Alan Titchmarsh has issued an urgent recommendation to anyone in the UK with a garden as autumn and early winter begin to settle in. The celebrated gardener encouraged people to plant two specific vegetables in their gardens this autumn before the cold weather arrives.
Planting Onions and Garlic
The 77-year-old Gardeners' World and Love Your Weekend star took to YouTube to share an important message with his followers. In a video shared last year, Alan said: "You can get onion sets that you plant now in autumn. They don't grow much during the winter, but they romp away come spring and then they will ripen much earlier; these will be harvested in June."
"The thing they always tell you about garlic is you plant it on the shortest day and you harvest it on the longest day. Well, I'm never around doing things like this on December 21 because it would be the end of a marriage, you know."
Correct Planting Technique
While onions and garlic can both be planted during autumn, Alan stressed the importance of planting them correctly and warned people against planting them the wrong way round, with the tops visible, or they could face problems. He said: "In the old days they used to just leave the tops showing. If you leave the tops showing blackbirds come and pull them out and it's very irritating."
"So I like to them in so they just disappear, only just mind you. Don't bury them too deeply. It just keeps the tops out of the way of the blackbirds."
Additional Bulb Advice
Alongside onions and garlic, Alan has previously suggested planting bulbs in October so they flower the following spring. He said: "It's hard to imagine in October, isn't it? That all this is going to spring to life with glorious flowers of tulips and aliums, but it is."
Alan returned to UK screens on 4 October with Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh at 09.30am on ITV.
