[2][3] He is the son of Bessie (née Hardisty), a textile mill worker, and Alan Titchmarsh senior, a plumber.

[4] In 1964, after leaving school at 15, with one O-level in Art, Titchmarsh went to work as an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council attending day release classes at Shipley Art and Technology Institute in Shipley in the West Riding of Yorkshire studying for a City and Guilds qualification in horticulture.

Interested in English literature and writing, he applied for a post with the Hamlyn publishing Group, as assistant editor of gardening books.

[5] In 1977 Titchmarsh began his career in broadcasting as a gardening expert on BBC Radio 4 You and Yours and The Today Programme .

[6] In 1986 Titchmarsh hosted Open Air and from 1987 the BBC television talk shows Daytime Live and Pebble Mill, which he did until 1996.

In 1997 he hosted the BBC One television series, Ground Force, in which he and fellow presenters Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh would perform a makeover on a garden.

In 2013 Titchmarsh was a reporter on the BBC Two programme The Great British Winterand in 2014 he presented The Queen's Garden, a two-part series for ITV, that was filmed over one year.

In 2017 the Channel Five programme Secrets of the National Trust started airing with Alan Titchmarsh as the main presenter.

[21] And when it aired on KCTV, It featured a Korean language voice-over (Despite Alan Titchmarsh's English speaking still being clearly heard).

Trowel & Error (2002) was an autobiographical work, followed by Nobbut A Lad: A Yorkshire Childhood (2006) and then Knave of Spades (2009) and When I Was A Nipper (2010).

[22][23] In 2002 he and his wife moved into a grade II listed Georgian Hampshire farmhouse, with a garden of 4 acres (1.6 ha).

In 2011 he rang a quarter peal in Holybourne, Hampshire, to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

He played the part of Kenneth Grahame for the Royal Ballet production of 'The Wind in the Willows' at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2014, written by Andrew Motion and choreographed by Will Tuckett.

He has been a vocal opponent of the trend for turning over land which is valuable in terms of agriculture and horticulture to solar panels, believing that while energy saving is vital it should not automatically take precedence over food production.

The charity eventually became part of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening of which Titchmarsh is an active supporter.

Titchmarsh was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to horticulture and broadcasting and was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2025 New Year Honours for services to horticulture and to charity [32] He was made a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of the County of Hampshire in 2001.