Gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh chuckles at the thought that at the age of 75 he’s become an influencer giving out horticultural advice.
He’s just launched his own YouTube channel, Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh, featuring ‘how to’ videos, tips and advice, in the hope of attracting a new generation of gardeners.
The videos simultaneously appear on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook accounts, although Titchmarsh himself is only active on Instagram, steering clear of other social media outlets.
“Are you allowed to be a trendsetter when you’ve been doing it this long?” he asks, chuckling.
“I’d like to think I’ve been an influencer for a long time, but maybe not on TikTok.”
He’s also currently presenting the second series of Alan Titchmarsh’s Gardening Club on ITV, the Ask Alan podcast and will be appearing at the forthcoming RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May, giving a talk on what being a good gardener means to him.
A trend he would like to start is encouraging people to rely more heavily on plant material rather than hard landscaping, he says.
“Making a garden is the opposite to painting a picture, in that you paint a picture and then you find a suitable frame for it. When you’re making a garden, you build the frame and then put the picture inside the frame.
“When you’re making a garden, you build the frame, whether it’s paving structures, buildings or whatever, and then you put the plants in which softens them and gives them a sense of perspective in the garden. The picture must always be more important.”
Did he ever envisage becoming an influencer?
“It’s an intriguing term. Social media didn’t exist when I started writing and broadcasting about gardening back in the mid and late Seventies.
“I love it when people say, ‘I’m an influencer’. Well, how do you know? You’ve got a million followers but it doesn’t mean anybody’s actually doing what you tell them to do. It just means they are clicking on the button. All I can do is hope that people are inspired by what I demonstrate.”
What does being a good gardener mean to him?
“It’s being aware of your part in the bigger picture and gardening responsibly and sustainably in a way that respects the soil and encourages the creatures on it and within it and being a good custodian of a little piece of land that’s in your care.”
Titchmarsh, who was recently awarded a CBE for services to horticulture and charity, lives with his wife Alison live in a gorgeous Grade-II listed Georgian farmhouse in Hampshire, where he has lovingly transformed his garden into a glorious space over the years. They celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary this year.
He says he is a more responsible gardener now than he was 40 years ago.
“When I was an apprentice and student during the Sixties and Seventies we had spray programmes for orchards and tar oil and winter washes to ensure that the crop we were growing was blemish-free and pest free, with not much thought given to the rest of the garden.
“I’m organic, I don’t use any kind of sprays, insecticides, pesticides or herbicides. The important thing is that you keep improving your soil, not with organic fertilisers but with food like blood, fish and bone, which will feed your plants and encourage soil bacteria to break it down before plants can feed on it.”
From his early days of TV garden makeovers with Ground Force, he says he doesn’t look back and cringe at some of the trends that show set, with him at the presenting helm.
“I get teased about decking,” he admits, “but it opened up gardens to a lot of people who couldn’t possibly afford paving. Remember that before decking it was crazy paving, right the way through a century before that which was hideous.
“Decking allowed people to have somewhere to sit and if they slipped and fell over they were bruised rather than breaking their hip, which they did on crazy paving. I’m not apologetic about decking at all.”
Does he have any thoughts of slowing down?
“I take Fridays off now and try to work a four-day week. I write in the morning and I’m pretty spent by about 1pm, have a bite to eat and then garden.”
He has help in his four-acre garden and hopes he won’t have to downsize, even though his daughters have long flown the nest.
“By virtue of gardening I get a bit of cardio, I do Pilates once a week. I don’t run anymore, I don’t want to ruin my knees. I walk and try to do 10,000 steps a day, but as long as I keep moving, that’s the main thing.”
RHS Malvern Spring Festival runs from May 8-11.
