‘Why I’ll never be the same again’
Garden guru Alan Titchmarsh, currently on TV in a homemade gardening show, reveals how the pandemic has changed his outlook on life
t’s always a joy to talk to Alan Titchmarsh. It is an absolute given that he’s a lovely bloke, but there’s also something so very comforting and reassuring about his familiar Yorkshire tones. And comfort and reassurance is surely what we’re all after in these troubled times.
“Isn’t it just!” Alan agrees as he chats to us on the phone from his home in Hampshire. “None of us have lived through anything like this before.”
Alan and his wife Alison have been self-isolating since early March and while they have greatly missed their two daughters and four grandchildren, he says there have been compensations.
“Spending most of my time in the garden, for one thing. I’ve always felt connected to the earth but now I feel a renewed, very deep connection to it. That will never go away, it’s changed the way I look at life and I’ve sought spiritual sustenance in it – maybe more than ever before.
“While I intend to carry on writing and broadcasting, the pandemic has reinforced my belief that the ground, the earth, is where I’m meant to be. It’s my passion. You could say I’ve
I‘We had a professional camera delivered to film the show and my wife proved herself to be an absolute natural using it. She learned on the hoof and it’s quite a heavy piece of kit!’
gone back to my roots! Watching the garden unfolding daily has bred in me a sense of contentment and removed any ambition to leave. I’ll probably modify my schedule, because I’ve so adored being among my plants. A smiling face from above is telling me, ‘Look what you’re missing’.”
Alan says the crisis has also made him think about his priorities. “A garden can offer such solace and I hope other people are finding this to be the case, too. It’s a spiritual thing. Spending so much time outside has also done wonders for me physically. It’s a big garden and I’ve lost a stone in weight by doing all the pruning, planting, maintaining and mowing the lawn. I usually have a couple of people helping me but that’s not been possible so I’ve been running this ship on my own. I’ve been doing an average of 25,000 steps a day.”
When the latest series of Love Your Garden was postponed due to Covid-19, ITV came up with an idea for a programme to show Alan growing his own fruit and veg at home. Cue Grow Your Own At Home, currently broadcasting on Monday evenings.
“I thought it was a lovely idea but footage from my phone just wasn’t sharp enough to broadcast,” he says. “Obviously we couldn’t allow a camera operator in the house so we decided that my wife Alison should do it. A professional camera was delivered and she’s proved to be an absolute natural, so impressive when she’s learned on the hoof and it’s quite a heavy piece of kit!”
It seems Alan and Alison have had a lot of fun working together.
“It’s great,” he enthuses. “We’ve had such a laugh. There are only two of us here so we don’t grow a huge amount – that would be silly. We’re growing asparagus, runner beans, potatoes, lettuces, radishes, salad leaves, spring onions, strawberries, raspberries… Then in the greenhouse are tomatoes and cucumbers. Just a mix of stuff we like, really – although it has to be said that there’s been so much asparagus, Alison doesn’t want to eat any more. Luckily I love it.”
Quite a few of us have taken up new hobbies during lockdown but Alan’s happiest in his garden. “I know some folk get the jigsaws out when they’ve
Alan with his team on Love Your Garden, which had to be postponed due to Covid-19
cleared out the sock drawer and the cupboard under the stairs,” he laughs, “but that’s not for me. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have time. There’s more than enough to keep me occupied in the garden. To be honest, I get a bit resentful when I’m called away to a Zoom meeting or whatever.
“I look around and think how lucky I am to be isolating in the place where I’m the happiest and able to be the busiest. To be honest, I’m not very good at relaxing; even on a day off,
I’ll potter. I can just about manage to sit still to watch a film or drama but that’s about my limit.”
‘We need to learn from this pandemic, adjust the way we live and stop squandering our natural resources’
The pandemic is changing the way we all live and Alan (71) feels, that in parts, this may be a good thing.
“We need to be more careful with the planet, and if what has happened means we think more before hopping on a plane and burning up fossil fuels, then it’s a positive,” he says. “We need to learn from it, adjust the way we live and stop squandering our natural resources.”
We couldn’t agree more.
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As a nation, we spend nearly a third of our lifetime asleep and an astonishing total of six years dreaming. Yet usually what our dreams mean remains a mystery.
And even though some of the dreams, such as falling or being chased, can seem nonsensical when we wake up, top psychotherapist and co-founder of the Dream Research Institute UK Melinda Powell believes dreams can play a far bigger role in our lives than we have ever dared to realise.
“The old attitude, which is really a misconception, of dreams is that they are random and that they have no bearing on our waking experiences,“she explains. “But actually, dream content is related to your emotional tone of the day and the experience you had.
“Even if we are happy on one level, there can be situations that are eating away at us, such as bereavement or concern about a job that may not surface in the day as you have not had the time to allow it.
With a fascinating new book just out, psychotherapist Melinda Powell reveals the importance of dreams and how they can help guide us through life’s challenges
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