Gardens: Gardeners' Question Time

Over the years it has answered more than 30,000 questions and the panel members have been guests of a wide number of gardening clubs and other groups, as diverse as Leyhill Open Prison, the Palace of Westminster and a nudist club in Wales. The one drawback of the programme is that the experts have just a few minutes to deliver their advice on any given topic. For anyone who has ever hovered by the radio wishing they could get just a bit more detail on a particular problem that's been plaguing them, help is now at hand.

A new book, Gardeners' Question Time: Techniques & Tips for Gardeners by Matthew Biggs, John Cushnie, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank is published this month. It covers a huge range of subjects from propagation to hard landscaping to gardening under glass. And rather than being a purely factual instruction manual, the book captures the wit, opinions and enthusiasm of its authors. An introduction by the show's producer, Trevor Taylor, gives an insight into what goes on behind the scenes. "If you could hear the banter and chatter that goes on in the green room before the team file on stage for an evening recording you would be amazed," he says.

Seemingly, there is as much discussion of gardening wisdom off-stage as there is on. "A tip for this, a technique for that; they can't wait to reveal their latest discovery or share something they've been doing for years," says Taylor. "They all have hot pieces of 'gossip' that need to be spread, and what more fertile ground than fellow panel members?"

Any listeners to the show will know that one of the book's authors, John Cushnie, sadly died at the end of last year. But his down-to-earth advice comes through loud and clear from the pages of this book. One of the sections he authors is on pruning, and he takes the opportunity to respond to one of the most frequently asked questions on Gardeners' Question Time: "Why isn't my wisteria flowering?" "If the plant is more than three years old then it should be flowering," he writes. "The problem is either the result of overfeeding with a high nitrogen fertiliser, which makes growth at the expense of flowers, or it has arisen because the wisteria has not been pruned or has been pruned incorrectly. To encourage a wisteria to flower, it must be rigorously spur-pruned twice a year: once in the summer, to remove all the shoots that are not required as extension growth, and again in winter to encourage side shoots."

This sort of in-depth technical advice gives the average gardener a course of action to pursue, not to mention a fresh ray of hope that their gardening troubles are surmountable. Anne Swithinbank says she hopes the book will provide encouragement. "I often think that gardeners are bombarded with technical information, leaving them scared of 'getting it wrong'," she says. "Hopefully, in this practical book, the four of us are giving the reader not just the accepted version of how to think through a problem or tackle a certain job, but our own personal views on how that version should be applied."

One of the chapters covered by Swithinbank involves the planning stages of creating a garden, and she's sympathetic to anyone faced with the thousands of plant and design options available. She says that sketching a plan can be really helpful in making the whole plot flow together. "Use it as interior designers would a mood board by noting down all kinds of peculiarities special to the plot and attaching ideas for colours, seasons and favourite plants," she suggests.

"When you see an idea you like in a newspaper or magazine article, cut it out straight away and keep it in a garden folder before you forget." Swithinbank says that in her own garden she finds it useful to give particular areas descriptive names to ensure they have clear identities – so you'll find a spring border, a woodland garden, a winter garden and tropical garden.

The book includes lists of plants to suit different situations. If you have dappled shade, for instance, why not try wood anemone, camellias, dog's tooth violets or blue Himalayan poppies? It also gives step-by-step instructions on projects, whether it's laying a path, putting up fencing or building a pergola.

Another of the top ten questions on the radio show is: "How do I deal with invasive weeds?" There's lots of advice to help you in that battle on these pages. If you're faced with a tough patch of perennial weeds, Swithinbank suggests that rather than using a glyphosate-based weedkiller, "repeated digging, perhaps in conjunction with smothering, can work with the likes of nettles, ground elder, couch and bindweed".

She says the key to success is regularity, pointing out that without light, the weeds cannot photosynthesise and will eventually weaken and die (although this can take a couple of years or more).

Another question that comes up repeatedly involves the gardener–versus-slugs battle. Suggestions from the panellists include using biological control nematodes, encouraging natural predators, making traps out of jam jars part-filled with stout and surrounding raised beds with grass or slabs.

So whether you have a problem with slugs, weeds or a wisteria that won't flower, or are just looking to expand your general knowledge of horticulture, the Gardeners' Question Time book makes the perfect companion to its radio equivalent.

Some extracts taken from Gardeners' Questions Time: Techniques and Tips for Gardeners, published this month by Kyle Cathie, priced 16.99.

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This article was originally published in The Scotsman on 27 February 2010