Kew Green’

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Bunny –

Box

Holly

Ewe

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Q – In our local cemetery we have an overgrown beech hedge. Is it possible to reduce the height now?

(33 minutes 11 seconds)

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Matthew –

Willow

Q – Can the panellists suggest a shrub with year-round interest to screen my 8 ft. fence?

(36 minutes 11 seconds)

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Åsa and David –

Amelanchier, Juneberry

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Christine –

Pyracantha

Ivy

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Matthew –

Cornus controversa 'Variegata', Wedding cake tree

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Q – A weasel seems to have set up a nest in our garden. I don’t want to get rid of the weasal, so do the panel have any suggestions for how we can we work around our new resident?

(38 minutes 46 seconds)

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