In the garden with Alan Titchmarsh

What inspires the nation's best-loved gardener?

Alan Titchmarsh is a busy man. Along with presenting a daily chat show, weekly radio programme and holding the office of High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight, he has also found time to write a new series of practical gardening guides called 'How to Garden', covering a wide range of popular garden topics, from pruning and training to growing vegetables and herbs. Our features editor Karen O'Grady caught up with the gardening legend to discuss climate change, the secret to being a good gardener and why Alan just loves early mornings.

 

Q: Your new series of How-to gardening books are designed to make gardening easy to understand and inspire gardeners. How did you decide which subjects to cover?
A: We did our market research to find out which topics people are most eager to learn about. I've written a lot of big gardening tomes so the ethos behind the new series is to create a range of books devoted to just one topic. where you can find out everything you need to know about one topic. My style of writing has always been to try and get rid of the mystique, to try and inspire confidence in people when they're growing things and to make the subject easily understood. I wanted the books to be reasonably priced, profusely illustrated and packed with information.

 

Q: One of the titles included in the series is garden design. Do you think climate change is affecting garden design?
A: Climate has never done anything else; it's always changing and evolving. We have just had a very cold winter this year, and everybody has put in Meditteranean plants because we were told about global warming, and they are probably cursing now because they've all died. I think climate change is a very emotive point. I think we are contributing to climate change, but it's not entirely down to us. It's something we need to be aware of, but the most important thing is that you garden according to your locality in the country - your micro-climate. Are you on top of a hill and exposed to wind? Are you down in a valley in a frost pocket? It's your immediate climate you need to be concerned about, rather than global warming.

Q: Do you try to be 'green' when in the garden?
A: I'm organic and I certainly try to be eco-friendly. I use organic feed and I don't use pesticides or slug pellets at all. I use a lawn weed and feed at the beginning of the season, simply because I like a lawn that hasn't got weeds in it and my lawn's rather too large to do with a daisy grubber.

 

Q: During your time on Ground Force, which garden of the gardens were you most pleased with?
A: The ones that really changed peoples lives, which sounds like a grandiose claim but it wasn't mean to be! There was a woman living in Devon who couldn't bend down anymore, she was a keen gardener but was arthritic and we just raised all her garden up to make it easier for her. To this day I still get Christmas cards from her. Another favourite was for a lad in his early teens called Gary Axford who lived on the Isle of Wight. Gary was in a wheelchair and liked to race remote control electric cars with his friends. His disability meant he had to go out onto the street to race his cars, while his friends could all play with theirs in the garden. We turned his back garden into a racing circuit, so not only could he raise his cars around, but he could get around it in his wheelchair as well - we literally opened up his garden to him. And of course our makeover of Nelson Mandela's Garden will always be a favourite.

 

Q: What's your flower or shrub of the moment?
A: It depends on the time of year! In February snowdrops were my favourite. In March it's hellibores and daffs. The great thing about British gardening is the seasonality.

 

Q: What do you feel is the biggest gardening issue of the moment?
A: Well, everybody seems to be concerned about global warming I suppose, but I think the most important thing is to just keep planning to suit your situation. If people want to make a difference to how their garden grows, they need to look very closely at what they've got in the way of soil - is it sandy and well-drained, heavy clay, good loam? Is it in sun or shade? And the most important thing to bear in mind is that you need to plant things which will like the conditions that prevail. Plants actually want to grow, it's in their nature to want to survive, so when put in a place that offers them conditions that they enjoy, they will grow well. The trick of being a good gardener is matching the plant to the conditions, and then you can do anything.

 

Q: Which celebrity gardeners do you rate at the moment, and why?
A: I tend not to watch gardening programmes, as it's work! And also, I might think, ooh, they're quite good, I'm a bit worried about that! I have gardening heroes and most of us revere the likes of Christopher Lloyd who's no longer with us and Beth Chatto who's a friend of mine; she's a wonderful gardener. I like gardeners who are good company, who know about things other than just gardening. And Beth I think is a bit of a heroine.

 

Q: You've been the Good Housekeeping magazine man of the month, and you were in the Allaboutyou.com top 10 celebs women would most like to see in a santa hat, how do you feel about that?

A: I'm very flattered, I mean who wouldn't want to be in GH and on that list?! I know men who would kill for it; I'm very flattered. I'm always slightly bewildered by it, but it's very nice. When you're on television and you're trying to put across information you're also putting yourself across, and it's just human nature to want to be liked, or respected, or all those things, so when people put you in surveys like that I find it hugely complimentary. I'm thrilled to bits.

 

Q: What's your favourite time of day to be in the garden, and why?
A: Early morning without a doubt. Nobody else is out. I love those late spring and early summer mornings at about 6 or 7 o'clock when the birds are singing and you can tell it's going to be a lovely day; the sun's just coming up - that is perfection.

 

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Special book discount for AAY readers
AAY readers can buy any of the How to Garden books by Alan Titchmarsh (RRP £6.99) for the special price of £5.99 each incl free UK p&p. To order please call 01206 255 800 and quote the ref ‘All About You'.

Offer vaild until May 31st