Ask Gerry

In the last 3 weeks i have noticed these bluebottles covering my wall. They only appear when the sun is shining on this wall. My neighbour removed ivy which was covered in these insects, She assures me her bins have nothing untoward in them.. We have removed everything from the area but still they are appearing.Is there an epidemic at the moment. There is nothing dead in the garden.my garden is small and i cannot enjoy it at the moment. Please help?

I am just about to dive into the world of growing my own food. Having done it at home as a child I know how much work is involved. However, the difference is I dont have the ould lad living here with me to tell me what to do so I have a lot to learn.I got myself a book 'allotment month by month' which seems very good but it leaves one big question for me...40971My site is a good size and I get sunshine all day long which is great but I am elevated, sloped and VERY exposed to wind. So much so that I wouldnt feel confident in erecting a grenhouse or tunnel (the wind blew down my argos shed!).Do you have any advice on how I could protect my plants from wind or any way i could build a wind resistant greenhouse/tunnel without compromising the view I have (the view is one of the main reasons I built my house here)

Our back lawn flooded last winter for the first time ever. It borders onto farmland (not our property) and even though it is the first week in May the flood over the boundary wall is still visable. The right hand side of the garden flooded approximately 30 feet inside the boundary and approximately the same width.We have work commencing soon and the contractor proposes building a low wall inside the boundary wall to prevent future seepage. The site is 112 foot approx wide with a traditional stone wall with a wooden fence on either side the back lawn is approx a third of an acre. What can we do to disguise this new low wall and would welcome the opprotunity to finish the garden nicely

well done on site i like it its very handyi only joined a few days ago,we have a semi dec house oh 06 of a acre house is more to front of it we are thinking of geting somebody to do a design or a plan as i call it.something to work of but in these ression times are worried about cost of gettin this done. any idea of cost we're in wexford area, im ok to do the labour work end of it just need a plan to work off.

What is the fastest growing ivy- i need it to cover horrible block walls -height 4ft at the front of the house and 8 ft at the back. or any other suggestions for fast growing all year round cover.

Pond, 3mx3mx.45M deep, southwest facing, sunny, has 'Laguna' filter and UV treatment fitted nevertheless pond always like pea soup. Water plants doing badly, nothing really growing. Pond fed by rainwater off house roof. Frogs seem happy though. Any suggestions on what is wrong?

We have just built a new house and need to now think about the garden. the site is about an acre and has an open drain running through it. (coming all the way down from fields behind )There is water collecting at the front of the garden fronting the road and has nowhere to drain to.It resembles a small river and is very swampy around it.I think we would have to open up the road and let it drain through to the other side.Its in a rural area with fields at other side of the road.Do the council allow you to do this after all they passed the planning on the site.The builders have already put a large pipe in for drainage where it runs past the house.(and filled it all in).

I have a 2ft. high concrete wall at the bottom of my front garden. It is about 40ft. from the front of my house and is an eyesore. Any suggestions for low level cover for this wall ?

Recently moved into new home, we've a big back garden with just an oil tank at the rear left of garden. New to gardening and need all your advice and tips on best way to cover the oil tank with shrubs / plants and to sustain same. Would like it to be covered all year round and would appreciate all your suggestions.

We have a brand new garden and have an area approx 6mx6m that I want with plants/shrubs of some kind in.I want Zero Maintenance if possible but want it to have some colour and look nice, I was going to put a weed block down with bark on top in between the plants. I live in Mayo so we have a lot of rain, and I'm on an elevated site so it can get very windy, the soil has a lot of clay in it.I would be extremely grateful for some ideas of what to plant.

Hello Gerry, I got a present of a bird house last Christmas 12 months. Some time afterwards I attached it to the side of a tree in the back garden. While the birds including robins which are friendly come into the garden to feed no birds have used the bird house. It is about six feet above the ground, well sheltered from the cold winds and not facing the direct sun. It is intended for robins but none have used it.

I have a dry embankment that is covered in wild grass. It is too steep to safely strim on a regular basis. I am thinking of covering it with weed fabric and then planting some ground cover plants to take the place over. Is Cotoneaster dammerii a good plant for this. Is this also more commonly called bearberry cotoneaster. How far apart should I plant them?

I need to find out what trees and shrubs i need to get in order to achieve the above garden. can you help me? it's a new build.

our house was built on a field with a slope and we had to dig down the the foundations so now we have a bank at the back of the house. i am planting some vegetables this year. there is a 4ft drop from the bank down to the lawn. at the foor of the bank i planted some beech hedging last year. my problem is that the bank is eroding away, especially after the heavy frost this winter. are there plants that can bind the soil to slow this down. i cant really afford to put in a retaining wall or rows of sleepers so i was wondering if there was a more natural solution?