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Q – 15 years ago I planted a Silver Birch that grew well but then started to fade away.  At the base I saw something that looked like Honey Fungus.  Last year, convinced the tree was dead, I took out the trunk with a mattock and removed any signs of fungus before planting another Silver Birch five yards (4.5m) away.  The Pyracantha hedge has now started to die off at the end nearest the infection.  What can I do beyond taking out more and more plants?

Pippa – Silver Birch are very prone to Honey Fungus.  Five metres is very close though.  Also, Honey Fungus stays underground from year to year.  Five years is approx. to five yards away (the fungus moves at about a yard/metre per year) if you’re talking about the bootlace growth.  So planting much further away would help as well as setting up a cordon.  Take out the dead and dying plants as well as the plants about 2 metres further away for good measure.

Q – I bought an Azalea in Woolworths for half a crown in 1965 – it’s got now bigger since I planted it… what am I doing wrong?

Bob – Some Azaleas are very small – it could just be one of the dwarf ones.  Plants that can’t flower grow until the can flower – if this is flowering happily where it is I wouldn’t worry about it. 

Matthew – It’s obviously quite happy there but if it looks a bit lost I would pop it in a pot and almost treat it like a bonsai… although then it might start growing like the clappers!

Q – I’ve recently bought a polytunnel which is 15ft x 10ft (approx. 4.5m x 3m) and my grandson suggested I try to grow some grapes.  What soil type should I use and what variety of grapes would be best?

Bob Sherman (ret. Chief Horticultural Officer at Garden Organic) – It’s a good sized space.  There are really three types of grapes – ones for making wine (venus), also Sweetwater, and Muscat grapes which have much better flavour.  The best ones are the Muscats – Cannon Hall Muscat, Hamburg Muscat.  Grapes are vigorous so you need to train it well in the polytunnel. 

Bob F – Or you could try the Madresfield Court variety… I wouldn’t plant it in the ground – try tub growing - bringing them in in February - you get an earlier crop – about five or six bunches per vine but then you can get a vine to every square metre.  This will contain them as they can be as vigorous as a wisteria! 

Q – As a member of the RAF my family and I move every two years – we usually inherit poorly maintained gardens with poor soil quality.  We’ve just moved to Suffolk, with a bright back garden, and there’s a large (10m x 2m/33ft x 6.5ft), knee deep in weeds, partially under a Sycamore tree… what would the panel suggest I could do to get quick results?

Pippa – Thorough weeding is vital.  Make sure the Sycamore isn’t taking up too much root space/offering too much shade – set to it in a mean way!  Plant-wise – go for annuals, but also perennial bulbs.

If you were staying in the UK with your next move you could grow some small shrubs to take with you.  Also, use some of the bed for vegetables – you could still, this year, grow some veg from scratch.

Matthew – I would go for perennials that won’t need too much aftercare and can be moved in two years’ time.  Things like – Persicaria Firetail which is very robust, also Stipa gigantea, the Golden Oat Grass.  Perennial Geraniums too would be good – something such as one of the endresii hyrbrids.

Bob Sherman – I would focus on annuals and some vegetables.  Some veg is very colourful like the Chicories and the coloured lettuces and beetroot, ornamental cabbages and cauliflowers. 

Q - I planted a bramley apple tree last year from a supermarket. Its main stem is about 3ft and has 4 branches which are all about 3ft long. They are all at this time flowering beautifully. The thing is, should I have cut these back? They are far too thin to bare fruit so do need pruning. How much do I cut them back and when is the best time to do it? This tree is on my allotment in Scarborough.

Bob Sherman – From a supermarket it’s probably a dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock… something like a M9 or M106… hopefully it’s not on M25 because that will probably outgrow your house!  You don’t want it to fruit this year; it’s too young.  Come winter, cut the four branches back by about half then next year you should be able to pick about 6, even-sized branches.

Bob F – Get another apple tree – a Bramley will never fruit on its own.  Or other apples, a Crabapple will certainly pollenate it.  Ideally prune it back but if it is a dwarfing tree I leave it alone as they offer so little growth.  Maybe use canes to hold the weak branches into a framework.

