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Q – Our garden runs alongside a wood and in this wood are various animals – rabbits, muntjac, deer etc – and our hedges can’t keep them out.Ìý I have tried an electric fence but it didn’t work in keeping them out.Ìý What can the panel suggest to grow that the animals might not like?

James – Grasses can handle being eaten right back and still survive.Ìý Try Arundo donax, panicums, or Miscanthu, - big, lush, fibrous grasses.Ìý

Bunny – Stale urine is also good as a deterrent.Ìý Get a night camera to see exactly where they are getting through the fence/hedge and firm that area up.

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Q – I have an allotment with south-facing raised beds with gravelly clay.Ìý Three years ago I planted three ‘Gros Vert de Laon’ Artichoke seeds in one bed.Ìý Two of them grew and we harvested three or four last summer but both plants have a tendency to be bushy and have lots of suckers.Ìý How do we get more artichokes?

Bob – Lots of well-rotted manure.Ìý And lots of water.Ìý Thin the side shoots down to maybe three or four main ones (to avoid congestion).Ìý In the first year never let them flower as it weakens the plants for the future.

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Q – I’ve been puppy walking for guide dogs for the past few years and, as a consequence, our garden is now wrecked. Any advice?

Bob – Go over to grass with trees standing in it – that way they can’t do too much damage.Ìý Put your plants in raised vases on pedestals.Ìý

Bunny – Dogs, like children, love to be entertained so think about toys.Ìý There are some sophisticated things out there, like bubble machines that blast out beef-flavoured bubbles!Ìý Have a limited space that you devote to the dogs – bury bones for them, put toys in there, make it really attractive.Ìý Then demarcate your beds with a low hedge or fence and train the dogs not to follow you over the borders.Ìý

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Q – I live in a terraced house with a north-facing front garden.Ìý I want to put in a new wall with hedge over the top – what suit of fruit, berry, or nut bushes could you recommend?

James – ‘Japanese Quince’ – often planted as short, tightly packed shrubs, and they will give you delicious small fruit too.Ìý

Bob – Nuts tend to get a bit big so I’d avoid that. I’ve got a small one that is, after 20 years, still 10-15ft either way. There is an English native called Cornus mas that would be good, it has yellow flowers and red berries.Ìý Or a ‘Japanese Wineberry’.

Bunny – You could try a mixed hedge of gooseberries, red currants, black currants, blackberries.Ìý It would take a bit of managing to keep it looking good but it’d be lovely, and tasty! For pure aesthetics I’d go for a Medlar, in particular the ‘Iranian Medlar’.

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Q – I live in a mews house with a huge Honeysuckle on it.Ìý It has roots in the ground and it flowers all year round.Ìý However, its beauty is skin deep and beneath the flowers there are lots of dead branches – I am afraid it’s a bit of a mess and might be hazardous.Ìý Do I need to do anything?

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James – I think you can cut back – just don’t be too drastic or you’ll miss out on flowers.Ìý If you chop too quickly you change the plant’s hormone make up to focus more on growth than flowers. So go slowly.

Bunny – I’d be tempted to do now so you then get the massive spring growth. Give it a good feed and water afterwards.

Bob – Never cut anything old back too hard without something to grow back with.Ìý So lots of feed and water while it grows back.

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Q – I’ve had to cut down a 50-year-old Magnolia tree from our front garden as it was implicated in subsidence in a neighbour’s property.Ìý Now I need a replacement – what can you suggest?

Bunny – if you love grandifloras they will grow well in an air pot which would restrict its root growth.Ìý

James – There is an evergreen substitute that you could just about get away with in London – and that’s a grapefruit! I’ve also seen avocados in London, so why not experiment.

Bob – You’ve had a tree there and you’ve removed it so I would avoid another tree.Ìý Try something quick and impressive – think about making a pyramid structure up which you could grow some climbing roses up it.Ìý

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Q – If you were an artist like Monet what flower would you choose for your painting?

Bob – Peonies.

Bunny – Maybe Lily-of-the-Valley

James – I’d go with the water lilies like Monet did. In Monet’s day there was an explosion of the first ever water lilies coming in that weren’t Nymphaea alba – the native, northern European form that was very invasive – and Monet was of the first generation to have these wonderful new cross-species.Ìý And now, we are having a renaissance of water lilies so I’d go for them!

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