gardeners’ question time
GQT
Q&A
Gardeners’ Question Time
Our experts tackle your gardening problems, including bindweed in compost heaps, wonky carrots and when to harvest potatoes
Bob Flowerdew
Christine Walkden
Matt Biggs
Bob is an organic gardener and has designed his garden to produce lots of veg, fruit and cut flowers.
Garden writer Christine appears on BBC1’s The One Show. She is also a lecturer and tour leader.
Matt trained at Kew and has been gardening professionally for more than 30 years.
Q What could fill the gap when my
Q What can I do about bindweed in my compost heap?
PHOTOS: SARAH CUTTLE; PAUL DEBOIS; JASON INGRAM
hardy geraniums are cut back? Jackie, Nottinghamshire
A CHRISTINE SAYS Sadly,
the competitive nature of many geraniums makes it almost impossible to plant other things with them that will not be swamped by their growth. I have a similar situation in my own garden and have found the only thing that grows well there is Cyclamen hederifolium. Even if the cyclamen leaves are partly
Vigorous bugle (Ajuga reptans) will hold its own against hardy geraniums
July 2022
removed when cutting back the geranium foliage, normally they go on to flower into the autumn, filling the gap, and they seem to survive successfully alongside the geraniums. I have tried other cyclamen, but they do not survive as happily. Lamiums and ajugas do pretty well but do tend to grow through the geranium foliage, so a lot of their growth is lost when cutting back the geraniums.
Q&A
TEAM ANSWER
Planting with geraniums
H Cross, by email
A
Digitalis purpurea ‘Alba’ prefers nutrient-rich soil in partial shade
A
MATT SAYS Reduce your d dependence on geraniums in tthis shady spot by adding more vvariety and year-round interest. Improve the soil with organic matter, then add snowdrops and daffodils for colour in late winter and early spring. Go for smaller daffodil varieties, which need less moisture. Add splashes of Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ with blue flowers that look like forget me nots, and silvery variegated leaves, along with spotted-leaved pulmonarias or Epimedium stellulatum ‘Wudang Star’, with attractive foliage and nodding white flowers. Try Digitalis purpurea ‘Alba’ for its white flowers in summer and add Cyclamen hederifolium, which thrives anywhere dry but not too hot. Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’, with clear-blue spring flowers and dark foliage, will also add accents.
BOB SAYS If you leave your heap the bindweed will just carry on, pilfering all the goodness and spreading itself further. If your materials are only partly composted, you could re-mix your heap, adding extra manure or other heat-generating ingredients such as fresh grass clippings. This way, the heat given off can cook the bits of root in the mix. If your compost is already finished, you could sieve out the roots. This is much easier if the compost is dry, so help water to evaporate from the heap by keeping it protected from rain but open to the wind. Sieving also helps to remove any bits of rubbish, or any large, halfdecomposed pieces.
Bindweed roots are fragile, and regenerate from fragments
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