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

Rats in my compost. Think there may be a nest. It is a darlek style composter. Name and address withheld

The advantage of sealed composters, as opposed to the type you have, is that rats simply can’t get into them. Right now you will have to contact your local council who will send out a rat man (or Officer in Chief of Rodential Reenforcement or whatever name they rejoice in nowadays) to get rid of the nest. Then have a think about getting a sealed bin. This can be mounted on a frame with a turning handle to speed composting. Or it can be a wormery composter which gives you lashings of lovely compost-y liquid compost for your plants as well as the compost itself.

We need to move a bed of established plants (a mix including rose, fuchsia, skimmia, japanese anemone, crocuses) as part of our plan to make a garden with a small patio out of what is currently a concrete slabbed expanse with a bed where the patio should be. Can you advise us on what time of year we should dig out the existing plants to give them the best chance of surviving the move? Jenny Taylor, Rugby

With the seasons’ unpredictable behaviour it is difficult to say but it’s best to move them as soon as they are dormant which is normally mid winter - although the crocuses may still be awake. Pick a day when the ground is not waterlogged. Dig and prepare the holes in the new bed before you dig out the plants. You may have replace the soil in the once-concreted area if it contains too much sand and cement. When digging out the plants taking the largest rootballs you can manage so they hardly know they are moving.

Our garden looks soggy and dull at this time of year because it has very little colour. It’s no good planting trees with good autumn colour because we’re on neutral soil. Our garden measures 52 m long by 30 m and faces south east with trees around the perimeter and lots of ivy around them. PS We don’t like asters May and Bernie Pearson via email

Neither do I although some of the modern ones, which are less prone to mildew, are worth considering. Actually you can get plenty of colour in the garden at this time of year. Start with a massed planting of rainbow chard with stems that range from ruby red to yellow. Poor man’s plumbago or Ceratostigma has red leaves with blue flowers at this time of year; spindle trees never fail to delight with their bright pink berries opening to orange seeds; many roses will go on flowering sporadically until the frosts; I think Virginia creeper is ghastly but it is colourful and some people love the stuff (just remember that it is highly invasive); if your garden is relatively sheltered you could try Billariera which has astonishing bright purple fruits in autumn; a lot of salvias keep going until mid autumn (s. uliginosa will go through to the frosts so long as it is on fast draining soil which is what all salvias need); all the autumn flowering anemones will do well on the fringes of your ‘woodland’ as will colchicums, and species cyclamen will thrive and spread right under the trees; chrysanthemums give plenty of colour although I won’t give them house room let alone garden room; good old London Pride Sedum makes a great display now and so does the delicate flowered pink Schizostylis coccinea and the creamy white Gladioli papilio or the scented G. callianthus (both of which may need winter protection…it’s worth it). And I could go on but the point I’m making is that there’s plenty of colour to be had at this time of year – and I haven’t even started on all the late flowering clematis which could scramble through your trees…heaven.

Our raspberries are getting mouldy on the canes. We always get a few like this but, this year, the problem seems to be getting most of the crop. Trish Saunders, Reading

This is grey mould and there’s a lot of it about this year because of the dreadful ‘summer’ we have tolerated. Get rid of the infected fruit immediately – destroy it without adding it to the compost heap. The spores of this fungus are everywhere and so the best cure is prevention by keeping the plants healthy and, if you really feel the need, spraying with a fungicide such as carbendazim – although it is not worth doing so this late in the season. Right now your best approach to the problem is to cut out and destroy any part of the plant which may be diseased.

If I plant hyacinths now will they be out for Christmas? David Long, London

Even if they are the treated ones (ie treated so that they think they’ve been through winter – not one to try at home) this is unlikely. Better to buy them from supermarkets or local markets when they are available, nearly in bud, in the run up to Christmas.

Last year, around now, I divided my Clivia which had been given to me three years earlier. The resultant plants have not flowered. Is this always the case after division, please? Ali Mystery, Manchester

I wonder if you have given the plants too much pot? No, not that kind. They flower best when their roots are restricted. The other classic reason for non flowering is not enough cool over winter.

I come from Italy and want to make some of the plants from Italy like grapes maybe olives in this garden London. Is it too cold? In my mother's garden everything looked, and tasted good. I'd like to make a garden like this. Toni Puccinelli

In central London in particular you garden should be fine with a vine, olives and even citrus outside. Thompson & Morgan’s fruit collection fruit.thompson-morgan.com includes hardy oranges, lemons and olives plus a good selection of vines, peaches, nectarines and figs. Maybe you could add sages, thyme and lavender to this and, next year, grow some basil plants to complete the scene.

After several years of picking nice apples, this year they have become unpleasant to taste with a see-through appearance to their flesh. We put up grease bands and pruned the tree as we have every year. Luke Grantham, Guildford

Sounds like Apple Water Core which is caused by long, hot summers - ha ha ha. It can also be caused by excessive pruning – or it can be brought on when a lot of bark is missing from the tree. There isn’t much you can do about Apple Water Core although I’d lay off the pruning for a year or so. And give the tree protection if its trunk is getting ringed by deer or rabbits. I’ve been told that the apples sometimes improve with age – but I have never tried keeping the affected fruit.

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

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