BBC launched sting with Alan Titchmarsh to catch obsessed Diarmuid Gavin stalker He said: "I've had some strange fans over the years but she was a proper stalker and for a long time I was the only one who'd ever seen this woman. She was always there. It got so bad I was scared I'd arrive on set one day and someone would say, 'this is your new producer' or I'd go home and find her having tea with my wife. She broke into my house. My wife, Justine, was there and she was pregnant. This woman said to her, 'I'm in love with your husband,' and my wife said, 'In that case, you need to see a doctor.' It was very hard to get the police to do anything. In the end, the BBC hired a detective and we organised a bit of a sting operation at a flower show. Alan, me and some BBC producers tried to lure her in. She always positioned herself right in front of the camera. Once she was there, we had her. It all died down after that. Gavin, who grew up in Dublin, first decided to become a gardener after resolving to change the identikit borders of his middle-class suburban neighbours. His first job was in a Dublin garden centre and he then won a place at the College of Amenity Horticulture in Dublin's Botanic Gardens. The determined gardening ace then set up a garden design business but his inventive and unorthodox approach initially failed to take off - leaving him homeless aged 30. He persevered and featured at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1996. Alan Titchmarsh interviewed Gavin following his success and his tv career took off. Gavin has since appeared on Home Front in the Garden, This Morning, Dairmuid's Big Adventure and Strictly Come Dancing. "I was very intimidated at first - it was scary but unbelievable at the same time," he said. I always had faith something good would happen, though I never once thought I'd become a TV gardener. That was never on the radar. When I thought about it, I thought of Gardener's World, which was never a programme I watched or had any interest in. But when nobody has ever asked you to do something and it's always been such a fight just to be wanted, you're going to go for it. He quickly became known as the bad boy of gardening, but had to reign back his party lifestyle after the birth of his daughter Eppie in 2004. Last year, his exhibition at the Chelsea Flower Show, The Irish Sky Garden, was a large garden pod suspended by a 250-tonne crane over a ground garden. It has since been purchased by the Irish Government and will be put on permanent display in a public park in Cork. This year, his Westland Magical Tower will be the show's tallest and biggest exhibit, soaring 80ft in the sky. He added: "I couldn't create something that was for pure beauty or a space to relax in, but so many people can do pretty gardens better than me. All I've ever wanted to do was something that grabs people and makes them smile. Diarmuid Gavin was the guest speaker at Floral Guernsey's Spring Festival Week, sponsored by Resolution Limited.