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BBC Gardening for 2010 - Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh Return

 15th January, 2010

Alan Titchmarsh is picking up his trowel once more as he returns to BBC Two to present a new gardening series.

And joining Alan with new series of their own are former Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don and current presenters Carole Klein, Alys Fowler and Sarah Raven.

In a new four-part series, Alan's Garden Secrets, Alan visits some of Britain's most spectacular showpiece gardens that usually remain hidden from public view and discovers the big moments and the master gardeners that shaped our landscape.

Each week, Alan visits a different garden, from spectacular Regency showpieces to small intricate jewel-box gardens, to discover how the garden was inspired and influenced by the leading garden designers of the era before demonstrating how we can achieve a little piece of the spectacular in our own back yards. There will be tips to suit all budgets and all scales of garden.

Alan says: "I'm delighted to be returning to BBC Two for what promises to be a really special new series. Not only will I be able to share some of my favourite gardens from across the country but I'll be getting my hands dirty, passing on some hints and tips to viewers so they can create some of the same magic in their own gardens."

Meanwhile, Monty Don journeys from the south of Italy to the north, visiting some of the country's most beautiful, impressive and interesting gardens along the way in Monty Don's Italian Gardens. From lovingly-created romantic hiding places to enormous formal gardens of the Catholic Church, this four-part series is bursting with great characters, compelling stories and captivating insights.

Monty says: "The only thing I like more than hands-on gardening is to visit other people's gardens, and I am thrilled at the prospect of travelling to some the most spectacular gardens in the world in a country I love. This will be a very personal trip, relishing gardens of all kinds, from the secret to the palatial, and setting them all into the context of Italian life, landscape and culture – and learning more about our gardens too."

Alongside these new series, Gardeners' World returns to its classic weekly half-hour slots with occasional hour-long specials. The series will be on air earlier to coincide with the beginning of the gardening year and the run has been extended, ensuring all the key gardening moments from the start of the year to the busy summer period are covered.

Lead presenter Toby Buckland will be joined by the regular team of presenters, Carol Klein, Alys Fowler and Joe Swift, as they share tips and advice on what to do in your garden each week during the gardening year.

Toby Buckland says: "Gardeners' World is the destination programme for practical, timely advice and I am thrilled that we will be gardening from Greenacre throughout the growing season, providing the continuity that gardeners want."

And there are also three new Gardeners' World productions to look forward to:

In a new six-part series, Carol Klein presents Life And Death In A Cottage Garden, guiding viewers through a year in the lifecycle of her own garden at Glebe Cottage in Devon. From the hidden secrets of winter, the first shoots of spring and the fecundity of summer, the programme will take viewers right through to the slow death of autumn and the preparation for rebirth. And you will see it all as it really happens.

The Edible Garden finds presenter Alys Fowler setting out to prove that growing and cooking your own fruit and vegetables is hugely rewarding, cost-effective and life-enhancing. The series follows her across the growing year as she transforms her garden into a place where peas climb up roses, lettuces sit happily next to sunflowers and dwarf beans edge the path. Alys creates tasty dishes from the produce she has grown and meets the experts who will show her how to preserve, pickle and store her wares. As well as looking after her chickens, she forages in the hedgerows and finds out about other projects such as urban bee-keeping.

And in River Of Flowers Sarah Raven, gardener and keen amateur botanist, plants "rivers" of wildflowers to save our disappearing native meadow plants and to create nectar-rich corridors for our bees, butterflies and birds. Working alongside local conservationists, she shows how we can each play our part in saving Britain's wildflower meadows and helping our native fauna cope with the pressures of life in the 21st century.

Also returning next year is Grow Your Own Drugs with presenter James Wong, demonstrating how to make more home-grown remedies using plants grown in the garden.

Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two, says: "We love gardening on BBC Two and this year we have a broad range of content to appeal to all levels of experience from those with the greenest of fingers to fledgling gardeners.

"Alongside our new programmes Gardeners' World continues as our flagship gardening programme presented by Toby Buckland and will return to its classic, most-loved shape. And its extended run ensures viewers get all the advice and support they need just when they want it."

These new series will be shown on BBC Two throughout 2010.