Alan Titchmarsh says striped lawn is ‘good for mental health’
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Gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh has hit out at BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don over his lawn tips. Earlier this month, Monty discouraged people from cutting their lawn. He said cutting your grass “makes a filthy noise and is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife”.
The 65-year-old told the Radio Times that he loves walking of freshly cut lawns but that making sure it’s neat and striped is unnecessary.
He said: “Letting grass grow, which is, after all, a pretty passive thing to do, is probably the single most effective thing you can do in any garden of any size to encourage particularly insect life, but also small mammals, invertebrates, replies.”
However, gardening expert and Love Your Garden presenter Alan has directly opposed Monty’s tips saying that a neat, stripy lawn is “excellent” for his mental health.
The 71-year-old told Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard on GMB: “Our gardens are full of exotic plants from foreign countries which are still good for British bees.
“I have a flower meadow but I also have a striped lawn.
“Gardens do two things… One, most importantly, they’re brilliant for wild fly.
“Secondly, they’re also good for our wellbeing.
“I find that a small piece of striped lawn does me a power of good.
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“It’s excellent for my mental health.
“So I share it with the wildlife and I enjoy it myself as well and that’s my take on it.”
Ben, who often shares snaps of his garden on Instagram, said he aspires to have perfectly striped lawns.
He told Alan: “My aspiration is to have perfect stripes – and I have a very small bit of lawn because Annie does all the gardening and we have a lot of flowers.
“But those lines when they’re straight…There’s nothing more comforting than that is there?”
Alan replied: “I rest my case! Absolutely!
“Wildlife and humans, we co-exist. It’s called gardening!”
Alan will be presenting a show called Spring into Summer which is all about the British great outdoors next month.
The show will see the gardening expert chat to celebrity guests as well as getting them involved in some gardening and food tastings.
The first episode will see Alan joined by Gavin and Stacey star Alison Steadman.
The actor will be discussing her crusade to protect wildlife in the UK.
He will also be joined by TV carpenter Wayne Perrey who will be discussing garden seating.
Spring into Summer will air on April 5 on ITV at 8pm
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