Adding paint colour in your garden can smarten and brighten your space, create unity, add atmosphere and inject playfulness. Now's the time to colour scheme and get your paintbrush out when spring arrives.

As 25 December looms, here are some Christmas present ideas for garden lovers and would be garden lovers. All ideas tested, spotted or touched by me. None have been “gifted”, so you can be 100% sure these are heart-warming recommendations you can trust, one friend to another.

So often we concentrate on flowers to light up our gardens with colour, forgetting a display of mellow fruitfulness prolongs a garden’s interest and provides the bonus of essential food for birds and wildlife.

Hurry, hurry, as some of the most fashionable tulip varieties are selling out fast. Make it your September resolution to order your tulips before the early birds catch the worms, so to speak and children return to school.