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Being a gardener, and partial to the odd gift, I like to think myself someone who knows a thing or two about Christmas gifts for gardeners. But I'm amazed at how often we all get it wrong. Over the years I've received some great presents: a pair

It's nearly Twelfth Night, so millions of Christmas trees will be disrobed and thrown away. Some will end up in landfill, while others will be dumped on roadsides, waste land and canal tow paths. Only some will be re-used, or recycled into bark

, like programming the central heating, putting up shelves, plugging in the DVD player. One Christmas I was handed a spade and told to "kill the rats in the compost bin". My mum has two plastic compost bins next to each other, and the lone rat (as

Oh snow, where were you in London on Christmas day? Why are you here now, hampering our efforts to burn off mince pies through brisk gardening? There's nothing I can do in my garden, except ponder when the compost heap will start breaking down again

My first job when I moved into my flat last August was to remove the paving stones in the back yard. Now, after five months of having a building site for a garden, I have bought myself some Christmas topsoil, and I'm itching to get seed sowing

.Then came the cold snap. I took to scattering peanuts, seed, cut apples, cooked pasta, and a small amount of Christmas pudding, biscuits and cake on the ground. Some pigeons turned up, and loved their post-Christmas treat, the neighbours were less excited

will you be growing in 2011?Wishing everyone a fantastic Christmas and a great gardening year.

What a spring we're having. Provisional Met Office reports suggest April was the warmest on record. It was also the 11th driest, based on average rainfall across the UK. Scotland's rainfall has been 110% above normal levels, while the South-East has

hibernaculums for creatures: last year's Christmas tree branches are bundled behind pots for insects and there's a cardboard box full of grass clippings. When the trees in the local park lose their leaves I'll be gathering bags of them to cram into corners

was harmonious until Christmas, when my partner and I left for a week to visit family (making sure there was plenty of food for the birds in our absence).When we returned, we saw that the blackbird had rather taken to the garden, and we soon noticed he had