Q. The area where I wish to place a trellis climber will be in the shade of my garage and not therefore in a sunny spot. Could you please recommend a suitable foliage and/or flowering climber that I can plant in a container.

A. I'm not a great fan of climbers in containers as they can grow pretty big and then they either don't do well or you have an awful lot of watering and feeding to do.

Clematis are a good bet for such a position, they prefer some sunshine if possible, but you don't have the problem of the flower colour fading if they are in some shade, Jackmanii hybrids should do well.

Ivies of low vigour will also be good, make sure they don't get a hold of a wall to grow up if you don't want them to. Avoid the variegated or yellow leaved varieties as they will go darker and revert to green in the shade. "Duckfoot", "Tres Coupe" or "Parsley crested" would be suitable (the latter with a larger container.

Q. I want to grow a fairly fast growing ivy (or other suggestion) up the west facing wall of my house. The wall gets full on sun from 2pm to sundown. I would preferably like something evergreen or at least for 3 seasons good coverage. Any suggestions?

A. I think ivy is your best bet here. There are many varieties available. As a rule of thumb, they grow faster the more green they have on the leaf, the variegated or yellowish ones being less vigorous. They also colour-up better in full sunshine, though it sounds as though you have enough for a good colour to develop if you go for a variegated variety.

Green varieties "Saggitifolia", Variegated "Sulphur heart" aka "Paddy's Pride", "Goldheart" - also has nice red-coloured young stems.

Q. Help!! On the north west side of the garden is a six ft high wooden fence, with mature trees behind in next doors garden. The border I inherited along this fence (40-50ft in length) contained nettles, bracken and snowberry. I have just had it dug out and a reduced to about 3 ft in width as I am no gardener. It is very shady for most of the day. What bushes and/or ground cover plants would suit such an area? I live in Sproughton, the soil is very good quality and moist with a lot of compost just dug in. Any inexpensive ideas? I am sure that I could find a lot of willing people who would give me cuttings, but which ones should I go for? I do hope you can help.

A. That's a long border that you've got and will need a lot of plants to fill it up! I could give you a long list of plants that would be suitable, but you'd then have a new job tracking them down and then would probably not be able to find the exact ones where you live that are quite common where I am.

The answer lies I think in the fact that you say you can find lots of people willing to give you cuttings. If this is the case, you can get a good idea of what the mature plant will look like and also where it is growing in their garden. Ask for cuttings from the shady parts! Also, I presume that these people are local, in which case the plants that they have will be suited to your local soil and weather conditions.

As you have reduced the width of the border go for relatively low plants. Taller shrubs in particular tend to spread out as far as they are tall, so you might get a plant that covers your fence admirably, but then spreads too far into your lawn. You could also look at growing plants from seed. Delphiniums, Lupins, Foxgloves and Hollyhocks are large perennials that can be easily grown this way saving yourself a fortune in garden centre bought plants in the process. Small ornamental conifers that grow to 6 - 10 ft will be good too as they will give height without width, go for the plain green ones as the variegated types need full sun to bring out their colour.

Q. I am looking for a medium shrub / small tree with the following characteristics:

It is intended for a mostly sunny spot which is fairly well sheltered. I had considered an Acer but think that the intensity of sunlight might damage the leaves. Have you any suggestions, please?

A.  You're right about Acers, they need some shade so as not to be scorched, also, they're quite dense, while individual leaves can be quite filigree, the overall effect can be quite dense coverage.

The obvious answer to my mind is a bamboo which fulfills all of your characteristics admirably. They'll stand the sun and will give an open effect, particularly as the leaves move in the breeze, the shelter is ideal and will stop them from getting wind scorched and by a careful choice of variety, you will get the right height. The only aspect that might not fit with your requirements is that they form a clump rather than having a single trunk.

Others - Dogwood, such as Cornus alba "elegantissima", variegated leaves. Spirea arguta "The bride" arching and so doesn't appear so dense. Most shrubs however will be pretty dense.

I should also perhaps have said that the flowerbed is mostly in shade, though it gets a bit of early morning & late afternoon sun, that the soil is rich clay, slightly alkaline, & that to fit in with the colour scheme in that part of the garden any flowers should ideally be white/yellow/blue/purple (ie not red/orange/pink).

A. It depends on the length of the barrier, your budget and also how high you want the barrier to be.

For noise suppression a fence works best, the noise bounces back off it. This can be planted in front or behind with a hedge to hide the fence and also help soak more noise up. The hedge will also help to reduce dust and pollution from the road.

You need a thick dense hedge to suppress noise and the two plants suggested are ideal, evergreen, dense and quick growing (though slower than a fence!). Of the two I'd go for laurel, it's less unruly than Lleylandii and looks better too (it also flowers in spring). You could use Lawson Cypress if you don't like laurel, it's not as quick as Lleylandii which has advantages and disadvantages.

Another trick you could try is to have a small water feature in your garden. It's surprising how a fairly quiet feature with running water can help to disguise background noise.

You have to be careful in choosing the climbers themselves as many are very vigorous indeed and so you want to use smaller, more restrained varieties. There's nothing special that you need to do, just make sure the containers are kept moist and not allowed to dry out as they won't receive enough water directly from rain. Also, you need to think carefully about positioning the containers as once a climbers is attached to a trellis or other support it's going to stay that way without either some drastic cutting back or a very complicated and fiddly extrication task.

You don't say when the anniversary is but if it's shortly I'd get them a large flowering shrub such as a Rhododendron that does it's stuff each year at the time of the anniversary. You could also get them a large container to put it in (with ericaceous compost for the Rhododendron) anywhere from budget (plastic) to as large and expensive terracotta or ceramic as you want. The larger the container you can afford the better, the plant will always grow into it, but could only grow out of it if it was too small. You could even underplant with one of the Euonymus suggested above. Plants by time of year

Q. We are looking for column-like conifers to grow in pots on either side of our front door. The house is north/northwest-facing and therefore doesn't have a lot of sun. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

A. The two main column shaped conifers that are grown are Juniperus scopulurum "skyrocket" and Cupressus sempervivens stricta - the Italian cypress. Both of these need full sun to do well.

There aren't really any naturally narrow upright conifers for your situation and conifers generally prefer a sunny position. Thujas tolerate shade and you could try a couple of Thuja plicata - Western Red Cedar, that you could trim to shape as they're often used for hedging. Alternatively Box or Yew which could be trimmed to shape though are slow growing. You might try the dreaded Lleylandii as they are very tolerant of trimming and position too and will grow quicker if less elegantly than the others suggested. How about a pyramid support covered with a delicate variety of ivy?

Q.  What bedding plants will grow next to a privet hedge in a dry soil?

A. Realistically - none. Privet is notorious as a greedy shrub for both water and nutrients, it's the pay off for it being so hardy and reliable. You could try Geraniums as they tolerate dry conditions pretty well as do Mesembryanthemums and Portulaca, but the further away from the hedge you can get, the happier they'll be and like most plants that tolerate dry conditions, these are sun-lovers Depending on position of the hedge, you could try some taller plants a little distance (1-2ft) away so the gap is not noticeable, say Nicotiana.