Your seasonal gardening questions are answered by RHS experts
I have some old runner bean seed from last year – is it still worth sowing them?
Pea and bean seeds can be quite long lived so it is probably worth sowing your left over beans. You can test a few by placing them on wet kitchen towel in a warm place such as the airing cupboard to check if a reasonable number germinate.
The only problem might be that pea and bean seed is expensive and seed merchants tend to hold on to stocks for some years during which time they can lose vigour. Seeds that lack vigour can fail to emerge outdoors, although they germinate well enough in the lab tests used by seed suppliers to ensure they are selling viable seeds. For this reason it is best to test old seeds and/or sow them indoors in pots where any lack of vigour is less likely to matter.
A big patch of nettles with thick fibrous roots has grown in the middle of my large gooseberry bush – what can I do?
Perennial nettles form a strong web of roots and are hard to dig out. Under a gooseberry bush they are intertwined with gooseberry roots and shoots and the weeping thorny branches make access potentially painful. Applying weedkillers is likely to harm any gooseberry shoots so is not an option here even for gardeners comfortable with using them. In extreme cases it might be necessary to cut the gooseberry hard back or even lift the bush in the winter to access the nettle roots. Once freed of nettle roots it can regrow or be replanted. As large bushes can be hard to lift you may have to ‘split’ the bush so it can be handled. They usually have some suckers that can be severed and replanted. Alternatively you may prefer to start again in a new weed-free spot with a new bush.
However, nettles are very intolerant of shade and defoliation so if you can keep the nettle foliage cut short with shears or sharp little hoe, through the summer it will be severely weakened and perish particularly as the gooseberry bush will hopefully cast significant shade. It might be worth trying this now and perhaps avoid heavy labour next winter.
How can I protect my flowering apple trees from frost?
Spring frosts can prevent fruit forming by damaging flowers or fruitlets. As April and May frosts tend to be brief even a little protection can be effective.
Large trees can be protected by a fire, a barbecue for example, but it will have to be kept going all night and although feasible for commercial plantations is rather an impr
