Alan Titchmarsh warns gardeners about important but 'catastrophic' lawn trend
22.07.2023 - 12:31
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Alan Titchmarsh has spoken out against a popular gardening trend that helps wildlife flourish. The Love Your Garden Legend has claimed that rewilding green spaces could actually be "catastrophic" for biodiversity.
The practice sees those with green-fingers leave their lawns to overgrow, allowing nature to once again take care of itself - and us. The garden expert does believe that re-wilding is important for conserving UK biodiversity, but overdoing it can actually work against nature, reports Bristol Live.
Re-wilding reintroduces weeds and wild flowers that critters vital to the ecosystem thrive on and has become favoured among gardeners in recent years. But the ITV presenter claims that re-wilded gardens that focus on native plants offer reduced sustenance and shelter for wildlife, especially in the winter months.
Instead, Alan says that outdoor spaces with a wide range of plants provide birds and insects with nourishment and birds all year round. He said: "The garden is patently far richer – and for far longer – in the variety of insect and bird species it sustains.
"As custodians of the botanical riches of our gardens, domestic gardeners have a duty – and a glorious one at that – to ensure the survival of this unparalleled resource.
"Should a current fashionable – and ill-considered – trend deplete our gardens of their botanical riches then we have presided over a diminution in biodiversity of catastrophic proportions."
The presenter, who has an enviable two-acre wildflower meadow and garden at his home in Hampshire, is also concerned by the "misleading propaganda" that only native plants are valuable to wildlife and the environment.
MailOnline reports Alan pleaded with judges at Chelsea Flower Show to weed out wild