Listener Crossword 4171, Fruitful Recipe by Dipper

[Zabadak]

A nice easy start to the New Year, encouraging me to start entering again. If there are people reading this who haven't tried the Listener yet, here's a good place to start - fair clues that take a bit of thinking, a nice endgame and (it has to be for me) a straightforward enough find the hidden message.
Thanks to Dipper, and a good New Year to all. Don't forget the tree comes down today.

[Zabadak]

Would that I had DrB's extensive library - a copy of this in good nick might be worth a bit.
Apparently, googling is pronounced go-ogling, and it's what a substantial proportion of the interweb thingy is for. So I'm told.

[Walterloo]

Yes, a pleasant little solve but still with a couple of clues that could trap you into entering an incorrect letter if you don't fully understand the wordplay. Certainly a good place to start for new solvers.

[Cruncher]

A gentle start to the year. Will heed the advice given. A happy - and fruitful - 2012 to all fellow solvers

[trux]

Indeed, an ideal first-of-year gentle jaunt with some nice clueing and straightforward endgame quickly verifiable on Interweb. Thanks, Dipper.

[tilbee]

Think this may well be the easiest of the year to come. Despite the rather over quick solve, may well be looking back fondly as tackle a future Klein Bottle.

[Vagans]

A very pleasant start to the New Year with another Dipp into the garden - and not so challenging as Half-Thyme this time. There were some tempting misdirections, and my avatar certainly approves of the quotation (read in full). Best wishes to fellow-solvers for harder fare to come.

[silversolver]

Yes, indeed, a gentle start to the Listener New Year. Some nice clues including some that raised a smile. I am sure that they will get harder before too long...

[IainGrace]

Agree with all of the above. Good fun. Wouldn't like this to be the standard for the year - which doubtless it won't be! Not sure what the criteria for an ideal Listener are, but certainly it should be incapable of being dispatched in a single sitting, as this one was.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Happy New Year everyone! Nice to start with an easy one. Some nice clues - I specially liked 20d.

[emcee]

I always look forward to a Dipper puzzle as I like the gardening themes; this puzzle was a bit too straightforward though.

Can I claim my 2012 all-correct status now please!

[sunny-dave]

A gentle stroll along a pleasant path ... I await the ghastly yomping across trackless wastes which doubtless awaits us ...

[Rogue-Elfe]

Yeah, agreeing all round. That was easy, and rather fun.
Had problems understanding the clue for 18d; suspecting that it's first letter is the starting point when they're checking entries for correctness.
Will send this in, and hope for another 51 likewise. (Some hope!)

[Rogue-Elfe]

Should there have been an apostrophe in 'it's' just there? Maybe not.

[floaker]

Happy 2012. I still wait for the newsprint version and consider a Saturday finish good going.
A gentle start to the year from Dipper (it really should be Dibber) with some fine clues several of which took a long time to unravel, despite being certain of the answers (always a dangerous thing to be).
Regarding reference books, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is frequently a source of inspiration for setters as is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

[Coalminers]

Happy New Year all. Now we are using the new edition of the BRB without names, I was intrigued to see a name I'm not familiar with crop up in this crossword. Perhaps I won't throw my old BRB away just yet!

[contendo]

Life keeps intervening but I got around to this today and, like others, found it a relatively easy stroll, though there are one or two traps for the unwary. Speaking of which I find in the solution to no. 4168, BeRo's Phiz, I had a Y in the middle of the third row of the top grid, where he has an I. I think mine is equally valid, PYNE being an alternative spelling of PINE, and ROYNISH taking a slightly different route. Anyone agree?

[contendo]

I should have said PROYNE rather than PROINE at 12, incorporating the PYNE variant of PINE.

[tenflags]

Hi Contendo ... difficult to remember all the twists and turns in that one now but PYNE is the same as PINE meaning to waste away not PINE meaning tree ?!

[perseverer]

Contendo - PYNE is an alternative spelling for the second meaning (in the BRB) of PINE meaning to long, or to waste away, but not for PINE the tree.

[perseverer]

..... is there an echo in here?