When the first Dirty Nails column landed on our news desk, we weren’t sure what to do with it. Hand-written, in capital letters, and anonymous. Newspapers don’t publish anonymous correspondence. But it had an air of authority. The slightly dog-eared paper looked authentic - this was someone who did get his (or her) hands dirty. We published it. The following week another column arrived. And so it went on, and we soon discovered there was a Mrs Nails. After a few months, we just expected its arrival, and our typesetter would ask, “Has Dirty Nails arrived?” He never missed a week. It seemed he never had a holiday.

Our long-established garden design columnist Pamela Bullmore thought she had found his plot, after she visited the allotments in Shaftesbury – she was sure it must be Dirty Nails because it was the only one growing salsify, and he had just written about this unusual vegetable. But we still didn’t know who he was. Another contributor, Alison Shingler, of Gants Mill and Garden at Bruton, said she always read Dirty Nails. “Do you know who he is? He really knows his stuff,” she said. “No,” I said. “It just arrives each week, hand-written, and we publish it.” Alison laughed. “Only the Blackmore Vale Magazine could have an anonymous gardening correspondent,” she said.

We are delighted and proud that our Dirty Nails can take his recipe for wildlife friendly gardening to a nationwide audience.