Sometimes a plant just won’t do it; it’s too dry, the season is too short, or it would simply look wrong. But a focal point is needed, or perhaps a little ‘something else’ to add some interest to a neglected corner. What do you do?

I use the phrase ‘a work of art’ ‘to cover any inanimate but decorative object in the garden (not counting your snoozing spouse, of course). So it could be a lump of wood, a mirror, a group of pebbles or shells, or an actual statue. You can add drama, humour, or all year round interest in this way and it can cost a lot or very little. Some ideas that work well at Charnwood:

• Shells and pebbles in the ‘seaside garden’ to encourage memories of beach holidays;
• a hare in the long grass in the ‘meadow’;
• a woodpecker in the stumpery;
• a sunbathing frog; and getting more expensive and unusual...
• .. a punk made out of sewage pipe (yes, I’m serious, see picture).

As well as filling that gap, they also make good Christmas presents. A stroll round your favourite garden centre should give you some inspiration, but if not, a ‘google search’ will come up with endless possibilities. Have a look at: http://www.mirabilisdesign.co.uk/index.html or http://www.crocus.co.uk/products/_/outdoor/ornaments/prcid.75/

If you want a book for a gift, you really are spoilt for choice. Cleve West’s ‘Our Plot’ is a beautifully written and observed book about allotments ‘where lives have been enriched by the simple act of growing food’. Jayne Thompson tells the charming story of her long time running of the Tollerton School Gardening Club with some creative hints and tips in ‘Little Green Fingers’ and, at £3.50 from the post office, it is an easy and cheap stocking filler. If you are a Monty Don fan (why wouldn’t you be?), ‘The Ivington Diaries’ is a month by month collection of his writing. Now Christopher Lloyd has sadly left us, I think Monty is by far and away the best garden writer around. A few words from his entry on 6 April 1998:

‘Cherries are sky flowers really. The trees exist only to hold the blossoms up in the air, and to elaborate on their form is an unnecessary embellishment. Of course, this imposes constraints on your life. To have the sublime pleasure of putting your head in the flower-clouds you must be around when they flower. The imperatives of work, school, or other pleasures must come second and your life must be organised around their flowering calendar. How un-modern and un-businesslike! But how good.’

I won’t attempt to follow that - Happy Christmas!