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

Our pond is eighteen months old and full of algae. It is about the size of five washing up bowls. The birds love it so I don’t want to fill it in but it smells. Carly White

It might be worth starting again. Either way, pull out all the algae, and then add plenty of oxygenating weed and a small water lily to cut down the amount of sunlight that hits the water. Keep the bottom as clear of silt as you can (make sure you clear out wild life whenever you dredge the pond). If you don’t want a water lily add a circulating pump so that the water will be aerated and you will have an attractive fountain. And don’t add fish to the pond. They probably wouldn’t survive anyway but they would add to your pond problems.

Our new house is part of a Georgian terrace of two-ups, two-downs and the garden is only 40ft with a 50 ft wall at the far end. It give us privacy, which matters a lot to us, but a lot of shade – and it does not look good.Name and address withheld.

Trompe l'oeil – optical illusion - is the answer here, i.e. painted scenes which look like part of your garden. Alternatively, paint the wall with one of the subtle grey/green masonry paints so that the wall is less intrusive (if you don’t own the wall ask permission from the owners first). Then add ornamental trellis like this one to play a perspective trick which will give the appearance of space. Bespoke trellis can be expensive – but you can also make it yourself so long as you use high quality materials. Another trick is to use a toughened glass mirror in an old door frame, or trellis arch, to give the impression of a door through to another garden. The mirror will help bring light into the garden as well as giving the illusion of space. Finally the planting – think about the plants that like woodland, i.e. ferns, bluebells, foxgloves, trillium, snowdrops.

I dread every autumn as the season of red mists of rage (my husband’s) and un-mellow noise from his infernal leaf blower followed by cursing when it goes wrong. This is followed by the roars of his leaf shredder. Please help before I succumb to the temptation of pushing him through his shredder although in reality I am too arthritic to shred him! Name and address withheld

Leaf blowers are a waste of time and energy but men tend to love them. It’s all about putting on the harness and goggles, I think – makes them feel virile. So you need to persuade him that leaf raking is far more alluring and manly. Put it in terms of the noble savage. Raking is also better for the environment and far more efficient if the leaves are damp as they certainly will be this year. As far as shredding goes I’d be inclined to burn them instead. When you tot up the environmental cost of burning leaves as against using machines like blowers and shredders I reckon there’s no contest. Finally if your arthritis allows you to operate a drive-on mower, why not ‘mow’ the leaves into submission. I enjoy doing this – it’s efficient and it chops and gathers the leaves. And the process (and therefore noise) doesn’t last as long as leaf blowing.

Our compost bin, started this year, is writhing with pests – slugs, centipedes, fruit flies, woodlice etc with the worms only visible if you dig down. This is a local authority plastic bin. What are we doing wrong? Lulu Naylor, London

Nothing – all those creatures will speed up the composting process. If the flies get too irritating, add a layer of soil or newspaper. The worms usually attack the more composted stuff which can be found at the bottom of the bin. In other words you’ve got a model compost heap. Just keep turning it and draining off the liquid.

Pink maggots have infested our Victoria plum which otherwise looks OK and has produced a lot of plums. Vince Gear via email

This is plum moth and it seems to be endemic this year. There isn’t anything you can do at this end of the year but, next May, hang pheromone traps in the tree – they are available online from various companies like this one www.harrodhorticultural.com . Once the moths start appearing on the sticky trap some people use an insecticide on the whole tree but I am not convinced this does much good.

Is it too late to make bay cuttings? If not are they easy? We are going to move house and don’t want to move our six meter bay tree! The Sawyer family, Leicester

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