Problems in Essex

Yesterday I whizzed down to Chelmsford for my regular spot on Gardening Plus on BBC Essex with Ken Crowther. As usual, it was rammed full of gardening questions and problems - as well as some interesting observations.
Grow your own is still as popular as ever, as lots of questions were on fruit and veg.
As with most areas of the country, Essex is plagued with unripened tomatoes. The usual banana skin trick or putting in drawers with an apple were all suggested as remedies. And, of course, making green tomato chutney with everything that doesn't ripen. Back at Hodge Towers, I've been making a gallon or so of tomato sauce with my beefsteak and other larger tomatoes that are excess to requirements. Not that I'm showing off; they've only just started to ripen and it's too cold for salads.
Apple, pear and plum pruning questions were also popular - people just seem desperate to prune their fruit trees when, in fact, most are best left to get on with it unless it's absolutely essential.
Passionflower fruit is obviously ripening this year and listeners wanted to know if they could eat them. Well, you can, but there's not much of it in each fruit and it tastes insipid; I do know some people who make a jelly out of it - but it doesn't taste of much.
Plants dying or wilting because of the dry weather also seems to be a problem in the South East - hydrangeas and rhubarb being two that came up. Both were growing in light soils, but even heavy Essex clay soils are suffering as soil water reserves have become exhausted.
When you do Q&As you always get people who want to show off their prowess. One listener only managed to get five out of 26 penstemon cuttings to root (I said well done for getting five to root), another listener phoned in to say all 50 of his cuttings had rooted, but did impart the wisdom of his success - rooting in pure vermiculite and making 1inch long cuts down the stem to improve rooting.
The best question of the day? Is there a lawn seed mixture that is dog resistant and will tolerate urine damage?! Well, of course, ryegrass mixes are tougher than those made up from fine-leaved grasses, but they won't tolerate 'liquid dog fertiliser'!