1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Gardening with the credit crunch

4. 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.

5. My festive berries are being eaten by fat pigeon

Gardening at this time of year is a bit like housework  where you save yourself extra effort if you tidy as you go.

6. November in bloom!

There is a little self-congratulatory exercise that I like to carry out this time of year.

7. The garden expert who had no garden...

Louise Hampden would peer into people’s gardens, green with envy because she didn’t have one.

8. Enjoy grass of class

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

9. Plant now – and create fireworks in the borders

It will be Bonfire Night soon but now is the time to think about creating some fireworks in the garden next season.

10. Ready for a real raking

Autumn is a very good time for a garden workout and raking must be the best exercise there is.