Gavin's gardens

Diarmuid Gavin is the pin-up boy of TV gardening in the UK. His unconventional garden designs have included glitter balls, space rockets and rusted metal sharks. Lorraine Chandler sees if she can dig up any of this Irishman's secrets

Irish TV gardener Diarmuid Gavin has put the 'oomph' into gardening and has thousands of fan letters to prove it.

If, like me, you can't tell the difference between weeds and prize blooms, and are more familiar with the borders of countries than the borders around a lawn, it might be hard to see how a gardener could set so many pulses racing.

Yet 41-year old Gavin is undoubtedly the Page 3 boy of TV gardening. In the last ten years he has dominated gardening programmes in the UK, presenting Home Front in the Garden, Gardeners' World and Gardens through Time.

He has also co-presented the hugely popular Home Front with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (a British interior designer and TV personality best known for his appearances on the BBC television programme, Changing Rooms).

When he started on TV, people only watched gardening programmes when there was nothing else on TV, or if they were so immobilised that they couldn't reach the TV remote control.

Now hordes of people, including a surprising number of women, are cancelling social plans so they can stay in and learn about potting plants. Could it be anything to do with Gavin's charm?

Certainly, his tousled brown hair, mellow Irish accent and habit of leaving his shirt open seem to have played a big role in Gavin's success. He's been described as a 'natural' so many times that it's almost a cliche, but he definitely has that something special.

And he's a revolutionary gardener. There's an oxymoron if ever you heard one. Gavin has earned a name for himself primarily through his modernist, off-beat approach to gardening.

Although not in the least interested in gardening, I'm keen to meet Gavin, if only to see how he can make lawns and evergreen plants as interesting as Eastenders and Desperate Housewives.

We agree to meet for morning coffee in his hotel lobby. He arrives toting a chubby and active baby who turns out to be his one-year-old daughter Eppie. She reminds me of him, not in the least because of her unruly mop of hair.

Eppie's bag of toys turns out to provide insufficient amusement so he gives her his wallet and mobile phone to play with, all of which are soon scattered over the sofa and floor.

Gavin doesn't blink an eye - "Ah sure, she's fine" - and I try to pretend that I don't mind if she plays with my handbag.

At the time, I think it's a good idea, but when I get home and find some of the hotel's silver cutlery in my purse, I have second thoughts.

His funky green shirt is open almost to his belly button, while his jeans and shoes look well worn.

Gavin looks nothing like a celebrity, which is probably fine with him, as he has a 'down to earth' attitude to life - perhaps because success came to him only after years of struggling.

In between rescuing crockery and tossing his daughter in the air, Gavin tells me how he got into gardening.

I
I was a bit of a Tom Sawyer (when I was a boy) - I wanted to explore. I loved making and creating things. I used to go to a nearby park with my two sisters and some spades and shovels and make them dig up a garden for me.

I can be a bit (difficult) if things are not done right. I am a perfectionist in my work.

I think everyone is fascinated by gardening, because there's something in all of us that wants to grow and nurture plants from seeds. When I'm working on a garden, I put everything into it.

ME

Me and fatherhood:
As a family, I think we are complete now that we have Eppie. I think fatherhood is just the best thing that has ever happened to me. I try to spend as much time with Eppie as I can.

Now I am working in London during the week while Eppie and my wife, Justine, are living in Ireland. It's tough when I'm not with them, but I will always have to travel a bit for work.

I have always been very hands-on and would take Eppie to the office or meetings with me. I just think she's fantastic.

The second I saw her, I felt I knew her. She's so feisty and full of attitude.

Me and my wife's family:
I met Justine when I was working in her mother Terry Keane's garden. (Terry is a very prominent Irish gossip columnist, while Justine's father Ronan was a Supreme Court judge.)

I got friendly with the family and whenever they were eating breakfast or lunch, they would ask me to join them.

Justine's granny (now aged 101) was living in the granny flat in the basement and wanted to get the two of us together so she invited us both to dinner, but then left us at a table for two.

We weren't really interested in each other, so dinner lasted ten minutes, but then three or four months later we got together and about four or five months later we got engaged and then we got married in 1995.

I had been at a bit of a low point when I met Justine and her family but they had such faith in me that it was tremendously encouraging. Justine was a psychologist when we met but she wasn't very happy and gave it up after supporting me for a couple of years.

She went back to do a diploma in gardening and now helps me when I'm writing books. Mostly she's a full-time mum to Eppie. She has her hands full keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Me and growing up:
I was born in London where my mum and dad were working to make a good start for our family. My dad, Jack, had three full-time jobs: in the post office, (working on) the buses and I don't know where else.

My mum worked at Lillian Skinners in Piccadilly and earned more as a saleswoman than dad did in his three jobs. But when she had children, she stayed at home for the next 30 years.

My parents moved back to Dublin and I was brought up in a very suburban house. I was one of five. (My brother) Declan was three years older than me, while Connor was one year younger and my sisters Niamh and Emer were a year apart.

Connor died in a car accident when I was six. It was very traumatic for years and years. I don't know if you ever really get over it; it was certainly a long time before we smiled in our house.

I didn't particularly enjoy my school days. I was shy and unsociable and never quite fitted in. I was never interested in studying and was more attracted by art and creativity.

I hated maths with a passion and failed the subject in my Leaving Certificate (final exams). I was
a dreamer and was even considered to be a bit backward.

