HOWZAT

Victoria plum may seem an obvious suggestions but it is a glorious, trouble-free tree and it gives the tastiest plum I know. Dobies has just come out with a leaf-curl resistant peach www.dobies.co.uk - well, that’s what they claim and I have always found them reliable. Greengages, not to be mistaken with the flabby, insipid green plums sold in many greengrocers – are one of my great pleasures and several varieties are stocked at Brogdale www.brogdale.org which holds several national fruit collections. Best to plant a couple. The cherry tree Regina has delicious fruit and so too does the Apricot ‘Petit Muscat’.

Yolanda Jones e-mailed us about her knotweed a couple of weeks ago and a couple of readers posted some helpful responses to her problems. Here they are:

We had Japanese knotweed in our garden when we bought this house. We managed to get rid of it by digging it all out, sifting the soil (homebase plastic garden sieve and fine chickenwire) and burning the knotweed bits.

After having got rid of the main roots (some 4 foot down) he kept a virtually daily check on the soil for any new shoots from bits of stalk, root left in the soil. These were immediately dug out and destroyed. We got rid of it in one year for the main plants and the following year for any leftover shoots. Have had none since. Ireen Esman

Congratulations, Ireen, but before everyone tries to follow your example they had better take on board the fact that only a dedicated obsessive will be able to achieve what your other half has managed!

We are a small company in Swansea specialising in the treatment and eradication of Japanese Knotweed infestations. Standard commercial best practice will usually result in eradication or near eradication after three years of treatment. Our herbicide process has reduced this to two years, and in some instances we have achieved a 100% control after just one year. We have recently established a association with the University of Swansea to provide us with bio assays of material from sites under treatment. This provides an impartial analysis to both the customer and ourselves. We have developed our method, beginning with a series of treatment trials commenced four years ago, for the commercial land owner and land development markets. Recently, we quoted for one of the London 2012 contractors for part of the Olympic site. For Yolanda, we could consider a proposal to treat her garden, Crispian Huggill, jchuggill@ukonline.co.uk, Director, BROWNHILL NURSERIES LTD. Gorseinon, Swansea

e-mail Jane Owen with your gardening questions: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk

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