Alan Titchmarsh and his wife Alison recently decided to leave their £3.5 million home and ‘downsize’ meaning Alan had to leave his old garden behind and start again
Gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh is facing a “daunting” task after a major change with his wife Alison. The couple, who married in 1975, recently decided it was time to downsize their home.
It meant selling their £3.5m home on the edge of Hampshire’s New Forest. The couple have instead moved to a more modern property in Surrey, where their grown-up daughters already lived.
Alan has previously described the decision to move as a “wrench” for any gardener. He says people often “pour so much of their heart and soul” into their outdoor spaces.
He says his new plot is like a “classic English cottage garden” with an abundance of “nooks and crannies and beds and borders”. He however describes the woodland surrounding the garden as being “like a jungle”.
Writing in BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, Alan said: “Having just taken on an acre of woodland on acid soil, I have the daunting task of rejuvenating a plantation that was established some 50 years ago and which, for perhaps the last 10 years, has ‘got away’.
“Lovely express that: the implication that the plants have yielded to no one in their ability to romp ever upwards to the light, elbowing weaker specimens out of the way. The result? An impenetrable thicket.”
Alan says the woodland boasts a series of flowers that have survived the trees, including rhododendrons, azaleas, pieris, camellias, and leucothoe. He also says the woodland has “lauren and more laurel” growing beneath the well-established trees.
The former Gardeners’ World presenter admits he is “excited” to take on the “once-attractive woodland garden”. As well as the trees, it has an artificial stream bed and a pond “half-filled with water, leaves and that rampant coloniser of damp earth”.
While Alan says he could fill the pond, admitting they rarely thrive in dense wooded areas, something “impels” him to try and “resurrect” it . In a clip on his Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh YouTube Channel, the horticulturalist noted there were almost “mini gardens” scattered throughout the grounds.
Alan is reluctant to “spoil” the existing garden at his new property but has already begun tidying up the flowerbeds and planning alterations he wishes to make. He said: “What I love about this garden is how it compliments the house, the way in which it has been softly sculptured.
“There are no hard edges. There’s lots of fraying into trees and shrubs and then lower perennials and the pond with the ducks dabbling. You feel, when you walk into this garden, that it’s a sanctuary.”
Wandering through his garden, Alan came across a withered tree with two chairs positioned beneath it. He told viewers: “Who wouldn’t want to park underneath a gnarled old tree, I think we can do something with it really, it’s just a little bit sad and tired now.”
The presenter will return to screens with Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh from 9.30am on ITV One. This week he will be joined by actor Martin Clunes, actress Anne Reid and author Anthony Horowitz.
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