UKTV Gardens: What's your favourite style of garden/garden design?
Sven: "It changes all the time. A year ago, it was modern garden design: steel, glass, hardwoods - but now I really like country-style cottage gardens. It's probably because I'm moving out to rural Suffolk."

UKTV Gardens: What is the coolest plant or flower in the world? And why?
Sven: "At the moment, dahlias are becoming very, very fashionable again, and it's a very old school plant, especially the red ones. For the last few years, my ultimate plant has been Nandina Domestica or Heavenly Bamboo. It's a fantastic plant. It's evergreen, the new leaves are red, it has berries and it's got flowers. I've got three or four of those."

UKTV Gardens: What has been your biggest gardening cock up?
Sven: "I did dig up a rose that someone had planted for their dead mother and father. Luckily, it survived."

UKTV Gardens: Is the changeable British weather a gardener's friend or foe?
Sven: "When you're out working in it, it is a bit of a foe. But in reality, it's a good thing because we have such a diverse climate, and it means we can grow more plants than any other country in the world."

UKTV Gardens: Who is your gardening hero? And why?
Sven: "I suppose there's the obvious people like Gertrude Jekyll, just in terms of what she did for plantsmanship, but I don't really have one. I try not to, in a way, as I want to do things my way."

UKTV Gardens: John Steinbeck once said: "There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp." Would you agree?
Sven: "Nothing pleasanter? He must have had a very boring life, that's all I can say. I can think of lots of other things that are much more fun. No, in all seriousness, it is relaxing but the thing I find most satisfying about it all is the actual design process. Sitting there, drawing something, making it work on paper and then actually translating that into a garden is what does it for me."

UKTV Gardens: What would you be doing if you weren't doing this for a living?
Sven: "I'd be a guitarist in a rock band."

UKTV Gardens: Which famous people's gardens have you worked on?
Sven: "Ann Maurice kept on mentioning me doing her garden in San Francisco but I don't think she was being too serious. Although if you read this Ann, I'd do it."

UKTV Gardens: Alan Tichmarsh once joked that his obituary would read "The Man Who Planked Britain". What will yours read?
Sven: "The man who gravelled Britain."

UKTV Gardens: Is decking chav?
Sven: "Hmmm... I like it... still... in the right context, of course."