One of Britain’s best-loved gardeners and television presenters, Alan Titchmarsh, has spent years transforming his own dream garden.
We takes a glimpse inside the stunning surrounds of his Hampshire home, where he lives with wife Alison.
Over his career, Alan has shared plenty of tips and tricks to help others achieve their dream garden, so unsurprisingly, his expansive garden is one of the most beautiful private gardens you’ll see.
READ MORE:Inside Mark Rogers and Paul Kinsella's Dublin home: How to make the most of small spaces
Having lived in his Hampshire home for over twenty years, the garden has been a labour of love for Alan, who shared the first glimpse of it on the programme Fifty Shades of Green with Alan Titchmarsh back in 2019 to celebrate his 50 years in gardening.
In 2021, he virtually opened the gates to his garden again in support of the National Garden Scheme to help raise funds for charities during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “It’s only now that I’ve been happy to let the cameras in for the first time. Whatever goes on in the wider world, every spring is a new beginning. It’s a chance for gardeners to start anew, to realise how important the garden is as a way of expressing ourselves artistically and as a way of keeping in touch with nature, the one constant in an ever changing, often frightening world. Our gardens are the ultimate reality – created by man with the help of nature, they offer us an anchor in times of turmoil.”
Flowers and Blooms
Alan’s garden is a riot of colour with his bedding a mixture of border perennials, flowering shrubs, roses and trees. As you would expect from a gardening expert, the result is breath-taking. Topiary and roses mix with ornamental highlights. Beautiful wildflower meadows provide a haven for wildlife, which he says is the one part of his garden he “prizes more than all the others.” After purchasing the house, he bought an extra two acres for the garden and sowed a wildflower mixture by hand. Now, his greatest delight is watching the meadow change through the seasons, with cowslips in April, through to marjoram and field scabious in summer.
Lawns
The terrace and lawns around the house are formal in shape, however he revealed he planted the beds in “a billowing mass, the informal planting softening the formal geometry”.
And while the lawns and tree lined paths surrounding the house are immaculately manicured - and the perfect length, as an advocate of organic gardening, Alan does not use chemical weed killers or fertilisers. Instead his lawns get a feed of blood, fish and bone meal, and daisies and dandelions are pulled out with a daisy-grubber. Small weeds are allowed to remain.
Greenhouse
Alan uses his Victorian style greenhouse to grow some of his favourite plants, from pelargoniums to geraniums, cucumbers to tomatoes, plus a sweet mimosa from Elton John’s garden. In Alan’s potting shed, he keeps a selection of tools large and small, but there is one of which he is especially fond: his grandfather’s spade, which, he says, is ‘almost ceremonial now’.
Waterfalls and sculptures
Magnificent water features, including more than 10 mini waterfalls, introduce serenity and peace to the magnificent gardens. At the centre of the circular lawn there is a pond with a copy of a sculpture at Kew Gardens, Winged Boy With Dolphin, by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea del Verrocchio. Another magnificent feature are his rills - shallow channels of water cut into soil.
His own makes a soothing, burbling sound. Alan said: “There is a moment at 11.30am on a June day when the sun shines right down that rill and turns each of those little tiny waterfalls silver, and I can set my watch by it and it’s lovely.”
Get the latest RSVP headlines straight to your inbox for free by signing up to our newsletter
Join our new WhatsApp community! Click this LINK to receive your daily dose of RSVP Live content. We also treat our community members to wonderful competitions, promotions, along with great stories. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice
