Sophie: What is your favourite garden that is open to the public?

Alan: On Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. Nearer home, I love Chatsworth and The Beth Chatto Gardens near Colchester, Essex. Dixter in Sussex is good, too.

Steph: I have a gravelled area at the side of my house. It leads straight on to the pavement. What can I do with it? Wall it in maybe?

Alan: Provided the council will let you! You could plant one or two evergreens into the gravel and bring in a few larger rocks to make it more of a feature.

Angie: Hi. My four-year-old daughter started to grow a runner bean plant from seed at school. It is now 3ft tall. Is it okay to plant it outside now?

Alan: Oh dear! It's too early to plant out runner beans as they are sensitive to frost! Keep it growing indoors for now and in April, sow some more runner bean seeds. By the time these are six inches high they can be planted out - in mid-May - and she will hopefully have forgotten about the older one.

Jeff Usher: Having just watched the 'earlier' episodes of Ground Force (1997) on UK Style, I was amazed at how the friendship between the team has evolved over the years. In the old programmes there is hardly any banter.

Alan: Now Charlie has learnt to answer back! A friend of mine said she can tell if episodes are old ones because Charlie doesn't say much. Five years on we know one another much better than we did then; it means we're more lippy!

Jill: Hi Alan. Do you, Tommy and Charlie really get on as you appeared to do in Groundforce?

Alan: Yes we do! Newspapers are always dying for us to fall out. We're just good mates - simple as that.

Katrina: My ten-year-old daughter has adopted a bit of our garden as her own and wants to make her own flower garden. What plants would be easy for her to grow and to manage?

Alan: You can start her off with seeds in April. If she grows Nasturtiums, she can watch them grow without much care. You can try her with Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus)
as well. They'll grow outside without the need for a greenhouse - just give them a plot in full sun and well-drained soil.

Kailah: The garden I have inherited is filled with perennial weeds. As I have cats, I am loath to use chemicals. Can you suggest any alternatives?

Alan: You can try the black polythene method - laying it over the soil and weighting it down with bricks. Trouble is, this takes two years to work! I think we're talking about a spade and a fork, don't you?

Stesal: What's your favourite plant or bush?

Alan: There are so many! At this time of year, I love dwarf Narcissi, Lenten hellebores and then Japanese Maples and Tulips and Sweet peas and Roses... the list goes on!

Hotcakes: I'm looking for a tree, not too expensive but something colourful, to go in the corner of my garden - taking into consideration the space is not too big. What do you recommend?

Alan: I'd choose an Ornamental crab apple because you can enjoy spring blossom and autumn fruits - and you can even make crab apple jelly.

Jade: Hello Alan. Can you tell me how you start to plan a garden?

Alan: All this will be coming up in the second series of How To Be A Gardener! If you want to start from scratch, the book from the series will also help.

Daveo: Where do you begin to learn about gardening? I'm very keen to start.

Alan: A lot of local authorities run evening classes. The best place to go is the local library.

Penny: I bought a compost bin last June and the only place I could sit it was on a concrete path, hidden behind a trellis. When will the compost be ready to use?

Alan: When it is rotted! The decomposition process can take anything between three and six months, depending on the weather - the hotter the weather, the quicker the process.

Lisa: Hi Alan. How late in the year can you plant veggies and bulb flowers. Can I do them in June or should I keep them until next year and if so how should I store them?

Alan: Vegetables can be sown between March and June. Spring bulbs are planted in autumn, but lilies and other summer-flowering bulbs can be planted now.