Alan Titchmarsh has revealed why he intentionally leaves gaps in his garden borders, with the gardening expert explaining the simple reason behind his approach. Speaking on his YouTube channel Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh, the 77-year-old championed annual flowers as an affordable way to inject colour into gardens while revealing how they helped him when money was tight in the years after he first got married.
Annual Flowers: A Cheap and Effective Option
The presenter described annuals as plants that complete their entire life cycle within a year, making them a cheap and effective option for filling empty spaces in beds and borders. Hardy varieties can survive cooler weather, while half-hardy and tender annuals need protection from frost. Reflecting on his early days of gardening, he said: "I was very grateful for annual flowers when I first got married because we hadn't got very much money."
Alan recalled buying packets of pot marigold seeds and sowing them directly into the ground in his small sandy garden, adding: "They came up and they cost me next to nothing." He painted a picture of those lean years, saying: "That was the time when we used to save 10p a week with the butcher to buy a Christmas joint. You get my feeling, right? Okay. And that means I've always had a great soft spot for them."
Practical Reasons for Gaps in Borders
Alan has in recent months spoken about a major change in his life — his decision to downsize from his Grade II Hampshire home to a single-storey building with a smaller garden in Surrey. The presenter was quick to address a potential criticism of his new cottage garden, where some borders appear more sparsely planted than others. "Now, in our cottage garden, you could have said, 'Alan, why didn't you plant these closer together? Because then you wouldn't have had any gaps.'"
However, he insisted there was a practical reason for resisting the temptation to pack borders too tightly. "But if I'd done that, it would have given them no chance over the next year or so to thicken out and grow to their full potential. Also, perennials are more expensive than seed-raised annuals, so this is both practical and economical."
Instant Colour with Annuals
He advised gardeners who find bare patches during the summer to turn to annual flowers for an instant lift. "If you suddenly find yourself in June or July with a hole in a bed or border, go to annuals because they'll give you that instant hit," he said. Instead of leaving gaps bare, he fills them with colourful annuals, including orange pot marigolds, plum-coloured cosmos and the red-and-black Ladybird poppy, which he admitted is "not subtle". "But I really rather like a bit of outrageousness in a cottage garden," he said.
Summing up his approach to gardening, the broadcaster added: "Sometimes you want a garden, all the time, to make you smile. Don't you think?" Alan returns to ITV this Sunday (July 12) with Love Your Weekend, welcoming actress Joanna David and floral designer Simon Lycett.
