Gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh has shared how his career ambitions "died" after his mother was robbed in her own garden when he was a kid. The Gardeners' World icon, 75, recounted the tale of how he cultivated mint in his garden as a young boy growing up in Yorkshire. He would sell any surplus herb that the family didn't use, but when one neighbour pushed things a bit too far, it potentially derailed a young Alan's career ambitions, the Express reports.
He revealed to the September issue of BBC Gardeners' World magazine: "When I was a nipper the only herb that grew in our garden was mint - vital as an accompaniment to the roast lamb on a Sunday. "It grew in a dry, impoverished piece of earth alongside the privet hedge that flanked that gate of our Yorkshire back garden. "I endeavoured to sell it to a few neighbours and put up a handwritten sign to that effect: 'corncrake nursery - mint a penny a bunch.
' "The old man at the bottom of the street came to call while I was at school. He gave my mother a large copper penny and went to gather his mint. "She did not see the garden fork he had behind his back.
He dug up and made off with the entire clump. Any commercial aspirations I might have had in the world of horticulture died that day. My enthusiasm for herb growing did not.
" Alan Titchmarsh was the main presenter on Gardeners' World from 1996 to 2002. He has been the host of ITV gardening show Love Your Garden since 2011. He recently warned British gardeners why they should '.