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This week I learned that there is little point in making a Christmas wreath unless you have a bright red front door to hang it on. Or any front door at all, really (both entrances to my flat are PVC French doors, which make the positioning of a

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

For Christmas this year, all my friends and relatives will be receiving bird boxes. I’ve developed something of an obsession with DIY bird boxes, and currently have a pile of them in my front room, waiting to be wrapped in festive paper. I feel like

, 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.

frosts.My garden in East London hasn't seen rain since before Christmas. We've had snow, of course, and the promise of rain - dark clouds, even a thunder storm, but no water (we did have a two minute shower last Friday but it by the time I recognised