Question.
    How do I get rid of snails with out harming my two dogs? Any commercial products are unsafe for my dogs and they are in the garden all the time.
Thank you Olive

Answer.
    To control slugs without chemicals try putting some beer in a small container and sinking it into the soil near to your damaged plants, the slugs love beer and will gather there and drown. A rolled up dampened newspaper, or a dampened cardboard tube from kitchen roll, etc, left near to the plants will attract the snails, then throw the collected slugs and paper into the bin the next day. Half a grapefruit also attracts snails; grapefruit are one of there favourite foods.

Question.
    I went to my local nursery with a small, infested branch and was told my tree had scale and to spray with Malathion. Now that I have sprayed, is the scale supposed to fall off the branches? I can now see new foliage growing a healthier green but the insects are all still there. Will they eventually fall off?
Thanks Margaret

Answer.
    Scale insects are very hard to remove hence the name. Try spraying with a systemic insecticide claimed to kill scale insects. The plant absorbs a systemic insecticide and the chemical kills as the insect feeds from the plant.

Question.
    I planted some asters in my deck planters this year. Do I 'dead-head' the browned blossoms throughout the season? They were full of blooms when I planted them and I would like to know how to keep them looking fresh and full.
Thank you in advance for your help. Chris

Answer.
    It is desirable to deadhead your flowers for a longer flowering season. This stops the plant wasting energy on seed production instead of flower production. Feed regularly with a low nitrogen liquid fertiliser. Tomato fertiliser is ideal.

Question.
    Hi, Would you be so kind as to answer a question? I have a large pot I plan to put on my front porch. Can I use newspaper to fill it half way so it won't be to heavy for me to carry and also to save on soil?
I appreciate your time. Judy.

Answer.
    Paper will rot away leaving a dry space which will be detrimental to the plants health. Your best plan is too use polystyrene packing material as used around electrical goods, etc. Break up into small pieces and fill to the desired level, this is ideal.

Question.
    I know nothing about the right time to prune. I want to keep most of my shrubs about the size they are now. I have purple leaf plum, snowflake Vibernum, Brown's yew, ninebark, Haikura willow, pink spirea, and barberries among others. When is the right time to prune? Can I cut the columbine short after it quits blooming in the spring? Also, my Vibernum and peonies and clematis have very few blooms. Why? Do roses have to have full sun?
Thank you.

Answer.
    As a general rule you prune in spring only plants that are to flower in late summer. Early spring flowering plants you prune in Oct-Nov. Rhodos, azalea, camellia, prune May after flowering, no later. Flower buds for next year are forming from then on.

Your Vibernum and peonies and clematis need plenty of feed, cow manure or horse manure would be ideal. Also feed with a small amount of Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) this will release vital mineral elements in the soil.

Not all roses need full sun, some varieties are happy in shade. A sunny position keeps the leaves and buds dry and helps prevent various fungal diseases, which thrive in darker areas.

Question.
    I have two healthy10 year old Alberta Spruce that are now over 7 ' high and 4 ' wide each. I feed them with systemic every 6 to 8 weeks during the summer. Problem is that one has started leaning and they are just too close together now that they have reached this size. I am trying to decide what to do to reclaim a path between them. How old do they typically live to?

Do you think they would survive transplanting -- even with a tree spade? What about pruning -- can they be thinned so they are not as wide or will it just leave a bald spot -- will they grow in the areas that have been cut back to branch but no needle?
I live in central Virginia. Thanks! BJCP

Answer.
    Alberta Spruce.
Age, we are talking your lifetime here. At this size they could be moved with a tree spade on a skid steer machine, best time to move them is October. Your contractor would spray them with a special solution to prevent water loss while the roots became re-established. You could cut an archway though the middle of the two trees where the path lies. Keep trimming to the archway shape and they would soon fill out to the desired form.

Question.
    I just started my first vegetable garden the other day. I only have a few types of vegetables planted, since it was my first effort in many years. I have summer squash, green peppers, red peppers, tomatoes and red onions. My question to you is first to they all grow well together and second, on average how many vegetables can I expect to get out of the average plant?
Thanks for the advice. Kathleen

Answer.
    The plants that you mention should grow together without problem. Your onions could affect the strength of the red peppers if they are Jalapeno type, but otherwise no worry. There is no way of knowing what yield you could get from your crop. Different varieties have different yields, different soils affect yield, availability of water, sunshine average, fertiliser application, planting time, pest activity, all play a part in the final crop.

Question.
    Sirs I have re positioned a Mecanopsis blue poppy, which hitherto had not flower/ red. Last week the first beautiful blue flower appeared; imagine my amazement, when today I noticed a second flower, which is deep purple. Can anyone please explain this?

Answer.
    You have probably moved the plant to a position where the soil is more acid than the original spot, or the sunlight quota is more to the plants liking. Soil borne virus or eelworm can sometimes make for a darker flower on what could be a totally separate plant.

Question.
    Hello there,
its very good I find you because I want to grow a garden with plants and lawns. My problems are that I am dying to grow all this garden at my home and office but I have some thoughts in my mind that if I grow the plants in pots for my office I might be stopping their natural growth, so I lost my interest because doing that I might hurt the plant's growth. Second thing is, if I trimmed them I might hurt them.... is that true? Accordingly all questions got in my mind so I stop to have garden...although I'm very fond of plants and gardening. Please help if I'm thinking wrong.
Mahesh.

Answer.
    Over the years plant breeders have developed miniature versions of most popular plants, especially for growing in pots. You will find them at your local plant outlet, classed as Dwarf or Patio plants. These are the ones to go for.

