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ISSUE 2171 Saturday 5 May 2001

Thorny problems

Gardener and lecturer Helen Yemm answers your questions

Strawberries

I will be unable to get straw for my strawberry bed this year because of the foot and mouth epidemic. How best can I protect my fruit without it? M Webb, Stroud, Gloucestershire

I EXPECT many strawberry growers will have the same problem this year. Straw is traditionally used as a mulch around strawberry plants as the fruits develop, principally to prevent them from being splashed with soil, and therefore reducing the likelihood of their becoming infected with botrytis (grey mould).

Black fibre mulching mats for strawberries are sold by FYBA - you can find them at garden centres, and they cost about £2.50 for a pack of 10.

You could improvise, by cutting circles of weed-smothering membrane, or even old carpet, both of which would make an adequate barrier. But nothing looks as wonderful as strawberries ripening on a traditional bed of straw, does it?

Bog plants

My son has given me a scirpus. Could you tell me how best to take care of it? P Penn, Poole, Dorset

Your scirpus is undoubtedly one of the several different kinds of rush. As such it is frost hardy and enjoys damp conditions - ideally in a bog garden or in the mud at the edge of a natural pond.

You can quite easily make a small bog garden by digging out an area to the depth of at least 35cm, lining it with butyl pond liner or even black plastic and puncturing it with a skewer in several places, so that it will leak very slowly.

Tuck the edges out of sight, and fill it in with a mixture of grit and multi-purpose compost. You can then plant it up with inhabitants that enjoy having wet feet: bog irises and primulas, mimulus and little king cups, for example.

Dribble a hose into the area until it is saturated and keep it topped up with water (preferably collected rainwater) in the dry spells to which we are all looking forward.

You can make your bog garden look more natural with pieces of log or some stones and the whole thing can be done on a surprisingly small scale - I had a small one in my London garden that was less than 1m square - while larger areas could be home to some quite exotic-looking plants, such as rheums (ornamental rhubarb) and rogersias.

I don't know how old your son is, but I suggest he gets digging.

Slug-proof plants

I have noticed that the following herbaceous plants are thankfully unpalatable to slugs and snails: geraniums, heuchera, sedums, cyclamen, wallflowers, antirrhinums, alliums, crocosmia, penstemons, foxgloves, paeonies, Japanese anemones, hellebores and thalictrum. Does anyone have a longer list? Muriel Heppenstall

While it would be tempting fate to talk of completely slug-proof plants, I can cautiously add the following: dicentras, Libertia grandiflora, sisyrinchiums, nigella, various lysimachias and Knautia macedonica, to this list.

The Royal Horticultural Society advisory service has a leaflet on slug control, available to members.

Slug pellet-users are lamenting the passing of those containing the highly potent methiocarb. We can, however, keep plugging away with metaldehyde products (SlugClear and Mini Pellets), which are less effective in the wet, or temporarily reduce the activity of the slugs with the "greener" alternative, aluminium sulphate (Growing Success Slug Killer).

We can also "hand pick" them and drop them in salty water (if we throw them over the garden wall they will come back). We can drown them in beer or other attractants ("pubs" or Slug Traps), deter them with grit and other barriers and depend increasingly on useful biological control (such as Nemaslug - available from Green Gardener: 01603 715096).

Realistically, we will increasingly have to accept that slugs and snails are an inevitable part of our gardening life, and perhaps stop catering for them so well.

Most slug-weary gardeners know about hostas and delphiniums, but I think it would be interesting to make a "caviar list" of plants that are irresistible, therefore almost unprotectable, so armed with such a list and a little self-control, the seriously afflicted can save themselves a lot of money and heartache.

First on the list for me is a wonderfully seductive blue-leafed sprawler oyster plant (Mertensia maritima), which can be demolished in a trice.

This is closely followed by Lobelia cardinalis, which I find must be grown in shallow water in order to avoid the gnashers of the ghastly gastropods.

Seed germination

I am a real sucker for buying seeds, then not sowing them and hanging on to half-used packets. I now have loads that are past their sell-by date. Should I throw them out? "Keen-but-clueless" Kingston upon Thames

It is generally reckoned that seed germination will deteriorate by about 30 per cent each year, although I have often been luckier than that. Sow old seed more thickly than usual, and then if they all come up, thin out the seedlings out more rigorously.

However, the dusty half-packets that are more than three years old should probably be chucked out. {Old Git Note--I've had good luck with some old seed too. I beieve I remember reading somewhere that carrot seed has the least longevity. Still, doesn't hurt to try old seed, especially if it's been kept relatively cool in an airtight container.] It may comfort you to know that gardeners everywhere have just the same problem. Being seduced by pictures on packets and in catalogues is all part of the fun. Write to Thorny Problems, Helenyemm1@aol.com or The Daily Telegraph Gardening, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DT. Helen Yemm regrets that she can answer letters only through this column

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2001