All our gardens are valid

Monty and Alan must move with the times

- Ruth Hayes

YOU would think that something as beneficial for our mental and physical well-being as gardening would be a place of tranquillity and togetherness. Well, you would be wrong,

The latest figureheads to ruffle horticultural feathers are Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh who recently came out against garden ‘rewilding’.

It’s confusing isn’t it? On the one hand we have conservationists pointing out – and no one with eyes in their head can disagree with this – that the UK’s insect, bird and wildlife populations are in dangerous decline, and gardeners are essential to help redress the balance.

On the other hand we have two established gardening gurus denouncing rewilding (in most cases it is simply stopping mowing the lawn for a few weeks in summer) as ‘puritanical nonsense’ and ‘catastrophic for wildlife’.

It would be a hardened cynic who wondered whether these two high-profile, well-paid presenters are simply protecting their careers and keeping their loyal ‘petunias, leaf-blowers and decking’ followers on-side, along with plant suppliers and lucrative gardening brands, but surely there is a middle way?