In the introduction, Osborne explains how he became a gardeners and why, in a life already full to bursting, he decided to take on an allotment and try and grow his own food. All of the usual reasons feature here - feeling trapped by the daily nine to five grind and wanting to get back to nature and worrying about what's in the food his sons are eating are two of the main ones.

The diary proper starts in January, an inauspicious time to begin a story about gardening, but Osborne manages to pull it off. We are caught up in his appreciation of nature, even when it is freezing outside and everything is coated in frost. There's not much left at the allotment to dig up, but a plentiful harvest of peace and quiet, fresh air and friendly fellow gardeners makes up for that.

Osborne isn't a flawless gardener whose achievements we can't dream of living up to. As the book progresses we realise he hasn't yet dug over his plot and will be behind in spring. He hasn't ordered his onion sets or seed potatoes. Later in the year we watch him nap among the runner beans when he should be weeding, and develop a soft spot for the mice he has been trying to kill.

There are some funny moments, and some poignant ones. The allotments are burgled at one point and attacked by arsonists at another. And yet the spirit of the allotmenteers is not broken, and they still manage to put on a good show when the allotment competition comes around.

Osborne is obviously a keen observer of people, and his characters shine through. The birdman and his wife use their allotment to keep chickens and ducks, and (briefly) homing pigeons. Five Pints uses his to play his saxophone, far enough away from his wife so that she doesn't complain about the racket. Mad Alice believes that Alice Springs was named after her, and Brutally Frank is desperately in need of some tact.

Gardeners will love reading this book. It brings to life all of the reasons why people garden, and you sense you are in the presence of a kindred spirit. There's also the occasional tip to pick up, and the knowledge where the book ends, the new gardening year begins.

The first is "Gardening Virtues and Botanical Surprises" and is a tour of the four seasons in Dahl's eclectic garden. Dahl grows each plant because of a joy in all plants - he wants to meet each species individually, get to know them and share his fascination. Some thrive in his garden - in the author photograph he is all but hidden in an enormous stand of gunnera. Some don't, and Dahl keeps a pot of old plant labels in remembrance of plants past.

His writing, even in translation, is so inspiring that it makes you want to rush out and check on whether a plant in the garden has started flowering, set seed or simply responded to a change in the weather. Your gardening To Do list will become ever longer as Dahl's prose suggests plants to try and ideas will be popping up in your head whenever you dip into the book. Everything here is an experiment that can be repeated by the reader.

Which is not to say that Dahl writes as a dispassionate, scientific researcher. His opinions are clear, whether he is talking about ground cover plants, weeds, or his hay collection. He obviously loved trying new and unusual plants, and spent a lot of time ploughing through old horticultural records.

The second section of the book is called "The Stinking Garden" and it is here that we meet all kinds of scented plants, from the common and pleasant scents of the mint family to plants that mimic body odours, or use their scents to attract prey.

'How to eat a lily' is more concerned with edible plants, including blue potatoes, edible weeds and blackberries. There is a discussion about the longevity of seeds and notes about the beauty of faded seed heads.

This is not a conventional gardening book, because Dahl was not a conventional gardener. He was a man who had a life-long love affair with plants, and who tried to share some of his wonder and fascination through his writing. The photographs may only be in black and white, but Dahl's plants will shine in your imagination and send you outside to find the magic in your own garden.