Popular TV Dr Amir Khan, who juggles his work as a full-time GP with his job as resident doctor on ITV’s Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, knows the value of his garden when he wants to switch off.

It provides a “huge” boost to his mental health, the 42-year-old says.As a child growing up in Bradford, he didn’t have access to a garden, so would explore the local parks on his bike with his friends. It wasn’t until he was 14 and the family moved house, that he was introduced to a sliver of garden at the front  – which his father lovingly tended – while the back yard was just a place to park the car.

“I’ve lived in flats in inner city places when I was a student and the difference having a garden makes to your mental health is huge. It has really brought me through some of the tough times, particularly around Covid,” he says.

Today, Khan lives in a small village outside Leeds with his partner, with a garden spanning a quarter of an acre, although he’s had a small garden room built at the end of it, where he writes. His new children’s book How Families Are Made (Red Shed) guides children through the evolutions of family life, with a focus on inclusivity.

He’s also president of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), vice president of The Wildlife Trusts and an ambassador for The British Hedgehog Preservation Society, Butterfly Conservation and The Rivers Trust. Unsurprisingly, wildlife is a priority in his garden.

What was your garden like when you first moved there?

“We moved into this house about six years ago and it was very much a blank canvas. We wanted to do something that really invited nature in. We spaced out the garden into different zones for different types of wildlife because we were looking at where we live and the potential for wildlife to be there,” Khan says.

“The plan was to make it like a cottage garden but unfortunately, I just got a bit too carried away. I don’t really have a style. If I like something, and it’s bee or butterfly friendly, it gets planted in my garden. So it’s a mix of everything.”

Which plants did you choose?

“We planted fruit trees – apple and pear trees. We looked at really simple plants to begin with, which flower throughout the year through different seasons. I would go for things like hyacinths, English bluebells, primroses and violets.

“Mid-season would be the heather, lavender, purple toad flax, verbena, foxgloves and lupins. I just love buddleia because it’s so insect-friendly and fragrant and it flowers in that late August period when a lot of other flowers are finishing up,” he says.

“Later on in the year, the honeysuckle and meadow saffron (autumn crocus) comes out.”

Do you have a pond?

“Yes, we put in a pond, which has been really good. Within a couple of years, we had frogs and frogspawn and we have newts in there now. It’s really nice to see things like pond skaters, which I used to see on my travels when I was on my bike when I was younger.”

How do you attract birds to the garden?

“We’ve got a whole bird feeding station, which we built. It’s like a big wooden structure with lots of different types of bird food. We get the most amazing birds – goldfinches, greenfinches, blackbirds, robins. The siskins are here now and we get the odd sparrowhawk who comes through.”

And other wildlife?

“In the summer we get hedgehogs, which is wonderful,. We put food out for them and they’re so familiar with us that we can garden in the summer at around eight or nine o’clock when it’s still light, and they will still come and eat their little kitten biscuits,” Khan says.

“We have a fox that comes in and eats with the hedgehogs – we put extra out for her – and if we’re really lucky we get bats too – we see them flying over in the evening. With the things like buddleia, on a hot summer’s day we will usually see the hummingbird hawk-moth, which is a real treat.”

How long do you spend in your garden?

“On a Sunday, if the weather’s good enough, I can spend all day just sorting out the garden. My plan is always to sit in the garden and enjoy it but I very rarely do that. We don’t have a gardener, we do it all ourselves. It’s one of our favourite ways to spend time together.”

Are you into ‘green’ prescribing?

“We know there’s lots of evidence that green prescribing helps both physically and mentally but you’ve got to pitch it right. There’s no point me saying to someone who is really severely depressed and can’t leave the house, ‘Well, actually, have you thought about going for a walk?’ You’ve got to get them in the right frame of mind and sell it to them in a way that helps them,” he explains.

“The other problem around here is access to green spaces. Where I work, if you have to get two buses and a train to get to somewhere really beautiful, it’s not going to work for them because they can’t afford to do that.

“I went to Canada a couple of years ago and they were really ahead of the game with green prescribing. They give their patients free passes to national parks. The RSPB is starting to do that now, The Wildlife Trusts is getting on board. If we can get our nature reserves free for people who need it for health reasons, that’ll be a huge step in the right direction.”