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Q – I enjoy making and decorating cakes – apart from herbs what edible flowers can I use for decoration and flavour?

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Pippa – I think lawn daisies look lovely in salads and you could put them in a daisy-chain around a cake

James – Things that are most commonly mentioned are Violas and Carnations because they look very nice but they don’t taste very nice.Ìý I’d go for Begonias. Or Acca sellowiana – the ‘Pineapple Guava’ – it does need a long summer but it will produce sweet, edible flowers.Ìý And finally, go for an ‘Electric Daisy’.

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Q – Can we start crops off later than the growing guides and seed packets tell us?

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Christine – Totally ignore them! Look at Mother Nature – she’ll give you the best indication of when to get started.Ìý As soon as the perennials start growing they’ll be enough temperature in the soil to motivate new seeds to start growing.

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Q – How soon is it safe to mow the grass after a winter like we’ve had?

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Pippa – It depends what the local conditions are – the most important thing is what your soil type is like.Ìý I am on heavy clay so for me I wait a lot longer as it’s completely slippy still. It’s better to let it grow a bit too long, and then set the blades quite high for the first cut, than go in too early.

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Q – What varieties of strawberries can you recommend for a longer succession?

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Christine – Top of the list is a variety called ‘Christine’!Ìý ‘Cambridge Favourite’ and some of the Cambridge varieties are very good too.Ìý

Pippa – Grow several different varieties

James – I’d go for a wild or alpine version of a strawberry.Ìý They produce any time there isn’t frost – they are smaller/lighter but the flavour is great. I like the red ones but there are various white forms that are almost invisible to birds – because they are looking for red fruit – so you don’t have to protect them as much.

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Q – Do you have any tips on how to get Cucamelons to produce fruit? Last year I had lots of foliage but no fruit.

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James – I’ve only ever grown them outdoors. But what I’ve noticed with people who grow indoors is they lack pollinators, much like cucumbers.Ìý You need ventilation and to allow bees to get in and around.Ìý Outdoors – make sure you don’t get frost damage.Ìý The Cucamelon and the ‘Shark’s Fin’ Melon (Cucurbita ficifolia) are the two hardiest and most reliable Cucurbits.Ìý Also, they are such small, spindly plants that you can almost treat them like a pea and plant them very close together around a small wigwam and that can work well.

Pippa – When plants like these get stressed they tend to produce more male flowers than female flowers and therefore you won’t get the fruits.Ìý So I’d make sure the temperature doesn’t get too high or too dry.

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Q – I live in a block of flats with a communal garden in need of some more trees.Ìý We have an Apple, Magnolia, and Flowering Cherry already – what else can you recommend?

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Christine – The ‘Snowy Mespilus’ (Amelanchier lamarckii). They produce edible fruits – the lamarckii, canadensis, pumila – are good to have.

James – I’d go for a quince

Pippa – I’d sneak in a second apple – to use as a pollinator. Also, try and get a damson in there too.Ìý And a plum or two.