As a teenager I was a dating disaster. Nobody would look at me because I was just too quiet and shy. I only really started coming out of my shell at around 18 or 19.

Me and starting out in gardening:
When I left school I knew I wanted to be a chef or a gardener. I worked for a couple of months in a kitchen in Temple Bar in Dublin and loved it.

I was about to become a commis chef, but then a job came up in Mackeys, a well-known seed shop, and I jumped at the chance. I ended up working there for three years, weighing out fertilisers and selling seeds and tools.

After a year in Mackeys I applied for the College of Amenity Horticulture (in Dublin) but I didn't get in, which was a bit of a blow to my confidence. I applied again three years later and was accepted.

I always loved being outside, perhaps more in parks than in gardens. I found suburban gardens incredibly boring and restrictive. I wanted to create a new type of garden.

After college, I set up a company called Trees to Please. I worked from home and took out a bank loan to buy a van. I had great plans to be an entrepreneur but I turned out to be a disastrous businessman. I even crashed the van in the first month.

I started competing in garden shows such as the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) spring show and I would always win the gold medal, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do, and I wasn't a good businessman. I couldn't pay my rent and had to stay with friends. I even turned up at one gardening show on my bike.

It was a very depressing time. My worst moment was when all my clothes were in a black plastic bag in a friend's garage and his dad put them out in the garden because he wanted to use the garage for something else.

This situation went on for about four or five years and eventually I gave myself a year where I would continue working but see if there was anything else I'd like to do. I realised that this was all I really wanted to do and that I had to stick at it.

Me and my escape:
Then I did a garden at the RDS spring show. I won and a journalist remarked that it was almost Chelsea Flower Show standard (the Chelsea show is the biggest gardening event in the UK). That got me thinking: "Maybe that's my escape."

I convinced a burly, red-haired friend, Eamonn, and another friend, Vincent, to go with me to England to apply for the 1995 show.

We marched up to the Royal Horticultural Society in Vincent Square in Chelsea and knocked on the door, which was opened by a very 'hoity-toity' lady, who told us, "You can't just walk in here."

Red-faced, we asked timidly, "What do you do then?" and were told we had to write a letter about our achievements and ambitions.

The three of us shot off to a cafe to write the letter. We then got a cab to a typist's office. The typist laughed when she read our letter, but shortly after, we got a cab back to Vincent Square with our application.

A couple of months later we got an invitation to submit a plan for the show.

I decided to create a traditional design in the first year - (to) give them what they wanted - and then after that I could do my own thing. I sent in my plans but shortly after got a rejection letter. Then someone else pulled out of the show and I was asked to take part, only seven months beforehand.

We needed at least £60,000 (about Dh390,000) for the design, but three weeks before the show I only had £300 (Dh1,950).

We asked a building supplier for two shovels and spades and a wheelbarrow, but they couldn't deliver them so I had to walk around the very posh Sloane Square with my wheelbarrow. We begged and borrowed ? we dug up wild plants in the West of Ireland and loaded them into fertiliser bags to transport (them there).

At one stage, I got a 3,000 Irish pounds (about Dh10,200) grant from Bord Failte, the Irish tourism board, but they would only give me the money after the show.

My mum's friend gave me a cheque to bridge the gap, but it had to be withdrawn at the same bank where I owed money. When I presented the cheque, the manager came out of his office and took most of the money to pay off my outstanding loan.

Three days before the show, we were out of money and on the street. An Irish club (in the UK) said we could sleep in their attic if we did their window box flowers.

We lived on coffee alone for three days because we had no money to buy food. The night before the show, we were working late, and we missed the 10 pm curfew at the club.

We had nowhere to sleep and were filthy but we had to be back at the show by 5am to finish our display in time for the Queen's opening of the show.

We had left our security passes in our rooms, so we had to break into Chelsea (and climbed) over the railings. We ended up getting a bronze medal, which is practically given out for just turning up.

The following year, I created a more contemporary garden for which I didn't win an award. RTE (an Irish TV channel) had filmed us, so we did some media interviews. We got interviewed by the BBC and things changed overnight.

There wasn't a lot of gardening TV at the time, but I was in the right place at the right time. I didn't know anything about TV but they told me I was a natural.

I did a spot on Gardeners' World, and then I did guest appearances on various regional TV programmes for the next four months.

Suddenly I was a big success. No one had ever asked me to even butter toast before this, so it was amazing for me.

I started doing Home Front in 1997, and I was able to do everything I wanted professionally.

Myself

Is there anyone famous you'd like to design a garden for?
I'd love to create a garden for Bono or the other U2 band members. I love their music and I also admire what Bono's done for charity.

Have you any ambitions?
I'd like to buy a nice house by the sea in Dublin. I'm not good financially so despite all the TV, I'm as broke as I've ever been. When Eppie was born we moved the family back to Dublin but as of yet, we only have a flat there, and not in a great area!

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Would you agree?
I don't get to do the hard work of gardening any more, but I still enjoy it. I love digging and building a garden on my own. It's hard work but it's brilliant. I get lost in myself when I'm gardening.

What's the best thing about being famous?
I used to be painfully shy and socially inadequate. Parties were my worst nightmare. Now I don't feel shy because most people know about me when they meet me so it's easy to talk.

Every day someone will come up and say something nice to me. If it had all happened ten years earlier, it might have had more of an effect on me but nowadays I don't buy into the good and the bad things people say about me.