Alan Titchmarsh offered a friendly warning to fellow gardeners in a recent tool-focused instalment of his YouTube series, along with a personal anecdote from his college days
Alan Titchmarsh has offered a friendly word of caution to fellow gardeners
(Image: Getty Images)
Alan Titchmarsh has offered a friendly warning to fellow gardeners as he shared a story about a time when he was “told off.” In a tool-focused instalment of Gardening With Alan Titchmarsh – his recently launched YouTube series – the beloved presenter kicked things off by highlighting the role of one of the garden’s essential “workhorses”.
He explained that the spade is useful for a variety of tasks, including planting trees, shrubs, and border perennials and for earthing up potatoes, before moving on to another common implement: the rake.
Alan’s advice on the tool was accompanied by a personal anecdote from his days at horticultural college, as well as a word of caution aimed at helping people avoid potential injuries while carrying out their “levelling”.
As he leaned the rake with the teeth in the air, Alan said: “This is what most people think of as a rake. And this is most people’s idea of a rake. Did you notice I leaned it with the teeth upwards?”
Alan’s advice was accompanied by an anecdote from his days at horticultural college
(Image: Getty Images)
He then flipped the rake so the teeth were on the floor. Alan continued: “Never, ever, ever put a rake like that because you’ll tread on it and it’ll come up and whack you in the eye. Always stand it like that.
“I remember being told off by a lecturer at horticultural college, and I was overraking the soil. He said, ‘Stop it. Stop it’. I said, ‘What? What?’ He said, ‘The rake is not for breaking down soil. That’s what a fork is for. The rake is for levelling and you only need a few strokes across the ground to make it level with a rake’.
“There are other rakes as well. There’s the famous springbok rake; this one with wire tines. The nearest we get to a musical instrument in the garden. This has one use and one use only: for raking dead grass, thatch and moss out of a lawn.”
He then explained that the variety that best serves for leaves on gravel or on the lawn is a plastic or rubber toothed rake, noting that they are “much more giving” and won’t become stuck in the grass.
Alan’s advice was aimed at helping people avoid potential injuries
(Image: Getty Images)
Alan described this type as “really efficient and effective” at sweeping up leaves, adding that this would be the rake he would choose if he “could only run to one”, suggesting it could also be used for “levelling the soil a little”.
In related news, Alan recently revealed that there’s a type of tree that he doesn’t like “very much” .
Speaking again on his channel, he revealed that he’s not a fan of the weeping birch.
He said: “Personally, I don’t like it very much, but if you like it and you want a birch, Young’s weeping birch for a tiny garden, but jacquemontii for anything of reasonable size.”
You can next catch Alan on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV on Sunday, February 15, from 9.30am to 11.30am.
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