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

Please advise: we're looking for an inexpensive way to use bath and washing up water on the garden. We saw a siphon system recently, but it cost £30 without the hose. Ray Good, Kings Lynn

You’ll certainly need all the water you can get over on that side of the country! Frankly, all you need is a hose and a good pair of lungs (assuming the bathroom is on a top floor). Put one end of the hose into the full bath, let the other end hang down into a water butt or wherever you want the water in the garden. The person at the garden end then needs to suck until the water starts flowing. Every time sucking doesn’t produce water he or she needs to put a thumb over the end of the hose as quickly as possible and try again. This process is not for the squeamish because it involves getting a mouthful of water. But just spit and think of the environment!

I have read about Tomatillo and I like growing new vegetables, but only if they taste good and crop well. Have you tried them? Steve Hawkins, Oakhampton

I firmly believe that they're a waste of time to grow. They may be great croppers, but what do you get out of them? They may look interesting (and are almost black in colour) but they taste disgusting. Give Tomatillo a miss.

Last year pheasants, pigeons, blackbirds, robins, sparrows and even a woodpecker (I am really not joking – is this a record?) pecked out raspberries, strawberries, peas, cabbage, beans, currents (red and black) and even our salad crops. I like wildlife in the garden but there is a limit. How can I protect crops which span about ten by twenty feet? D Haslam, Birmingham

The woodpecker, assuming it was green, was probably pecking at ants so you should really be grateful for this delightful bird! As for the rest, you have my sympathy. Scarecrows and birds scarers (made from old CDs strung around the crops) to highly professional (and expensive) electronic or wind-powered devices do work (have a look at http://www.scaringbirds.com/Default.asp). Or you could simply cage the whole lot.

Harrod Horticultural (www.harrodhorticultural.com) is one of several companies that make netting cages supported by flexible scaffolding-like frames that you fit together yourself. Be warned, though: my parents used a cage when I was a child (against both the birds and me!) but pheasants from the nearby estate used to waddle in and eat everything in sight. I never understood how they got inside the cage. My mother took to strangling them and serving them to us for supper which led to a curiously monotonous diet of pheasant, salad and strawberries - the latter two in abundant supply after the pheasant problem was sorted.

My wife is an enthusiastic gardener who has filled every window sill, airing cupboard and available surface with seed trays, as she does every year. I tolerate this but I can no longer tolerate the hysteria which erupts, later in the year, when she discovers that the ‘little fellows she just knew were Nicotiana Sylvestris’ turn out to be Wellingtonias or whatever. Can you recommend a reliable labelling system please? Name and address withheld

Seed packets stuck on the end of lolly pop sticks clearly aren’t going to work in your wife’s case. Pencil-on-plastic labels will work for the window sill stage although never longer - despite what the packet says. Aluminium and copper labels are expensive but they last forever and they can be used again and again assuming your wife grows the same plants every year. Lots of online companies supply labels including The Essential Company: http://www.theessentialscompany.co.uk/Metal_Labels.html

I hope none of the plants are Wellingtonias, by the way, unless you have a lot of space!

We are making our own design for our long, thin Hackney garden. We’ve found some beautiful cobbles and made some furniture from the stuff we’ve found in skips. Now we want some lighting at the far end of the garden. Candles are OK but we’d like to find some beautiful solar-powered garden lighting and all the lights we've seen are ugly. Will and Cess, Hackney

The Solar Energy Alliance (http://www.solarenergyalliance.com/sollig.htm#1) has the most interesting solar powered lights I’ve seen so far. I think they’re stunning and would fit well into a contemporary city garden, but I agree that most garden lights look awful. I think you may have found a niche market. I’d certainly buy decent-looking solar powered lights.

Which is better – a cordless trimmer, a mains hedge trimmer or a petrol powered machine? Martin Allen, Guildford

It depends on the size of your hedging and on your strength. I love petrol trimmers because they cut through anything – but they’re heavy, tough to start and they vibrate so much that users are in danger of suffering from ‘white finger’. Electric trimmers don’t have as much ‘bite’ as petrol-driven ones and mains ones have the added risk of users cutting through the cable (I’ve done it but luckily I’d installed a circuit breaker which meant I didn’t get a shock). Of course, if the hedges are a long way from the power supply, a mains trimmer is a bad option. Cordless trimmers are OK but you’ll need to choose a powerful one - and they can be heavy too.

Is it too late to sow cucumbers and, if not, can you recommend a good variety that doesn’t get mildew? Millie King, St Albans

Passandra should do the trick – female, tasty cucumbers and resistance to all the usual diseases. You can buy them as small plants from various sources, including Dobies - http://dobies.haluy.co.uk/product,details,,ae430805dea3b6ec1f375256478ca801.html - which gets round the sowing problem!

Do chickens and gardens go together? I’d like to have hens but I’m worried they destroy our pretty, walled garden. Belinda Samson, Wilton

On the one hand, hens will peck aphids off your plants. However they may also peck at some of your flower buds. It’s a matter of give and take. They will give you eggs and a picturesque addition to your garden – but they may also destroy some prize blooms. And they will cause heartbreak if they get taken by a fox – foxes can get over some high walls, believe me. I’d love to have hens again but my current, inner city garden isn’t big enough.

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

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