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The GQT team are in Banstead in Surrey for this week's horticultural programme.

Can a pair of underpants tell you how healthy your soil is? What is toxic squash syndrome? And just why does Viburnum tinus smell like wet dog and poo to some people?

Joining Peter Gibbs to answer these questions in front of a live audience in Banstead, Surrey, are plant and diseases expert Pippa Greenwood, garden designer Bunny Guinness and 'grow your own' expert Bob Flowerdew.

Also on the programme, Bob Flowerdew offers up a masterclass on green manuring.

Producer - Daniel Cocker
Assistant Producer - Aniya Das
Executive Producer - Louisa Field

A Somethin' Else production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Sun 20 Nov 2022 14:00

Plant List

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

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Q – Do the panel recommend burying cotton underpants in the soil to help with microbial production, à la The Archers?

(1 minutes 47 seconds)Ìý

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Q – What plants could you recommend for easy-to-maintain, year-round colour, in south facing beds and well-drained, chalk soil?

(4 minutes 38 seconds)Ìý

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Bunny –

Rosa ‘M³Ü³Ù²¹²ú¾±±ô¾±²õ’

Pittosporum

Salvia ‘Cerro Potosi’

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Pippa –

Lavender ‘Hidcote’

Ceanothus 'Puget Blue'

Ìý

Bob –

Calendula officinalis, Pot marigold

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Q – I’ve grown butternuts from saved seeds. Half a dozen of them are rather strange shapes. I’ve read about toxic squash syndrome. I’m wondering whether I should risk eating it or pop them on the compost heap?

(8 minutes 11 seconds)

Ìý

Q – Given the last two summers, with no rainfall from mid-June to late August, and now a hosepipe ban as well, how best should we address pruning early flowering shrubs?

(11 minutes 03 seconds)

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Feature – Bob Flowerdew explains what green manure is, what it does, and how it does it.

(15 minutes 22 seconds)

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Q – When sowing seeds, is there an easy way of knowing which seeds need to be covered with compost and which need light to germinate?

(18 minutes 47 seconds)

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Q – Does the team have any suggestions for suitable ornamental grasses to add to my mixed border? It is south-east facing with very alkaline soil and in a frost pocket.

(22 minutes 39 seconds)

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Bunny –

Stipa Tenuissima

Luzula

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Q – How can I get the right plant in the right place, first time?

(26 minutes 05 seconds)

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Correspondence – Discussing the potent smell of the viburnum tinus

(30 minutes 45 seconds)

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Q – Can I take cuttings from my tomato plant, or should I dig up the root and overwinter that, indoors, to grow it on, taking cuttings in the spring because I can’t keep the seed?

(33 minutes 34 seconds)

Ìý

Q – How to persuade a gardening cynic of its joys?

(38 minutes 25 seconds)

Ìý

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