The traditional gardening methods that we have learned from our parents or older gardening books are the best, or are they? Modern commercial growers have often proved that this is not always true.

Take the common practice of digging over your beds in late fall so that they will look tidy for the winter. While this will improve the appearance of the beds, disturbing the soil will tend to bring to the surface annual weed seeds and also encourage the spread of existing perennial weeds.

When it comes to sowing seeds tradition dictates: "One for the rook, one for the crow, one to rot and one to grow". These days with all the competition from slugs, snails, marauding cats and unpredictable spring weather it is often better to sow seeds indoors in seed trays where they will be free from these problems.

"A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the harder you beat them the better they be" is another traditional saying that is well past its sell by date. While there is clearly no excuse for beating a woman or a dog, what about the walnut tree? Apparently the idea was that cuts resulting from the beating would allow soil-borne bacteria to enter and cause galls which were supposed to encourage the growth of the prized burr-walnut wood. However modern arborists agree that such treatment will only cause more harm than good.

When planting a tree you were always told to support it with a stake. Sensible advice you would think, but apparently not. It seems that staking can now cause problems and that the tree is likely to become better established if left to grow on its own.

Pruning techniques have always been the subject of much debate. When removing larger branches from a tree the painting of the exposed end to prevent disease was a common practice. Research many years ago proved that a tree stands a far better chance of survival if the cut is left bare.

Pruning roses is another area where the traditional methods are complicated and rather slow. Remove all weak and crossing shoots and prune down to outward facing buds. A few years ago a quick and simple alternative was tried; all shoots and branches were cut back by the same amount across the rosebush taking no account of the position of the buds. The following year it was found that rosebushes that had been pruned by this method were flowering just as profusely as those treated in the traditional way.

While traditional wisdom is certainly not all old-fashioned nonsense, we should be open to new ideas where these can be shown to be the better option.