Pippa – When buying you want a stock that has come in recently, you want to buy it before it has broken into leaf (or only just started), at the bottom end the roots need to have some moisture too. 

Q – My Pittosporum has become large and unkempt, can it be used for topiary? I want to make it into a spiral.  It’s 3 years old, 4ft high and 3ft wide (1.2m x 0.9m approx.).

Matthew – You can use them for topiaries, yes, but I wouldn’t go as far as a spiral.  Some plants can stand that level – Taxus baccata the yew is one, Buxus (Boxwood) is another – but Pittosporum ·É´Ç³Ü±ô»å²Ô’t.

Sally Cunningham from Garden Organic – I would leave it alone. Let the cold winter cut it back for you.

Q – My Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ has lost its bicolour and is only flowering red, what can I do?

Matthew – It does this the Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ – it goes through funny phases (it is technically a perennial though it is grown as an annual). It is unstable.

Sally – It might be to do with temperature, moisture, and day-length.  If they are kept moist they tend to be more bicolour and if it’s cold they go red!

Pippa – nothing you can do to stop it I’m afraid… learn to love it in its various guises!

Q - I have a conifer in my garden. about 30 feet high (9.1m). It is next to garage. I can see its roots are lifting up concrete path to garage. If I don't do anything, in future I suspect stem/roots will grow fatter, Hence lifting the garage floor as well.

If I get someone to cut about 10 feet (3m) top of this tree, will it's roots grow fatter?

Sally – You’re going to have to choose between the tree and the garage!  If you attack it the roots will attack back.

Pippa – Even the dwarf conifers really aren’t dwarf at all – I had one removed at at least 30ft.  I’d side with the garage and take the tree down. 

Matthew – Hacking it back won’t slow the roots down and conifers (with the exception of Yew) don’t grow from the top if they’ve been cut back.

Q – Each year I have to start off more cucumber plants than I need.  They reach about 10cm/4in high and then collapse and shrink to nothing in a very short time.  I sterilize my compost on the stove before applying it. I don’t have the same problem with my tomatoes.  Why is this happening?

Anton Rosenfeld from Garden Organic – I reckon it’s a fungal disease.  Cucumbers are particularly susceptible to diseases of the stem especially the stems are in contact with damp soil.  I’d be careful about not over watering.  Also, fungi can lurk in seed trays so make sure to wash them thoroughly.  Water with fresh tap water from clean water cans to avoid water-dwelling fungi. 

Pippa – Avoid water butt water. Go for sterilized proprietary compost.  Don’t plant too deep – the stem needs to be above ground.

Bob F – Don’t sterilize compost for too long! Because above, say 150 degrees for 10 minutes, you can actually get more fertility.  Tomatoes might cope with this but cucumbers won’t. 

Q – Can I use leaf mould from underneath spruce trees to fill raised beds in the polytunnel?

Anton – Generally leaf mould is wonderful stuff but from underneath pine trees it’s going to be quite acidic and quite hard to break down.

Pippa – You can use them as a mulch against slugs and snails – very effective – particularly good around strawberry plants

Bob F – Best put it under other conifers

Q – My front door opens straight onto the street.  I recently put a pot of flowers outside and various other neighbours are doing the same so the road is getting to be a little more colourful.  Now I’d like to plant a climber up the front wall.  It’d have to be in a pot, the wall is brick, south-facing, getting full sun almost all day, it does get very hot and things dry out fast.  Suggestions please.

Matthew – I’d go for an annual rather than perennial climber.  Something like Morning Glory or an Eccremocarpus which has cigar flowers basically and grows very quickly.  Black-Eyed Susan too.

Anton – I’d go for something edible.  Mouse Melons look great and taste great.  Looks like an olive-sized rugby ball with a crocodile skin and it tastes like a lemon-flavoured cucumber.

Pippa – A Pineapple Broom.  You would need a support system but it has lovely silvery foliage, yellow flowers, and doesn’t mind being baked.  Make sure you use a really big pot so it doesn’t dry out so quickly.

Bob F – I’d put it a mix of red and white flowering runner beans