Exclusive interview: Alan Titchmarsh on his 'secret' garden Alan's own gardening hero was his junior schoolteacher, Harry Rhodes, a keen gardener who brought cacti to the school to sell. He taught Alan how to grow broad beans on blotting paper and passed on his love of plants. Encouraged by this, Alan built his own greenhouse at the age of 12 from polythene and timber offcuts. He left school with one O-level but swiftly got into his stride when he started to study horticulture. Alan's achievements are numerous. He has written extensively on gardening for the past 40 years, and presented the Chelsea Flower Show programme for three decades, along with many other series. Yet when asked what is his greatest achievement to date, he replies, "getting other people across the threshold." He wants everyone to experience the satisfaction of gardening. Lenten hellebores peep out Alan's mission is to make gardening approachable and easier to understand - as distinct from dumbing it down. Viewers may have started watching Ground Force, which often led them to Gardeners" World. "You cannot be too purist about it and you must explain it in palatable form," he explains. This he certainly achieved with Ground Force. For the programme, Alan drew up 67 designs (working from a video and a plan). When arriving on site, seat-of-the-pants changes had to be made during the two-day time frame allowed to construct the garden, as manholes, drains and other obstacles were discovered. It ran at the same time as Changing Rooms but was fundamentally different in that the "reveal" on the home makeover programme had a big element of shock horror, whereas Alan always "desperately wanted the owner to love it. Gardeners are dream providers," he says. It has taken not two days, but 10 years, to "reveal" his current garden. One of the most crucial decisions was what house to buy to home his new project. Anything that had a ready-made, beautiful garden was out of the question. "I wanted a blank canvas," he says. To rip out someone else's garden to superimpose my own would be nonsensical, perverse. He found a Georgian farmhouse a few miles down the road from Barleywood. This new plot had mainly long grass and nettles, and was ripe for transformation. There were outbuildings, too - essential to convert into a place to write. Now he has four acres, with three-quarters of an acre of garden proper. The wildlife pond Which gardens have influenced his design? Of all the gardens he has seen, the one he could envisage happily living in is Highgrove. The Prince of Wales's garden is far more extensive and intricate - not to mention its 12 full-time gardeners - but both gardens go with period houses and are traditional with modern twists. The master plan was the first step. A bird's-eye view plan was not his style. Whoever sees it from up in the sky?. Instead Alan used canes pushed into the ground or lines of sand to mark out the grand scheme, then kept popping to different parts of the house to see how it looked from various positions. He adjusted it as necessary, consulting with "Mrs T." His wife, Alison, has "a queenly role, to advise, encourage and warn." She is obviously a sounding board that is much appreciated and listened to. The design of any garden is important, but Alan comes to design "as a gardener who has learnt to be a bit of a designer." They covered design when he studied at Kew, and it has always interested him, but plants are of paramount importance and he prefers them to provide the structure: "I am a plantsman who puts his plants together in a design that works well." Years of practical gardening have taught him many things, but the most important is that you can move most things. Sometimes he agonises for ages and thinks, "where can this go?" He has had a golden catalpa in limbo in a pot for 18 months. But if it doesn't work in one place, it can move on and have another chance. With every year, he appreciates more and more the importance of gardens. "It's not just for us but for birds, butterflies, a myriad wildlife," he says. Huge enjoyment can be derived from a piece of land that is hospitable to all forms of life. Flowering cherries and purple tulips When they dug his wildlife pond, shortly after filling and planting it with native plants, the pond skaters arrived. Then a host of mini beasts and plants, before the roach (the eggs hitched a lift on ducks" feet), followed by two broods of mallards and moorhens. The recent arrival of a kingfisher was "the ultimate seal of approval." Among his favourite plants are the Lenten hellebores, which look spectacular in early spring, opening above a sheet of dazzling pink Cyclamen coum. But he warms to many plants that look robust and healthy. Recently he has become enamoured with flowering cherries, especially his Prunus 'Shirotae" which are underplanted, in his meadow, with the daffodil Narcissus 'Bell Song." He loves the more ephemeral plants and tries to avoid the castigation of certain popular and common plants simply because of their mass appeal, preferring to judge them on their virtues. Will Alan continue to develop his garden, or move on to pastures new? He enjoys tweaking it and there are still projects for the future, such as a potager (he only has three small raised beds of veg). But as for moving on, hopefully not. The Titchmarshes are firmly rooted in. My Secret Garden (BBC Books; £25) is available from Telegraph Books at £23 + £1.35 p&p. 0844 871 1516; books.telegraph.co.uk