Tommy Walsh, who has died aged 69, brought decking and pergolas, as well as rippling muscles and a brusque manner, to the BBC gardening show Ground Force, alongside Alan Titchmarsh and Charlie Dimmock. The trio transformed gardens for members of the public in just two days, and the programme (which ran from 1997 until 2005) made the burly 6ft 5in Walsh a star after years running his own building and landscaping business. “People want textures, shapes and surfaces in the garden that you wouldn’t get from planting alone,” he said.
Armed with a power drill, sledgehammer and a host of other tools, he did the back-breaking landscaping work before Titchmarsh, the gardener and broadcaster, and Charlie Dimmock, a garden centre worker, moved in to do the planting. Homeowners would go away and return to find the results of the surprise makeover, organised clandestinely by family members or friends; many were delighted, some less so.
