Alan Titchmarsh, Britain's best-loved gardener, has opened up about a 'heartbreaking' discovery that greeted him and his wife Alison when they returned home. The couple had been away for a weekend just before their prized cherry blossom tree was due to open, only to find it had been decimated by wood pigeons.
Alan recently left his Hampshire residence for a 16th-century cottage in Surrey, giving him a completely new garden to cultivate and personalise. Discussing his new environment, he drew attention to its impressive water feature: 'What I love about my new garden is the way it complements the house in the way it's been softly sculpted - there are no hard edges, there's lots of fraying into trees, then shrubs, lower perennials, and the pond with the ducks dabbling.'
The former Gardeners' World host, who marked his 77th birthday on Saturday, May 2, lists the destruction of his cherry blossom in his former Hampshire garden amongst the most devastating blows he has experienced in any of his outdoor spaces. Speaking to BBC Gardeners' World magazine last year, he said: 'My small but now 20-year old plantation of the pure-white 'Shirotae' cherry generally gives rise to gasps in early April.'
'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...' However, what met the pair was utterly crushing. 'The welter of buds had been decimated by wood pigeons,' he says. He observed that only a handful of blooms had survived - those clinging to the very tips of the thinner branches that would be too delicate to support the weight of the invading birds: 'Heartbreaking,' he added.
Alan will undoubtedly be keen to avoid the difficulties he faced when he built the pond in his Hampshire garden. He recalls that while he never expected larger creatures such as otters to appear in the pond he dug around 15 years ago, he had hoped for more modest visitors: 'Newts and dragonflies, damselflies and perhaps the odd kingfisher.'
For a time, that vision seemed to be coming to fruition. Speaking to BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, he describes how the pond supported a flourishing community of insects gliding across its surface - until an unexpected development changed everything. 'But then, from somewhere,' Alan recalled, 'probably on the webbed feet of a visiting duck, roach arrived.'
Roach, a resilient freshwater fish that can grow up to 14 inches long, are known for thriving in challenging conditions - even surviving in polluted waters where other species disappear. That toughness, however, comes with a voracious appetite. 'Thinking it was just another form of wildlife to gleefully add to my list, I bought some fish food,' Alan said. '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.'
However, beyond the spectacle, the consequences have been far from ideal. The roach, not satisfied with occasional feeds, have also wiped out much of the insect life that previously flourished in the pond. In an attempt to restore balance, Alan has nurtured an alder tree to grow over the water, hoping it might serve as a perch for a kingfisher to prey on the fish.
