GQT At Home: Episode Seventeen
Kathy Clugston hosts this week's horticultural panel show.
Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural panel show. Matt Biggs, Matthew Pottage and Pippa Greenwood answer listeners' gardening questions sent in via email and social media.
This week, the panel discusses the merits of banana peel as a fertiliser, how best to care for your succulents and planting suggestions for a movable wedding date.
Away from the questions, James Wong chats to Grow2Know founder Tayshan Hayden-Smith about gardening in the wake of Grenfell and Advolly Richmond dusts off the history books once again to tell the story of the nasturtium.
Producer - Jemima Rathbone
Assistant Producer - Rosie Merotra
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4
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Plant List
Questions and timecodes are below. Where applicable, plant names have been provided.
Q – I’m looking to add some plants to my garden that remind me of my family. Do you have any suggestions of plants that match my family’s names (Dolly, Tom, Richard, Catherine?)
(51 seconds)
Matthew – Hosta ‘Catherine’
Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’
Colchicum ‘Dick Trotter’
Rose
Pippa – Narcissus ‘Peeping Tom’
Tomato
Matt – Cortaderia Richardii
Crocus Tommasinianus
Q – I’ve spotted some poppies flowering that I’d like to grow myself. When is the best time to collect the seeds and how should I try and grow them?
(3 minutes 57 seconds)
Q – Are banana peels a suitable fertiliser for runner beans and if so, how do you go about making it? If not, can you recommend any other organic fertilisers?
(5 minutes 55 seconds)
Matt – Roses
Tomato fertiliser
Q – We are in the process of renovating our concrete garden and have made space for two trees. Can the panel suggest some that would not cast a large shadow or grow much above 4-5m.
(8 minutes 5 seconds)
Matthew – Strawberry Tree Arbutus Unedo
Azara Microphylla
Matt – Topiary Tree
Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold'
Alliums ‘Globemaster’
Feature – Grow2Know founder, Tayshan Hayden-Smith, with James Wong
(11 minutes 43 seconds)
Tomato
Q – Are there any particular plants that would fair ok in extreme light and heat right up against a window?I live in a small flat with a large south-facing window and would love to line the windowsill with plants but don’t want them to get scorched.
(19 minutes 15 seconds)
Matt – Cacti and Succulents
Adenium Obesum
Aloes
Matthew – Palms
Yucca Elephantipes
Beaucarnea recurvata ‘Elephant’s Foot’
Bird of Paradise
Yucca ‘Puk’
Q – One of our Albus Lacinata trees, which we bought for our daughter’s wedding, is drying out and has started to drop its leaves. What should we do so that the lacinata is ready for the new wedding date?
(22 minutes 17 seconds)
Matthew – Tuberous begonia
Begonia Semperflorens
Cleome
Dahlia
Q – What is destroying the leaves of my Indian bean tree? It happens every year!
(26 minutes 12 seconds)
Matthew – Catalpa
Feature – History of Nasturtiums with Advolly Richmond
(28 minutes 38 seconds)
Nasturtium tropaeolum majus
Nasturtium indicum
‘East Indian Cress’
Watercress
Tropaeolum majus
Capers
Q – Why are my nasturtiums not flowering?
(32 minutes 37 seconds)
Q – Do you have any top tips on caring for succulents? Can you overwater them?
(34 minutes 21 seconds)
Matthew – ‘Mother-in-Law’s Tongue’
Q – When should a keen gardener go on holiday? Going away during summer seems crazy as there is so much to do.
(38 minutes 23 seconds)
Matt – Daphne
Winter Flowering Honeysuckle
Broadcasts
- Fri 24 Jul 202015:00BBC Radio 4 FM
- Sun 26 Jul 202014:00BBC Radio 4 FM
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Gardeners' Question Time
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts
