e-mail Jane Owen with your gardening questions: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk

The terrace has become a green skating ring. I nearly broke my back on it yesterday. Alex Webb

Pressure washing is the quick solution – scrubbing it with a hard-bristled broom the slower, more ecologically friendly solution. Either way this is something you need to do at least once a year.

Have slugs have done for my cyclamen? They’ve suddenly died in the middle of flowering. I bought them from a garden centre a few weeks ago. Tilly Jones

If there were slime trails then slugs may be the culprits. I think it is equally likely that your cyclamen have succumbed to vine weevil grubs. Carefully turn the plants out of their pots and jiggle the compost to see if you can find any of the creamy brown grubs. If you find some, try taking the plants back to the garden centre to ask for replacements.

Our half timbered car has been growing liverworts and moss for about ten years. It has now added a spontaneous buddleia. Is this a record? George Williamson

Congratulations. You’ll have to ask the Guinness book of records about your record breaking or otherwise. As it happens I know of a Land Rover with a buddleia growing out of one of the window sills. They are capable of growing anywhere it seems.

We have been told that chickens or pigs would be a good way of clearing our overgrown three quarter of an acre orchard. We do not want to deal with pigs but will chickens really do it and what are the dangers or avian flu? Sue and Dave Honour

You’ll have to contact DEFRA to ask about avian flu but chickens will clear the site eventually. The more chickens you have the faster they will clear the site. Bear in mind that however religiously you lock them up at night they sometimes fall victims to hungry foxes in the middle of the day.

Please can you suggest a kneeler that is not troublesome to carry about with my other gardening tools? I am a pensioner and a keen gardener but find that my kneeler is so bulky that it collects dirt. John Hambridge

How about using knee pads? Rather than buying knee pads from a garden site, which tend to be designed to be pretty rather than practical, why not buy them from a builders’ site like this one. The pads tend to be more comfortable, hard wearing and damp-proof than the tasteful offerings from garden centres.

Finally, Penny and Jim Smith sent a picture of a plant they could not identify. I wasn’t sure either and so I forwarded the picture to Kew gardens whose experts tell me that it is the highly invasive Ambrosia artemisiifolia or Ragweed

e-mail Jane Owen with your gardening questions: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk

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