Garden tips and advice from our resident expert Helen Yemm. This week: cultivating woodland and keeping pets from eating the grass
Ian Templar wants to sow a wild-flower seed mixture in his north/north-west facing front garden, dominated by two large oaks and home to a rhododendron and a bed of heather. The ground is very mossy underfoot and the soil typical Sussex clay.
Predator: It's hard to stop cats eating the grass
This description - oaks, moss-invaded grass, acid-loving plants and clay - triggered alarm bells. What kind of mixed flower seeds had he in mind, I wondered. There are wild seed mixtures compiled by all the leading seed companies that are suitable for every situation.
Ian should steer away from the popular meadow mixtures and choose one made up of shade-loving woodland and woodland-edge species, since it is clear that this shady front garden is trying to turn itself into a little piece of woodland.
A suitable mixture from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (0845 1301304; http://www.organiccatalogue.com/) includes foxglove and red campion, both of which I know will do well in a shady patch on Sussex clay.
To give them a good start, Ian should scrape away some of the mossy "woodland floor", loosen the soil and mix some leafmould and sand into the heavy soil to ensure that the seeds take properly. He should keep them watered during dry weather.
The biennials and perennials in the mixture will not flower this year, but the whole project could be kick-started by planting some ready-grown, year-old biennial foxgloves that will be on sale in nurseries and garden centres any time now. These will flower this year and seed at the end of the summer to add to Ian's young colony of woodlanders.
Other plants that would look at home in the dappled shade of the oaks and generally add interest include: little hardy cyclamen, English bluebells, wood anemones, Arum italicum 'Marmoratum' (lords and ladies), the native male fern Dryopteris filix mas and the pretty creeping groundcover, sweet woodruff.
Snowdrops, too, would look good and these will be on sale soon "in the green" for £16 per 100 from specialist suppliers such as Cambo (01333 450054; http://www.camboestate.com/).
Ian could have a lot of fun going really wild - but I do think those heathers might end up looking out of place.
Keep off the grass
My pet cats insist on regularly grazing the numerous ornamental grasses in my garden. How can I stop them? Jilly Taylor, Amersham
It is presumed that cats eat grass to aid their digestion and Weekend's pet expert Pete Wedderburn agreed that there is not much you can do to keep them off your ornamentals unless you create physical barriers. It is up to you to devise deterrents that put them off. Cats being the canny creatures they are, you are bound, unfortunately, to have mixed success.
My own tip would be to put something prickly in their way - I have seen spiky plastic cat deterrent mats for sale in garden centres that would, if placed around particularly favoured clumps, make life uncomfortable for them. Of course, there is that old favourite essential gardening prop of mine, the wooden kebab stick. A small forest of them might well do the trick.
Cats hate snakes, and those rubber joke ones left lying among your grasses can alarm them, as can plastic bottles full of water (the daft things get spooked by their own distorted reflections, I gather).
They also detest the smell of orange peel, so you could try some weather-resistant citrus-fragranced sticks called Cat Repeller Rods from Harrod (0845 402 5300; http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/).
And, of course, there are sonic devices, solutions you can spray on the grass (these will need to be renewed after rain), evil-smelling plants that they won't go near (Coleus canina) and water cannons.
On another tack, you might also try growing them their own pot or two of soft green grass (pet shops sell seeds), so that they concentrate on these and leave your booby-trapped ornamentals alone.
Too many plants
Readers immediately emailed me with good ideas about how compulsive propagator Paul Holloway (and others similarly lumbered with too many plants) could off-load their numerous "babies".
Shan Lancaster suggests that Paul should contact his local Freecycle group. This can be found by Googling Freecycle followed by the name of your local town. Heather Cunild brought my attention to a website devoted to bringing together gardeners with plants to spare: http://www.theplantexchange.co.uk/, while Anne Harris from Farringtons School in Chislehurst, Kent, says pupils are always looking for ways to raise money for charity, and would welcome donations of plants from local gardeners that they can sell on to swell their coffers. I feel sure there must be numerous other schools with similar schemes.
Gladys Clarke tried giving away her surplus plants and found that passers-by seemed reluctant to take them until she put a modest price on each (eg 20p for tomato plants) and left an honesty box. Plants disappeared rapidly and last year she donated £58 to charity.
Clear the decks
At last! People may be waking up to the fact the combination of decking and the murky British winter is not a marriage made in heaven.
With any luck, the fad for obliterating lovely green back gardens under great boring swathes of deck may decline. Once that makeover-newness has faded and proud owners have become bored with sweeping, power-washing and slapping about expensive unguents, gardens full of decking can quickly become a slippery, slimy no-go area for most of the winter.
Emailers Carolyn Monty (who inherited hers) and Rosanne Lyden-Brown (who really likes hers - in summer) are just two "deckists" who wonder how to get around the problem.
Rosanne has so far coped by spreading sand on her deck, which, she says, helps a bit - but defeats the whole object of having all that nice permanently clean surface underfoot. Have I any ideas?
Well, this gives me yet another opportunity to recommend Biotal Algae and Mould Cleaner (http://www.biotal.co.uk/) - a plant-friendly, colourless and odourless water-soluble liquid that, with a single application, will see off the slime from wood, paving stones and garden furniture for several months.
But decking is slippery even if it isn't green with algae, so what then? If you were to staple galvanised chicken wire over the treacherous bits at least you have a safe pathway across it. As always, your suggestions are welcome.
But please, can we then get back to real gardening? In my view, scrubbing decking just isn't.
