Listener 4043 - Green Cross Code by Dipper

[Philoctetes]

This week il fout cultiver nos jardins. Not started yet, but looks fun. Get out the Bumper Book of Trees

[cluelessJoe]

An absolute breeze this week Robinruth, finished it on the train going home!
I wish! A much better challenge form Dipper this time, as others have remarked. I had one of those interrupted sessions, and still need inspiration on a couple of empty lights, but stripped bark all sorted. In two minds about the extra words - they did help to purify some clues when identified, but the general aftertaste is of something which added nothing of substance to the puzzle. Nevertheless, better than some this year.

[Philoctetes]

I found this a bit of a slog - in effect another festival of cold solving. Now I have a complete grid full of letters, some of them green. But I am very uncertain about 34d, and I suspect I have overlooked a tree

[robinruth]

Yes, Philocteles, I suspect you have! I struggled there for a while and in several other places.
One of these days, Clueless Joe, I really will finish on the train going home (I wish!) - probably when we are all ninety years old.

[turnerjmw]

There is just one at the end, Philoctetes. 34dn is a slightly questionable, for me, in that the main component word in it is not in Chambers, though the answer is in the relevant Appendix. But I don't know the rules!

[Philoctetes]

Ah, silly me - I had the noun form of 39A and managed, as a consequence, to mis-spell 20d, which left me with something very odd in 34d which made no sense. Just shows how your brain can be convinced that something is right however much you stare at it. But, blessed with 20D, it comes right in the end.

[Cruncher]

turnerjmw - I think 34dn is ok. Listener crosswords often use foreign words as component parts, as long as they are flagged up as such and not too obscure. I don't think that they need to appear in Chambers if they're only part of the wordplay.

[turnerjmw]

Thanks for that, Cruncher. That's fair enough. I haven't been doing these long, so I didn't know the form.

[Mysterons]

Tough yet fair - I'm just glad we didn't have to squeeze the trees in to the grid ! Unches have always been my downfall in the past, and I suspect that 15 may be a trap for the unwary in this one.

[Patch49]

It would have helped to know how many trees to look for. Then I'd know if I should re-examine 27d

[Mysterons]

There is one in 27, 14 in total - if yew don't have them all yet then search forest Patch

[Speravi]

This was tough, I thought; for me, the second most difficult this year - but scrupulously fair, with creative cluing. A really good mental workout - thanks, Dipper.

[rabet]

Excellent puzzle; I've been away most of the week and didn't take it with me, but I've just finished it after a considerable struggle. Very entertaining. Thanks, Dipper.