A force for good gardening

TV GARDENER AND BROADCASTER ALAN TITCHMARSH TALKS TREND SETTING AND TIKTOK WITH HANNAH STEPHENSON

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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 recently appeared at the 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.