For a landscape designer, you would think Sven Wombwell's garden was a work of art.
"It is a work in progress," he laughs. "We bought an old Victorian house which needs a lot of renovation. My wife and I are too busy!"
Sven, 37, trained as a landscaping designer at Capel Manor, an equestrian and horticultural school in London, for two years.
Having previously enrolled on a media and sound engineering degree in London he managed six weeks before deciding it was not for him.
He says: "I actually wanted to be a rock star - I was a musician and still play the guitar, but after leaving university I worked in Selfridges in London and promoted some charities before moving into gardening.It is always something I have been interested in. I like the design process, building something, leaving your stamp on the landscape, taking an empty plot and spending six weeks turning it into something brilliant."
Dad-of-five Sven, of Maldon Road, Colchester, attended Philip Morant and Hamilton schools.
He working for another landscaping business after graduating from Capel Manor when he was approached through a friend, by a television director to present his own gardening show.
So began ten years of presenting his own shows and appearing on daytime television including This Morning, GMTV, and the Alan Titchmarsh Show. He has worked on programmes alongside Charlie Dimmock and Mark Evans.
He has fronted UKTV's Columbia Road Gardens, a show about sprucing up people's gardens using plants and flowers at Columbia Road Market in London.
He was a regular on House Doctor with American property expert Ann Maurice, and has written a host of books, including the Dummies Guide to Allotment Gardening.
He says: "Moving into television was something I had toyed with the idea of, but didn't think it would actually happen. In the run up to the first week's filming I was quite nervous. But as soon as I was in front of the camera I took to it like a duck to water, because I was talking about something I loved and was passionate about."
Part of his enjoyment for his job is the variety of skills he develops and uses on each project.
He explains: "You have to be able to turn your hand to many things. Hard landscaping is all about building and is very practical and hard work. You have to be a bricklayer, a paving expert, know about basic carpentry.
"Soft landscaping is all about horticulture, and that's where the green stuff comes in."
Sven says to work in landscaping a person must love gardening as "you can't do it otherwise".
There are many courses including those at Writtle College in Chelmsford, but experience in the garden and watching how things grow and develop throughout the year are invaluable, he says.
