Alan Titchmarsh's Garden Secrets - Season 1

In the first episode,Alan visits Hatfield House in Hertfordshire to look at the key design features of the gardens of this 17th-century stately home. This was a time when horticulture and architecture worked seamlessly together and Hatfield reflects this new love of the aesthetic. Alan examines the famous parterres, which are some of the first examples of Britain's affection for formal gardening, and shows how the parterre has been brought into the 21st century by designer Tom Stuart-Smith with his designs at Broughton Grange in Oxfordshire.

Few gardening movementscan match the impact of the 18th-century landscape movement, and Stowe in Buckinghamshire is one of the most important examples of their revolutionary designs. Here, we find a rejection of the rigid formality of the previous century and an embracing of nature, no matter what the ecological cost.

The Victorians gave us a taste for exotic plants from around the world, a thirst for technology in the garden and a love of bold statements. Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire is a classic example of all these elements.

The Victorians were transforming the garden from the natural landscapes of the 18th century to a new, manufactured style. Alan comments how Biddulph is 'a world-in-one garden' made up of separate, highly stylized designs inspired by China, Italy, Egypt and Scotland. These gardens are a setting for plant life from around the world and Alan explains how the Victorians were passionate plant hunters, particularly for orchids. He also shows us how to plant and care for exotics in our own garden.

Alan reveals howSissinghurst gardens in Kent is one of the most influential of the 20th century. Created by two passionate gardeners, Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Sir Harold Nicholson, its development coincided with key social changes in the British garden.