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

Are there any gardens worth visiting at this time of year? Magazines talk about wonderful winter gardens and I would like some real-life inspiration – mine looks bad at the moment. T. Johnson

The great glossy con trick about Wonderful Winter Gardens in the UK is tiresome. The magazines justify their thesis with close up pictures of A Snowdrop taken on sunny day (ha ha) or equally juicy pictures of A Garden Under Snow in Bright Sunshine – ie one that is completely covered. Winter is not a good time for gardens in the UK but there are a few gardens which look OK now. To find them, and soak up their inspiration, the best way to trace them is through the National Gardens Scheme or NGS which lists gardens open now, many of them only open through the NGS which raises millions for charity.

Is it possible to grow ripe bananas in the UK? Our plant is in a sheltered position in our central London courtyard beside a wall which gets some heat from our boiler. Is there anything we can do to encourage it? Hugh Strong

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Jungle seeds is a small specialist nursery which is passionate about growing tropical plants in this country. They do it high up and inland where temperatures bomb during winter. They have always been maintained that the usual hardy varieties, like Musa Basjoo, will never bear edible fruit if grown outside in this country however sheltered the garden. However, they have recently acquired Super Dwarf Cavendishi which grows indoors and will fruit in about four year – but best of all it reaches only just above a metre making it a practical plant to grow inside. Their site includes a long article on banana growing details the limits of hardy bananas in this country.

What is the small shrub with a good perfume at the moment? It is evergreen and I was told it was box but I can’t find any scented box in my books. Carole Little

This will be Christmas box or Sarcococca. Like regular box it will tolerate shade and it is slow growing. I reckon Sarcococca makes a brilliant alternative to common box given the diseases that are threatening regular box.

What is the best propagator to buy? We want to start growing from seed because we have our first garden and we are on a budget. Dee Goldmann

I would start without bothering with the expense of a propagator. Instead, use your window sills and airing cupboard or any hot spot in the house. Start the seeds – germinate them – in the hot spot and then bring them onto a bright, warm window sill. Cover the pots or trays with pierced polythene and keep them moist but never overwatered. When the seedlings get close to the polythene, remove the polythene or prop it up so that the leaves never touch the polythene. The advantage of this method is that the seedlings are less likely to be soft and leggy and, if you decide you’re not keen on growing from seed, you won’t have wasted money. Bear in mind that propagators take up storage space and some of them are brittle and likely to break after a year or so.

My father is sixty this year and we want to give him plants to make a musical garden. Aidan Holmes

There is a rose called Handel; bamboos like Arundinaria gigantea are used to make reeds for musical instruments and the hollow stems of plants like Sambucus and Cradicrinum giganteum are used to make certain types of flute. How about ‘Parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme’ (like the song) or Edelweiss come to that?

He might also be interested in a book outlining twentieth century research by Dorothy Retallack on the effect of music on plants.

Do dandelions ever stop growing? Joe Bale

No – they just slow down in winter. You can see this as a good thing – a handy salad crop for winter (the leaves are edible although not especially delicious) or as a pain. If the latter, this is a great time of year to winkle out their long tap roots using a dandelion weeder, weed twister www.harrodhorticultural.com or trowel. Either way, be sure to remove every portion of the root or a new plant will appear.

We are planning our first vegetable garden. We only have one bed which is six foot by two. I want to grow unusual vegetables. My wife says we should grow cabbage, salad, potatoes and all the veges we like and use. Ged Shakespeare

Have a look at the square foot gardening site. It’s a system which squeezes massive productivity out of a small space. As to what to grow I would avoid potatoes in such a small space. You can now buy a huge variety of potatoes so why bother growing them? Cabbages, like leeks, are great for winter crops. Then you can grow your more unusual crops in summer.

My lawn has a large pond at its centre. This is not intentional but appears after every rainstorm. David Parrish

I assume this is down to a clay soil and poor drainage. You will have to take radical action. Dig up the lawn, add drainage and add a mass of organic matter to your soil before re-sowing/laying turf. You may find this article helpful

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

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