Question.
    Could you please tell me which way up I should plant runner bean seeds?
Hope you can help, thank you.

Answer.
    This is not critical.

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Question.
    How and when should I trim a honeysuckle vine that has become very "bushy" with a great amount of "dead" or dry looking runners under the green and flowering vine?
Thanks for your help. Vernon

Answer.
    Leave until flower and leaf production has finished, then trim to shape. You can prune heavily but do not cut off below 4 feet from the ground. New growth will start from here.

Question.
    Hi!
I moved to South Carolina three years ago from California where I was born and raised. I have had to learn gardening all over again with the change of conditions here. In California, my roses where always gorgeous! Here, everything I've tried hasn't worked. I loose all of the foliage starting about this time of year every year. They will hold on to a leaf or two, and still bloom for me on occasion, but they just look so sad and pathetic.

I've managed to keep them alive, but would sure appreciate any tips. The soil here is very sandy, a lot of afternoon thunderstorms and a lot of hot humid 95° F or higher weather.
Any advice is appreciated Thanks!

Answer.
    The high humidity will encourage fungus diseases, spray with a copper fungicide. Also feed with a fertiliser containing a mineral supplement. Feed with Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate) about two teaspoons per plant, this will release vital trace elements in the soil. Cow manure if you can obtain it is very good for roses.

Question.
    I have several lupines that have blossomed. Now they have large seed pads. What do I do with them? Do I cut them off and let them ripen? I want to have them bloom again next year.
Thanks for your help! Jim & Lee

Answer.
    Let the seed pods ripen on the plant if you want good seeds, and gather just before the pods burst. Cut off the stem just below the bottom seedpod. If you want more flowers this year chop off the seed pods now. Your lupine plants should survive for next year unless you live in a severe frost area.

Question.
    This year my clematis has very few flowers on it and today I noticed that the leaves are beginning to get holes in them. Any suggestions? Thanks

Answer.
    Look closely and you should find a tiny green caterpillar on the back of the leaf, spray with a knockdown caterpillar killer. If the trouble persists spray with a systemic caterpillar spray, a systemic spray is absorbed by the plant and kills the caterpillar as it eats the leaves.

Question.
    Hi,
I have a small garden. I picked some of my first jalapenos this week and they are not hot AT ALL. They are sweet in fact. I planted 6 jalapeno plants and three bell pepper plants on the same row. Will that have any effect?
Thank you.

Answer.
    Jalapeno peppers can lose their hotness by the presence of certain other plants nearby at flowering time. A critical number of hours of hot sunshine can also affect the hotness. Your latitude can also be critical.

Question.
    Dear Sir,
the soil in my garden is on the heavy side though well cultivated and plenty of organic compost. However this year I bought a bag of sharp sand (from a builders merchant) and mixed it with some soil for use in pots and baskets.

It has proved disastrous. Nothing seems to grow and suspect that the sharp sand has a high salt content. Is there anything I can do to rectify this? Thank you. D

Answer.
    I would suggest replanting your plants in a mixture of your soil and garden peat. Sand in hanging baskets and pots is a definate no no, sand does not hold water.

Question.
    Good day, at last beautiful weather for flowers and gardening. I am from Canada, however, gardening is gardening. My wife and I have a discussion on proper way to spread manure. I say right up to and around the flowers, my wife says keep about an inch away from around all flowers. Hope you can answer and quickly, so I can get my man chores done.
Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer.
    If you put the manure too close to the plants it will rot the stems or any leaves that are in contact.

Question.
    Can you answer a question for me? I planted English Ivy last summer, hoping it would grow up the side of my house. It is more like a groundcover and won't cling to my brick. Even when I give it support to train it up, it still won't grab hold. Everything I've read says it is very invasive and will grow over and up anything in its path. Can you tell me how I can get it grow up? Thanks, B.L.

Answer.
    Mix a bucket full of nice thick mud and paint it thickly on to the wall where you want the ivy to cling. Then trail the ivy over the muddy area. Be warned, in time ivy wrecks brickwork.

Question.
    I have a mulch problem, in that there seems to be a type of mold growing in it. It starts out looking like several tiny yellowish mushrooms blanketing an area, but they're hard and very small. They then turn a darker color and "bloom," revealing what looks like to be seeds inside.

Right now it's confined to one area of my garden, but it is quickly spreading. I don't believe it's the "slime mold," as there is no slime. When I pulled them up, it came up in clumps, with a whitish root.

Do you have any idea what this is and how I can get rid of it?
Thanks, Juli... new to gardening in every sense there is.

Answer.
    This is most likely the toadstool of one of the many fungi that rot down vegetation; if your mulch contains wood chippings white rooted toadstools will be especially prominent.

Question.
    Hello I wonder if you could please tell me the proper name for the plant commonly called "the babies bottle brush" so called because the flower resembles the brush used to clean baby's feeding bottles.
Many thanks Bob

Answer.
    Callistemon or Bottlebrush Tree. Bottlebrush is native to Australia.

Question.
    Hello,
Why would a white rose bush that has bloomed white roses for at least 4 years in a row suddenly bloom all red roses. And also a yellow rose bush that has bloomed all yellow roses for at least 3 years bloom all red as well?
Thank you so much for your time. Dorothy

Answer.
    Garden roses are grafted on too a wild rose rootstock, to create disease resistance. It could be that suckers (shoots) from this wild rootstock have grown up and overpowered your cultivated variety, thus the red flowers. Gardeners often do not notice these suckers growing from the root until wild flowers appear.