Write to Thorny Problems at helen.yemm@telegraph.co.uk or Gardening, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Helen Yemm can only answer questions through this column or the Gardeners' Forum.
Predator: It's hard to stop cats eating the grass
This description - oaks, moss-invaded grass, acid-loving plants and clay - triggered alarm bells. What kind of mixed flower seeds had he in mind, I wondered. There are wild seed mixtures compiled by all the leading seed companies that are suitable for every situation.
Ian should steer away from the popular meadow mixtures and choose one made up of shade-loving woodland and woodland-edge species, since it is clear that this shady front garden is trying to turn itself into a little piece of woodland.
A suitable mixture from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (0845 1301304; http://www.organiccatalogue.com/) includes foxglove and red campion, both of which I know will do well in a shady patch on Sussex clay.
To give them a good start, Ian should scrape away some of the mossy "woodland floor", loosen the soil and mix some leafmould and sand into the heavy soil to ensure that the seeds take properly. He should keep them watered during dry weather.
The biennials and perennials in the mixture will not flower this year, but the whole project could be kick-started by planting some ready-grown, year-old biennial foxgloves that will be on sale in nurseries and garden centres any time now. These will flower this year and seed at the end of the summer to add to Ian's young colony of woodlanders.
Other plants that would look at home in the dappled shade of the oaks and generally add interest include: little hardy cyclamen, English bluebells, wood anemones, Arum italicum 'Marmoratum' (lords and ladies), the native male fern Dryopteris filix mas and the pretty creeping groundcover, sweet woodruff.
Snowdrops, too, would look good and these will be on sale soon "in the green" for £16 per 100 from specialist suppliers such as Cambo (01333 450054; http://www.camboestate.com/).
Ian could have a lot of fun going really wild - but I do think those heathers might end up looking out of place.
Keep off the grass
My pet cats insist on regularly grazing the numerous ornamental grasses in my garden. How can I stop them? Jilly Taylor, Amersham
It is presumed that cats eat grass to aid their digestion and Weekend's pet expert Pete Wedderburn agreed that there is not much you can do to keep them off your ornamentals unless you create physical barriers. It is up to you to devise deterrents that put them off. Cats being the canny creatures they are, you are bound, unfortunately, to have mixed success.
My own tip would be to put something prickly in their way - I have seen spiky plastic cat deterrent mats for sale in garden centres that would, if placed around particularly favoured clumps, make life uncomfortable for them. Of course, there is that old favourite essential gardening prop of mine, the wooden kebab stick. A small forest of them might well do the trick.
Cats hate snakes, and those rubber joke ones left lying among your grasses can alarm them, as can plastic bottles full of water (the daft things get spooked by their own distorted reflections, I gather).
They also detest the smell of orange peel, so you could try some weather-resistant citrus-fragranced sticks called Cat Repeller Rods from Harrod (0845 402 5300; http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/).
And, of course, there are sonic devices, solutions you can spray on the grass (these will need to be renewed after rain), evil-smelling plants that they won't go near (Coleus canina) and water cannons.
On another tack, you might also try growing them their own pot or two of soft green grass (pet shops sell seeds), so that they concentrate on these and leave your booby-trapped ornamentals alone.
Too many plants
Readers immediately emailed me with good ideas about how compulsive propagator Paul Holloway (and others similarly lumbered with too many plants) could off-load their numerous "babies".
Shan Lancaster suggests that Paul should contact his local Freecycle group. This can be found by Googling Freecycle followed by the name of your local town. Heather Cunild brought my attention to a website devoted to bringing together gardeners with plants to spare: http://www.theplantexchange.co.uk/, while Anne Harris from Farringtons School in Chislehurst, Kent, says pupils are always looking for ways to raise money for charity, and would welcome donations of plants from local gardeners that they can sell on to swell their coffers. I feel sure there must be numerous other schools with similar schemes.
Gladys Clarke tried giving away her surplus plants and found that passers-by seemed reluctant to take them until she put a modest price on each (eg 20p for tomato plants) and left an honesty box. Plants disappeared rapidly and last year she donated £58 to charity.
Clear the decks
At last! People may be waking up to the fact the combination of decking and the murky British winter is not a marriage made in heaven.
With any luck, the fad for obliterating lovely green back gardens under great boring swathes of deck may decline. Once that makeover-newness has faded and proud owners have become bored with sweeping, power-washing and slapping about expensive unguents, gardens full of decking can quickly become a slippery, slimy no-go area for most of the winter.
Emailers Carolyn Monty (who inherited hers) and Rosanne Lyden-Brown (who really likes hers - in summer) are just two "deckists" who wonder how to get around the problem.
Rosanne has so far coped by spreading sand on her deck, which, she says, helps a bit - but defeats the whole object of having all that nice permanently clean surface underfoot. Have I any ideas?
Well, this gives me yet another opportunity to recommend Biotal Algae and Mould Cleaner (http://www.biotal.co.uk/) - a plant-friendly, colourless and odourless water-soluble liquid that, with a single application, will see off the slime from wood, paving stones and garden furniture for several months.
But decking is slippery even if it isn't green with algae, so what then? If you were to staple galvanised chicken wire over the treacherous bits at least you have a safe pathway across it. As always, your suggestions are welcome.
But please, can we then get back to real gardening? In my view, scrubbing decking just isn't.
Write to Thorny Problems at helen.yemm@telegraph.co.uk or Gardening, The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT. Helen Yemm can only answer questions through this column or the Gardeners' Forum.
