The Outdoor Room managing director David Dodd is leaving the Alan Titchmarsh-presented ITV show Love your Garden.
Dodd has worked on every episode of the programme so far but will not be doing a fourth series, he announced today.
Love Your Garden follows Titchmarsh and fellow presenter David Domoney carrying out garden transformations for deserving people. It launched in June 2011 with a 3.6 million people watching the first episode.
Dodd criticised TV gardening shows in general for "oversimplifying" the design and build process.
The Outdoor Room, based in Billingshurst, West Sussex, was responsible for designing and building a total of 14 gardens.
Dodd said: "I’ve said for years that TV still doesn’t seem to get gardening and it’s certainly been out of love with it for a long time.
"Most gardening programmes still oversimplify the process of designing and building a fantastic garden. How can something that takes weeks, months or even years, become condensed into a half hour or hour long entertainment show?
"Good quality garden design and build quite rightly comes at a cost and TV seems to avoid this subject."
In a statement released today Dodd showered compliments on Titchmarsh.
"Alan was terrific to work with. He really grafts, even when he’s not on camera. He is a proper gardener, and is prepared to listen to other people’s ideas."
"At the end of every build, just before the ‘reveal’ we would walk around the garden together and he would check I was happy with everything. Alan was also brilliant with my younger staff, giving tips and advice on horticulture. I still think he is a great ambassador for the industry."
He added that he thought the show had too many presenters and would change formats next season so that the as yet unnamed replacement landscape company would be in the background and "just be there to build gardens."
Dodd said he made his decision after being asked to do ten programmes instead of eight in the same time frame.
"We were paid by the hour and the money was great. But it wasn't for us. All the false drama was ridiculous. Are we going to finish this in time? Of course we are."
He added: "You have to be prepared to be off the scene of your busines for four months of the year."
The Outdoor Room was approached to build six gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower next year and has agreed to do three.
"This is much more along the lines of the sort of quality work we like to produce, so turning ITV down has been quite an easy decision," Dodd added.
"We’ve really enjoyed doing two series of Love Your Garden and it’s been great fun working with Alan, Frances and Katie. I wish whoever takes over from us the very best of luck."
