TV gardening presenter Alan Titchmarsh shared how his Hampshire garden has been overrun by wildlife – but not in a good way.
Alan Titchmarsh shared his ‘heartbreaking’ discovery after welcoming wildlife to his garden(Image: Getty)
Like many green-fingered enthusiasts, Alan Titchmarsh loves the vast array of wildlife that frequents his garden. However, he recently revealed that inviting wildlife into your garden comes with its share of drawbacks.
Alan, who is appearing on our screens today on ITV’s Love Your Weekend, shared that although he did not anticipate large creatures like otters in the wildlife pond he dug about 15 years ago in his Hampshire home, he did have hopes for smaller aquatic visitors. “Newts and dragonflies, damselflies and perhaps the odd kingfisher,” he said.
In a conversation with BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, Alan recounted how he initially enjoyed a bustling ecosystem of tiny creatures skimming across his pond – until an unexpected turn of events.
“But then, from somewhere,” he said, “probably on the webbed feet of a visiting duck, roach arrived.”
Roach are resilient freshwater fish that can grow up to 14 inches and survive under challenging conditions. Researchers have noted that roach often persist when other species vanish in polluted water bodies.
Alan’s most heartbreaking wildlife experience, he says, was the destruction of his beloved cherry blossom.(Image: 2019 Neil Mockford)
“Thinking it was just another form of wildlife to gleefully add to my list, I bought some fish food,” Alan continued. “Whenever I sprinkle it on the water, the surface turns into something reminiscent of that scene in the James Bond movie where the baddie is eaten by piranhas. The once limpid pool becomes a foaming cauldron for fully 30 seconds before all the food disappears.”
As reported by GloucestershireLive, not satisfied with Alan’s sporadic offerings of fish food, the roach also wiped out the insect population that had brought him such joy during his pond’s early years.
In an attempt to rebalance nature, Alan nurtured the development of an alder tree above the pond, making it simpler for any passing kingfisher to identify the roach concealed below.
However, Alan’s most devastating wildlife encounter, he reveals, was the destruction of his treasured cherry blossom. “My small but now 20-year old plantation of the pure-white ‘Shirotae’ cherry generally gives rise to gasps in early April,” he says.
“This year we went away for the weekend just before it was due to open. We returned and excitedly walked around the back of our barn to take in the anticipated view..”
Yet the sight that awaited Alan and his wife Alison was “pathetic,” he says. “The welter of buds had been decimated by wood pigeons.”
He described how the only blossoms that survived were the tiny ones at the very ends of slender branches that couldn’t support the weight of a ravenous wood pigeon. “Heartbreaking,” he added.