Celebrity

I have learnt that gardens are like happiness: you cannot pursue them as an absolute thing or moment.

The divide between a 'wild' plant and what is suitable for the garden is unnatural and meaningless. Gardens begin and end in the mind, and the Western way of thinking is not good at accommodating that.

The British have such an odd relationship with food - and the land. I want the public and the Soil Association to see that growing things in a garden is no different to growing things in a field.

Once you engage with the simple enough business of feeding yourself, of soil and water, weather, season and harvest, it becomes personal. It is about you, your family and friends. Food becomes an aspect of those relationships as well as your intimacy with your plot.

Apples hate strong wind and damp, cold soil so try and place them on well-drained, rich soil in a sheltered position.

I see myself as a writer who happens to garden.

When you plant something, you invest in a beautiful future amidst a stressful, chaotic and, at times, downright appalling world.

I have been growing vegetables since I was a boy. When I was about 17 I was the only one of five children living at home. My parents were ill and I took over the vegetable garden and I have had one ever since.

Coppice management depends upon the chosen tree being cut when the shoots are straight, vigorous and, critically, not shading out new growth.

The biggest obstacle to good gardening is the desire to know the answers and not the questions.

You get older, you slow down. Failure feels like less of a humiliation and more of a balanced return.

The farm uses up a lot of my creative urges. It's a sort of rough and ready space, I don't film there.

In my teens I wanted to be a rock star, I really did. At that time there was nothing I wanted more.

You can trace the entire history of Britain by looking at gardens.

The thing the British hate more than anything else is people who are getting above themselves. There are a hundred different expressions for it all around the country, but it comes down to the same thing: this inherent mistrust of authority, and trying to topple people off a pedestal.

As you get older your own problems are not that interesting.

A column is a curiously intimate affair. For a start, you know by default that you will have regular readers, so it gives the writer the privilege of continuing a running conversation with them.

Apples hate strong wind and damp, cold soil so try and place them on well-drained, rich soil in a sheltered position.

I think that the essence of a Christmas wreath - of all Christmas vegetative decoration - has to be green and, if possible, living. So the basis of a wreath is ideally holly, laurel, ivy, rosemary, larch, fir or whatever is to hand.

I just think that gardening is about the future, a slow thing, that is deep and spiritual as well as spiritually rewarding.