Our experts tackle your gardening queries, including a slimy blob, some mysterious blue flowers and an army of paint-munching snails
Q I mulch my sandy, sunny, plot but it dries out. Help!
Pat Bedford, Ceredigion
A ANNE SAYS Water, organic matter and nutrients disappear fast from sandy soils so success is all down to choosing the right plants for your site and soil.
On your well-drained sand, Mediterranean plants should survive cold winters but if there is any waterlogging, it’s best to mound or raise beds slightly.
As moisture always collects under stones, your best mulch will be a hard material – probably slate in your part of the world.
Cercis siliquastrum, the Judas tree, should thrive on your site and if you have shelter from wind, try unusual yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea).
For a small evergreen shrub, Portuguese hairy canary clover (Lotus hirsutus) is hard to beat and cistus and lavenders should thrive, too. Salvia forsskaolii is also brilliant: hardy, drought-tolerant and seeds about well.
Visit the boulder garden at the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire for more ideas.
A MATT SAYS I cannot deny that the climatic extremes we are seeing are a challenge. I believe we can get a lot right by following a couple of principles.
The first of these is choosing
the right plants for the given location – struggling with moisture-loving plants on sandy soil in full sun will only lead to disappointment.
The second principle is to build resilience through healthy soil, and it sounds like you are working on this already, which is brilliant. Mulching, avoiding chemicals and trading synthetic fertilisers for bulky mulches will allow mycorrhizal communities to build in the soil, which in turn help plants access a greater palette of nutrients and cope with drought better.
While it is necessary to water in new plants, I would avoid watering too much, to help drought-tolerant plants grow harder – stouter and shorter – and be more floriferous.
Q What can I do about larvae on my aquilegias?
Barbara Davis, Wiltshire
A PIPPA SAYS I suspect that this is aquilegia gall midge,
