31. Enjoy grass of class

It is at times like these that I wonder about the value of a lawn.

32. Get in a pickle for Boxing Day zing

33. Great gift – huge tub of blood, fish and bone

Having perused some of the Christmas gift ideas for the gardener in your family in the supplements and magazines, I wonder if I am really a gardener at all.

34. Gardening with the credit crunch

35. Stews to cut the bills

‘No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds, November’.

Thomas Hood might have added to a 2008 version of his poem...  no money.

36. Get out on Boxing Day – and plan for next year

Christmas is a bustling time of year but there should be a chance on Boxing Day to get outside and at least look at the garden.

37. A holly bad show means a berry bad Christmas

Sometimes even in the smallest garden there are secret places that are seldom visited. I have a path at the side of my house which I see every week in summer when the lawns have to be mowed.

38. Flower ’bout that for taste in salads – nasturtium

Nasturtiums held a great fascination for me as a child because I was told you could eat them.

39. ‘Patty’s Plum’ poppy is so lovely I want to sing

Whenever I hear the name Gordon Brown the next line “texture like sun” comes unbidden into my head.

40. Basil – for taste of the Mediterranean

The weighty novels of the 19th Century occasionally refer to basil as flourishing when grown in dead men’s brains.