TV gardener Henry Agg became best-seller after suicide of five friends

Television gardener Henry Agg has revealed five of his friends have taken their own lives, with the most recent dying last year.

The former recruiter, who left his job as part of an 'emotional breakdown' which saw him turn to gardening, said the first of his friends to die by suicide did so when Agg was in his twenties.

Two of those friends were former housemates while three were childhood pals who had all grown up together in the same West Sussex village.

He told The Times: 'All there was to do as kids was meet up in car parks after school. We mixed with other, older kids from nearby areas who had quite a bad influence.

'A lot of children were being offered drugs at 12 or 13 and the impact that can have on people as they get older - especially if you don't leave the village - means you can get stuck.'

When he had a breakdown a little over two years ago, Agg thought he was destined to fall into the same spiral that claimed the lives of so many of his friends.

But he has just released his first book, The Weekend Gardener, a guide to the outdoors aimed at those pressed for time, which has become an instant bestseller.

It has been the culmination of a story which began when the 36-year-old walked out of his home office, where he had earned good money from recruitment, at the start of his breakdown.

He took six months of sick leave after 15 years of climbing the corporate ladder which left him feeling trapped.

With his wife Allie he had stretched finances to buy a family home near Brighton in 2018 for their children, aged 4 and 6 - he also has a 14-year-old son from a previous relationship.

He was signed off work as 'depression, burnout and all those things just hit me at once' and led to a three-week 'state of chaos'.

Unable to be at home because of the close association with work, he preferred to spend time in public places and eventually turned to gardening, a hobby he had enjoyed with his father as a teenager but in which he had become disinterested.

He returned to the activity after buying his family home, teaching himself to landscape the garden after expensive quotes from professionals.

His side business running a small garden design firm was taking on commissions and growing on social media, making it a natural refuge when Agg's mental health hit a low point.

He has now amassed 564,000 Instagram followers, presented Alan Titchmarsh's Gardening Club and had his own home featured on the BBC's Gardener's World.

Former Radio 2 breakfast show host Zoe Ball, who lives nearby, can now be counted among his clients after she followed him on social media and enlisted his services.

In his book, where he simplifies what he called 'complicated jargon' about garden design, he writes the activity has been his 'saviour'.

To other would-be gardeners unsure where to begin, Agg recommends focusing on small sections and giving 20 minutes at a time to a job.