We are extremely uncomfortable with the spiritual aspects of gardening, and yet most people feel it in some form or other, even if it's a sense of connection to the greater world on a beautiful day.

If I'm honest, the thing I am proudest of is my varieties of wild flowers in the hay meadow.

Happiness is a by-product rather than an end in itself. It pops into your life unbidden, and then tends to pop out again. I'm on record as being depressive. It is related to winter.

I always see gardening as escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing the soil.

That first snowdrop, the flowering of the rose you pruned, a lettuce you grew from seed, the robin singing just for you. These are smallthings but all positive, all healing in a way that medicine tries to mimic.

Woods are rich with biodiversity and, above all, places of trees and light that spangles a thousand greens through the leaves.

Organic is loaded with a sense of rightness, with a set of rules. I would much rather someone bought food that was local and sustainable but not organic than bought organic food that had to be shipped across the world.

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.

Absorbing a healthy amount of dirt builds your immune system.

I use the period between Christmas and New Year to potter about, think and completely change my mindset. In that easy no-man's-land between Boxing Day and New Year, loins are girded and mettle readied. It is time, as we voyagers bid farewell to the old year, to fare forward.

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.

There is a direct correlation between gardening and mental health, not just to maintain good mental health but to repair it as well - that's anything in the gamut from depression to serious brain damage, schizophrenia or autism.

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

People are increasingly realising that what they eat is important. You can't put junk food in your body and be healthy. All sorts of problems can develop, like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, strokes. Gardening not only helps with exercise and mental health, but it can improve diet as well.

I am a boxer-brief man.

I will eat a hot dog but I'm not big into hot dogs.

All the girls in Australia are hot.

At the end of the day, stick up for yourself whether you have spiky hair, long hair, blonde hair, black hair, whatever it is, stick up for yourself and go for your dreams because at the end of the day, you can pretty much accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.

I'm worried about taking care of myself and working out and taking my body to the best it could be.

I used to be a fitness model.

I don't really feel the need to defend myself for having a six-pack.

Miami has beautiful women, beaches and weather.

I can speak a little Italian.

I did 'Jersey Shore 6' sober, and you really just concentrate on yourself and just being the best person that you can be or be better than you were the day before.