From the Archives: Woodland

Gardeners' Question Time

BBC

Leisure, Home & Garden

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is it possible to grow mushrooms on a living log? How do we control the spread of alder beetles in our garden? How can I remove wild garlic from a woodland garden?

Kathy Clugston delves into the rich Gardeners’ Question Time archives to unearth timeless wisdom on gardening in woodland conditions.

Drawing on decades of expertise, GQT panellists and chairs - past and present - offer trusted advice for every green-fingered challenge. From ethical ways to tackle moss and effective methods to control alder beetles, to planting schemes that gently deter unwanted wildlife, the team’s knowledge is as deep-rooted as the trees themselves.

Later, grow-your-own guru Bob Flowerdew rounds off our autumn feature series with a comprehensive guide to allotment tasks that will help ensure a plentiful harvest.

Producer: Rahnee Prescod

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	On BBC Sounds, savings, credit cards, car finance, reclaiming, insurance, investing, power of attorney, decision, indecision, analysis, paralysis.
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0:17.0	The Martin Lewis podcast is now twice weekly, helping you navigate our complex consumer world.
0:22.3	In one, I'll walk you through a big money-saving topic step by step.
0:26.3	Then in the new question time, you set the agenda and ask whatever's on your mind.
0:31.0	Within reason.
0:31.7	The Martin Lewis podcast, now twice weekly.
0:34.4	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:37.5	Hello and a warm welcome to Gardner's Question Time with me, Cathy Clugston.
0:42.6	Lots of voices on the programme today. We're delving into the GQT back catalogue for a seasonal
0:48.1	archive special. Today we're going to shine a spotlight on a slightly wilder topic,
0:54.7	woodlands.
0:59.4	Now, technically, woodland just means land covered with woody vegetation.
1:06.4	But woodland is also full of mosses, ferns, shrubs, wildflowers and, of course, wildlife.
1:09.7	We'll examine many aspects of woodland today.
1:17.4	Let's begin with a question we're often asked about trees. This comes from a recording at Hadlow College in Kent in 2016.
1:30.0	Good afternoon. I am David Carey, the Tree Warden for Hadlow Parish. Do the panel have suggestions for trees for small gardens, which are both good for wildlife and attractive? Right, attractive trees for small gardens that will attract
1:36.6	some wildlife. And Swittenback. Well, I always say apple trees are good for that, and I would go for
1:43.7	an edible variety or a cooking apple because they have a lovely shape, they give good blossom. They actually collect quite a lot of pests, don't they? So that provides food for all the birds and all the predators. And so they become less of a problem because of all the predators coming in.
2:01.7	And then, of course, you've got the fruit off them. And they're just, you know, really fun things to have around. You can grow things up them. You can grow things under them. What would your choice be, Matt? When I worked on Leicester Parks many years ago, we used to plant a pyrus called Shanticleer, which had a lovely neat, compact, conical form and was really nice for its blossom for insects.
2:21.1	And we're very aware. a pyrus called Shanticleer, which had a lovely neat compact conical form and was really nice for its blossom for insects.
	...

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