Pippa Greenwood

Head of Horticulture and Landscape Strategy at the Royal Parks, Matthew Pottage.

And horticulturist, writer and broadcaster, Pippa Greenwood.

So, panel, what are your first impressions?

Well, I've visited this garden before because it's right on my doorstep, so I've enjoyed it on many occasions.

Her garden was infested with hundreds of Halloween's poster arachnid spiders.

Pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood stepped in to suggest some natural methods of keeping the creepiest of creepy crawlies at bay.

Hi, GQT.

My name's Rebecca and I live in West Ham in East London.

imbalance is always the problem but also if it's particularly prolific web producer then say you had 10 of them they would make much more webbing than maybe another species of spider if you had 10 of those as well that's what i was trying to think

i think we're so lucky in this country to have that opportunity as kids to be able to look at all these this wildlife so up close and be totally safe you know when i was growing up running around i found a cobra in my shoes there's my aunt had a python in her sofa you can't commune with the natural world in the same way i mean there's a lot more biodiversity but a lot of it's terrifying like legit terrifying so it's a great way to be able to see the natural world and be able to get over your fear of it

Some harmless methods of repelling spiders from Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness and James Wong, along with Errol Ruben Fernandez from the Horniman Museum in London, which houses thousands of insect and arachnid specimens.

Peter Gibbs was in the chair.

And into this ancient, magical ecosystem comes a gaggle of gardening experts, ready for whatever questions our audience will throw at them.

Please welcome head gardener at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Bethan Collerton, pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood, and garden writer and designer Matthew Wilson.

APPLAUSE Thank you for that lovely warm welcome.

Later in the programme, another Matthew.

And these gardens have the opportunity to be impressive and influential at Chelsea, but also go on to do something really wonderful in the lives of the people who get to experience them after the show.

You are listening to Gardener's Question Time on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

I'm Kathy Clugston and alongside me on the panel are garden writer and designer Matthew Wilson, head gardener at Birmingham Botanical Gardens Bethan Collerton and P&D Queen Pippa Greenwood.

And they are answering questions from an audience of gardeners in Minstead Village Hall in the New Forest.