Alan Titchmarsh has spoken about the challenges of moving home with his wife Alison after 51 years of marriage, describing the relocation as an "unsettling upheaval". The 77-year-old ITV presenter and his wife downsized from their Hampshire farmhouse to a bungalow in Surrey over the summer, leaving behind a garden he had spent 23 years cultivating.
A Difficult Departure
Writing in his column for Country Life Magazine, Titchmarsh said: "After the unsettling upheaval of moving house–and garden–in the hottest, driest summer on record, I seem to have found a kind of equilibrium and a new lease of gardening life."
He reflected on the responsibility of leaving his former garden, noting: "Caring for four acres of garden that took a quarter of a century to create and to cherish was some responsibility. 'How could you bear to leave it?' I am asked regularly. 'With difficulty' is the reply."
Starting Anew
Titchmarsh added: "I have learned to move on, however, mentally as well as physically, and to relish the chance to start again from scratch on a more modest scale and on acid sand instead of chalk, clay and flint."
The gardening expert has discovered new favourite plants in his new garden, including Chinese dogwoods and magnolias. He also noted that spring on his Surrey home's acid soil is "legitimately far more colourful" compared with the chalk downland of his former property.
His efforts to upgrade the new garden have taken a toll on his knees, which he admits "have taken a battering" after months of planting beds and borders.
Reasons For Moving
Titchmarsh previously explained the decision to downsize in an interview with the Daily Mail, saying: "We are simply downsizing and moving to be closer to our two daughters and our grandchildren who live a few miles away."
Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh airs on Sunday mornings from 9.30am on ITV1 and ITVX.
