Tommy Walsh interview

What's your favourite style of garden/garden design?
"Low maintenance!"

What is the coolest plant in the world and why?
"One that's just come out the fridge? Only joking. The coolest plant in the world is the phoenix palm because it's a big beautiful plant."

What was your biggest gardening mistake?
"We were doing a contract for somebody - some hard landscaping - in the winter. There was a lot of very fancy ornate pointing to it and we had an overnight frost. Three months later, all the work I had done separated from the base below it. It looked like an absolute disaster so we had to rip it out and do it all again. It cost me a fortune and it'll be indelibly printed on my memory forever. You shouldn't ever do any cement work in extremely cold weather. Or in extremely hot weather."

Is the changeable British weather a gardener's friend or foe?
"I always thought in my professional career before I started TV work, that one of the golden rules is never to do hard landscaping in bad weather. But obviously TV producers don't understand or listen to that, cause we only ever have two days to film and we have to work in all kinds of weather!

"The one advantage I suppose that has worked for me and not for Alan, is that working in the rain and all this manure has made me grow to six foot five, while Alan has remained five foot seven and three quarters! He says every quarter of an inch counts. And his wife says it's true!"

John Steinbeck once said: "There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp." Would you agree?
"I suppose that question is subject to interpretation. Where I come from in the east end of London, we have a different interpretation of the word "spading". And on that point I think I'd better not say any more."

What would you be doing if you weren't doing this for a living?
"I'm happy because what I do for a living is something I enjoy. I trained as a hard landscaper and I restore period buildings. But as an alternative, I'd either like to be a barrister, a professional footballer or a solo singer. I used to sing when I was a kid - I had a great voice. I sang solo at the Royal Festival Hall when I was younger. Then my voice broke and that was the end of it. I sounded like the gravely old toad that I am today. I have been asked a few times to sing. They keep trying to get me on that Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes, I said no, I was offered a record contract, I said no. You have to be really, really good otherwise you make a fool of yourself!"

Alan Tichmarsh once joke his obituary would read "The Man Who Planked Britain". What will yours read?
"No, I think you misinterpreted it - he meant, "The Man Who Plagued Britain". I'd like to have what the National Heritage people said about one of my pet projects - I rebuilt a Grade II listed building originally designed and built by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of our greatest Gothic architects. The Heritage people said to me: "It's an improvement on the original design". And that's what I'd have on my stone."

Is decking a bit chavvy now?
"No I don't think so. I think it's a great surface and I think it's going to be around for many years to come."