I'm disgusted by babies, and I'm so sorry, I'm just being honest. They make me sick.

My kids are little athletes.

I devote my whole life to my family, and that's the least I could do, because there's only one me and 14 of them. I have to give all my energy and all of me to my kids.

With children, I feel so safe in my predictable world. They will never leave me.

I couldn't even imagine kissing something.

I love kids, but I also recognize that things could be better for mine.

I've been hiding from the real world all my life.

I am doing everything I can to be a great parent.

Four out of the five discs in my lumbar spine are ruptured, herniated fully. Think of a jelly doughnut being squashed, and it hits nerves, causing bilateral sciatica. And I have irreparable sacral damage. And I have peripheral neuropathy.

I've been sued, harassed, abused, but I've held my own.

Nobody lives happily ever after, because that is extremely unrealistic.

The horticultural industry is unimaginative and dominated by vast, supermarket-like outlets. But the small nurseries and growers remain - praise them with your wallets, not your memories.

I myself did not officially become organic until 1997, although I was always hopeless at using chemicals.

A weekly column is not always a treat. It can be a tyranny. There are times when I have very little to say. There are times, every year, when I am weighed down with depression. At these times it takes days of slog to force the words on to the page.

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.

When you're 15 whatever your parents tell you you should do, you're not going to do it.

I think we put far too much interest in trying to get ten to 20 year olds interested in gardening. I think you should do everything you can to try and get them interested up to the age of 10.

I love high summer as well, but nothing beats a perfect May morning.

Earth heals me better than any medicine.

We know that gardening is good for you. It is fantastic, all-round exercise.

Visiting gardens is bad for you. Not only does it encourage too much eating of cake but sets up all kinds of false notions that are ruinous to your garden back home.

When our jewellery business went into receivership we avoided bankruptcy by selling our houses and possessions.

I often eat cakes while my fingers are caked in soil.

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