Green Fingers…The Alan Titchmarsh Column

He’s a brilliant presenter, accomplished gardener, talented novelist and all-round horticultural inspiration. This month, Alan Titchmarsh discusses the uniqueness and the survival of our gardens.

There is an argument to say the more complicated you make something, the more difficult it is to keep things constant. I am certainly guilty of pushing and pushing and adding so much more to an idea when I could have kept things safe and sane.

I think it’s important though to remind people that whether your garden is some elaborate flourish of colour and texture and shape, or just a bit of grass and some simple shrubbery, absolutely everything about it is unique.

After all, that space has its own unique history - for some, the flowers in it are a present; they may even come from another country; they might remind us of a special occasion or an event or story. We may just have spotted them in the garden centre and gone from there.

The point is everything we have is full of memories and stories. The things we put in our gardens remind us of times in our lives, and when that garden is in full colour and full blossom in May, or in its full richness in autumn, or at some other point in the year, it creates and stimulates memories.

I have done so much in my gardens, but I don’t think I could pick one specific thing – everything has been my favourite part at some stage. And I believe the whole beauty of gardening is that it’s personal, and the freedom of choice really is with the person getting their hands dirty.

Ultimately, if you want to follow my advice and slavishly do as I say in my books, then that is perfectly fine. However, if you read something and think, ‘I don’t agree with that, I’m doing it my way,’ then that is good too, because it has at least made you think.

Gardening is private – it’s intimate. We all have different ideas in terms of what we think of as full or minimalist, and I am passionate about people exploring their own narrative, because anybody can do this. Simply decide what you’d like to grow – perhaps something you want to eat, or smell, or just look at. Buy the seeds and do it. Don’t even worry about the process, just try it out.

When it succeeds, do it again; and most importantly, when it fails, do it again too!