Alan Titchmarsh has shared a simple planting tip for gardeners looking to transform a plain patio into a vibrant summer space. The TV gardener recommended Verbena bonariensis while demonstrating how to create a welcoming outdoor room filled with colour, fragrance, and wildlife-friendly plants.
Transforming a Forgotten Patio
"It's so easy for a patio to become a forgotten space. A few tired old pots, a bench, maybe a table," he told his Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh YouTube channel. "I'm going to show you how to turn that small space into a really useful outdoor room." Using raised wheeled planters painted in a warm clay shade, Alan set about creating what he called "floral and foliage walls" around a dining area. "I want height. I want to create sort of floral and foliage walls, something which gives you a kind of stained glass window effect that you can look through and still see a bit of structure," he explained.
Choosing the Right Plants
The gardening expert used evergreen plants including Ilex crenata and pittosporum to provide year-round interest, while summer flowers were added to deliver colour throughout the season. Among his top recommendations were foxgloves, which he said are ideal for creating a natural screen without completely blocking views. "Foxgloves are really useful plants in either sun or dappled shade, and here they're making this sort of semi-permeable wall that we'll be able to look through," he said.
However, when it came to choosing tall flowering plants, Alan advised gardeners to avoid some traditional favourites. "You can use lots of tall plants in situations like this. I wouldn't choose delphiniums or lupins because they're fairly short-lived in terms of their flower and also pretty brittle in the wind." Instead, he highlighted Verbena bonariensis as a better option thanks to its long flowering period and popularity with pollinators. "Another plant to use is Verbena bonariensis – the thin wiry one with little pom-poms of purple flowers on the top that butterflies and bees love. They will flower their socks off right the way through the summer."
The plant's tall, airy stems make it particularly useful in smaller gardens, as it provides height without feeling heavy or overcrowding the space.
Lavender for Fragrance
Alan also praised lavender, describing it as perfectly suited to sunny patios and raised containers. "Lavender is perfect for this situation because it loves full sun. It adores sharp drainage," he said. "And when you brush past it and come for your morning coffee, afternoon tea, or whatever, ah, you get that glorious fragrance rising to your nostrils."
The Finished Outdoor Room
After combining the flowers with evergreen structure plants, the presenter said the once-overlooked patio had been completely transformed. "So now we have an outdoor room where it was just a piece of rather inconsequential paving that you walked across," he said. Clearly pleased with the result, Alan added: "I'm really rather chuffed with that. Everybody will want to come and sit here and enjoy it. And if this is all the garden you've got, you've extended the house outdoors and made another room."
