Alan at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show(Image: (Image: Getty))

Alan Titchmarsh's strict garden rules revealed by Joe Swift during Gardeners' World filming

Garden designer Joe Swift has revealed that Alan Titchmarsh is very strict about visitors to his garden not standing on his flowerbeds, as he once told him off for doing so

by · DevonLive

Garden designer Joe Swift has shared that Gardeners' World icon Alan Titchmarsh once cautioned him against stepping on his flowerbed while filming in his garden.

There are few tasks more daunting for a gardener than working on Alan Titchmarsh's garden. For over four decades, Alan has established himself as the nation's favourite gardener, taking the reins as host of Gardeners' World with the show being shot in his own garden.

So, it must have been with some apprehension that garden designer Joe ventured into Alan's garden to film for the show. Speaking on the BBC Gardeners' World podcast, he informed host Monty Don that Alan is very particular about visitors leaving no trace behind.

He revealed: "Alan did say if you'd trodden on a flower-bed, you had to flick it over with fork and leave it nice and tidy, or you get a bit of a telling off. So there weren't footprints or compacted soil and all that sort of thing."

The Gardeners' World team(Image: (Image: Birmingham Post & Mail))

Joe, however, is accustomed to working under pressure. He likens the Chelsea Flower Show to a sporting event rather than anything related to regular gardening.

He elaborates: "If it's a three minute interview it takes three minutes and then you move on to the next thing."

"So you have to take in a huge amount of information very quickly. You know, the name of the garden, what the garden is all about, the plants, then the name of the designer...and they let you go."

Joe and Alan opening the Gardeners World Live Show(Image: (Image: bpm))

Joe points out that, in contrast to the fast-paced filming of the Chelsea Flower Show with its multiple cameras, Gardener's World is a more relaxed affair, characterised by repetition due to the use of just one camera. He notes: "You have to repeat everything 3 or 4 times," and elaborates on the process by saying, "So if I'm interviewing you, you'd be so bored of question by the end of it because I have to get close up again. Mid shot. They get why they all these different shots. We've got one camera so we have to keep repeating it."

He contrasts this with the experience at Chelsea, where he says: "Whereas a Chelsea there's four cameras sometimes five cameras. And so it's very quick."