My basic philosophy is never do anything with the word 'celebrity' attached to it. Without being overly pompous, if you have worked hard to have an audience trust you a bit, why blow it? That is my currency.

I don't think about being the Colin Firth of the gardening world. I live a very insular world based around my family and my home, and to them I'm not the Colin Firth of anything.

My favourite thorn belongs to the rose with a name like a mouthful of broken teeth, Rosa sericea pteracantha. It is grown almost entirely for its astonishing ruby-red shark's fin thorns that are at their lapidary best in early summer, especially when backlit by a low setting sun.

Bamboos can go from shining health to shabbiness in weeks. The problem is too much wind, too little water and tired compost.

Some plants become weeds simply by virtue of their success rather than any other factor. You merely want less of them.

I do wear gloves for things that sting a lot or prick a lot. But I just like to feel with my hands. I find gloves cumbersome and uncomfortable and I've got tough old hands so the old cut doesn't matter.

My gardening apprenticeship was similar to the way a chimney sweep is pushed up a chimney. It was enforced by my parents, non-negotiable - it would be weeding the strawberries, mowing the grass.

The key to our oldest woodland is that it has been cut down and regrown, in some cases as often as 50 or 60 times. It is one of the most perfectly sustainable resources and ecosystems known to man.

I like dogs because they are not humans.

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

I see myself as a writer who happens to garden.

I loathe nowheres - airports and bland hotels. I would rather be in an unpleasant, uncomfortable place rather than one just adrift, floating around.

From the ages of 18 to 50 I ran, rowed and lifted weights at my home gym.

It does seem to me that the British in particular, British horticultural literature and television programmes, focus a huge amount on how we garden and hardly at all on why we garden.

I feel ashamed if my hands are too clean and untouched. It's a measure of how much time I've spent travelling and poncing around.

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

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

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

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.

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

Earth heals me better than any medicine.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

You don't criticize or critique your teammates if they're having a hard time. You try to encourage them just like you hope that they'll encourage you.

Obviously, you're going to have your ups and your downs, but the more ups I can have and the quicker the downs are, the better I'll be.

My Mom and Dad always told me to not act on emotion, act on what is real. When you're mad don't do something wrong because you're mad.

I have no idea what it is about bowling. It's just a love I have for it. I can't even explain why. Bowling is just fun for me.

I can pull off a range of outfits from nice, edgy suits to more rugged, casual looks. Your look one day can be totally different than the next day, and for me, it's all about owning that.

In order to be great you have to continue to put in the work.

I just go out and do what I can to help the team win, try and be consistent in having some good at-bats and getting some timely hits and whatnot.

Obviously, I'm coordinated and whatnot.

I think a lot of times you start to second-guess yourself, especially as a young player, but you've got to have confidence that everything will be all right.

My No. 1 thing is to win a World Series. The rest comes as it comes.

The great hitters use the whole field, and that's a goal of mine.

This game is obviously about failure. You're going to fail most of the time. It's how you handle it.

I want to be a great role model to let the kids, especially black kids, that it's possible to make it in this sport. I think we, as a black community, quit playing the game because we think it's a white man's sport. Or we think that since other black people don't play it, so why should I play it.

As I continue to learn, I'll continue to do different things.

My personal style definitely developed over time. I thought I used to look good in a T-shirt and jeans and a decent pair of shoes. Now versatility is key for me.

I think when you're stressing, or worried about your performance, worrying about this and worrying about that, that's when things start to get tough and you're not enjoying it anymore and it becomes a job. Although it is our job to play, still you have to understand that it's a game and you have to enjoy it.

I think people don't enjoy it as much as they used to. People say, 'Make baseball fun again.' Well, I'm trying.

Just to be able to put on the uniform in general is a blessing, and when it says Red Sox on it, it makes it that much better.

I'm 5-foot-9, 180 pounds. I don't have much else to work with, so I just try to use my bat speed and get the most out of what I've got.

She's always been there for me through anything, I can think of many school projects I had to do and I would say, 'Mom, can you help me.' She would help me write a paper or make a poster. She's just been that kind of mom. No matter what, she makes sure I'm alright and I thank her for that.

I see myself as the product of hard work.

Contract things are kind of tough to come up with, especially with both sides and kind of how the economics and all those things work.