Exclusive: Our gardening experts are answering your lawn care and yard questions live right now — ask them anything

We really do love hearing from you ♥️

By the way, we were inspired to run today's event thanks to you, amazing Tom's Guide readers. You consistently show up to vote in polls like the one above, to leave us comments on gardening articles asking for more information or letting us know that you tried one of our hacks, and it really does brighten up our days.

But more than that, it helps us to understand your interests and challenges at a personal level, and to respond with helpful articles.

For example, the poll above revealed to us that almost 1,500 of you (at the time of writing) have problems with squirrels in your garden, so our shopping team put together this roundup of 9 products to deter squirrels from your garden. Personally, I'm on team slugs as my greatest enemy.

Today's event has a similar philosophy, but at a much more personal level, as we're diving in with answers to your individual scenario.

So please do keep the questions coming, with or without photos, and as much information to help our experts as you can give please!

If you've never left a comment on our site before then you may need to sign up to post your first question. It's free to sign up and will unlock a host of other Tom's Club member benefits, such as exclusive rewards and savings, the ability to earn badges and enter giveaways, join in with popular conversations and all Live Q&As, and reveal hints for our quizzes and puzzles.

My turn to get my narrow garden's problem pathway solved!

Ella again here! The above photo of my garden shows my problem: I'm in the middle of renovating my 1930s home and can't wait to tackle the garden once the builders are done. I have a long and narrow garden in Bristol, South-West England, which is on a steep hill. There's an old concrete path running down one side, and because the plot is on a hill, the path is raised at the point nearest the house.

It feels unsafe for my kids to ride bikes down as it's fairly narrow and raised about a foot off the height of the lawn at its highest point. I also hate how it makes our narrow garden feel even narrower (admittedly the relatively wide borders don't help with that either!)

My question for the experts is if and how I should remove the path, to replace it with a more naturalistic walkway — or if it would be better to build up the height of my lawn to make it safer and hopefully blend it in a bit, visually?

Homes writer Camilla answered: I'd like to suggest removing your border shrubs and replacing them with a climbing plant, like clematis, to help widen your space.

Lawnsmith expert Jonathan Davis advised:

There is no single right answer here, so it is about weighing up how much work, money and space you want to put in. A few options to think through.

The least disruptive route is to build topsoil up to the path so the drop closes. You bring soil up to the gap, level it off, and let it settle naturally over the next year or two. It is the cheapest and easiest in the short term, but bear in mind it does not change the look much, the concrete path stays, and on a slope, the new soil can settle unevenly, so it may need topping up before it really beds in.

The bigger job is to remove the path altogether and lower it down, so a new walkway sits flush with the lawn. That deals with the drop properly and lets you swap the grey concrete for something softer like informal paving or bound gravel, which suits a long, thin garden far better. The trade-off is labour and cost, since breaking out and relaying a path is a proper project rather than a weekend.

It is worth thinking about the borders too, not just the path. You have already spotted that they are eating into the width, and pulling them back a little, perhaps a foot or so each side, would give you back some usable space and ease that narrow feeling. The thing to weigh up is how much you can afford to remove without losing the look and feel of the borders.

So, it comes down to your priorities. If quick and cheap matters most, build up to the path and accept that the look stays similar. If you want the garden to genuinely feel different, removing the path and trimming the borders together, while the builders are already in, gets you the biggest change for the most effort.

In a pickle with your pear tree?

Reader Ash Star asked this question, "Any tips on keeping pear rust at bay? Its ruined my tree for the last few years."

To which our homes and gardens writer and gardening aficionado Camilla Sharman replied:

It can be a worry when you spot pear rust on the leaves of your tree. It appears as orange spots on the upper leaf surface and forms bulky growth on the underside, and it's caused by fungus.

For the fungus to complete its life cycle, it needs both a pear and juniper tree, as the juniper harbors the fungus in winter and it moves over to the pear in spring. Do you have a juniper close by in your yard?

If you plan to eat the fruit — and frankly, I'm sure you do — it's not recommended that you use a fungicide on your tree. Instead, prune out the affected material. However, to stop the fungus spreading, don’t compost the material.

The other option is to remove the nearby juniper (if this applies to you).

Are cheap robot lawn mowers worthwhile?

Reader Mary Smyth1 was the first to ask a question, almost as soon as we posted our announcement about this event! She asked, "I'm seeing lots of robot lawn mowers pop up at stores like Lidl and Aldi - are there any under 500 that are worth buying or do you recommend sticking with a manual one?"

Jonathan Davis, lawn care expert at Lawnsmith, gave us this answer for Mary:

There is something genuinely satisfying about a manual mower. Doing the lawn yourself and standing back to see those neat stripes and a job clearly done is a nice feeling, and for some people, that little bit of effort is half the point of having a lawn. So, if you enjoy it, there is no rush to give it up.

That said, a robot mower is worth it if you ask me. They cut just a little bit each day, which keeps the lawn at a steady length and helps the grass fill in thicker over time. Even the basic ones from places like Lidl or Aldi manage that fine, without turning the whole thing into some big project.

You do still have to lay the boundary wire around the edges first, though, and that takes an hour or two of fiddly work to get right. It is worth checking the height settings too, so you can let it run a bit higher in summer when the grass prefers being left longer.

Weeds stay a bit tricky, since the clippings just sit there rather than getting collected. Running the mower every day cuts most of the heads off before they spread, and pulling out an old mower with the box on for a week or so helps catch the rest. That part tends to get overlooked at first, but it makes a real difference.

So, under £500, I would say go for it, especially if mowing is not a job you love. You might even keep the old manual one for those times you fancy doing it yourself.

Memorial weekend yard improvements, anyone?

Hello everyone, Ella here, engagement editor at Tom's Guide and massive gardening geek! In case you missed our announcement article earlier in the week, today we're running this session to help you with your lawn and gardening questions.

If you're planning a Memorial Day barbecue and want to spruce up your outdoor space, looking to emulate your favorite aspects of of the Chelsea Flower Show gardens, or wondering how to look after your lawn in the heat, then ask our experts. The lines are now open, so fire away!