Monty Don: A gardener for all seasons
This year marks Monty Don’s 20th anniversary as the popular presenter of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World. As part of our Homes & Gardens issue, we look back at the life and times of the committed organic gardener and prolific horticultural writer
Monty was born Montagu Denis Wyatt Don in Iserlohn, Germany, in July 1955. His career soldier father, Denis, and mother, Janet, were stationed at the time. A prolific horticultural writer and the long-time lead presenter of Gardeners’ World, it was as a child in the late 1950s and early 60s at the family home in Hampshire that the seeds of his passion for gardening were sown – although he may not have realised it then!
When the family’s gardener hurt his back and could no longer tend the five-acre plot, his mother put Monty and his brothers to work. Aged just seven, gardening then was a chore to the young Monty, but over the next decade it became part of his life.
Childhood love of gardens
He recalled in an interview with Joe Lamp’l for an episode of The Joe Gardener Show that when he was a rebellious 17-year-old he came home from school on a late March day and instinctively went outside to sow carrots. He could feel spring unfolding, and at the moment of pouring carrot seeds into his hand to plant into the soil he had just prepared, he was filled with a profound feeling of happiness. That night, he had a dream that he put his hands into the earth and his fingers grew into the soil like roots. He awoke feeling refreshed, at ease, and connected to the earth. ‘I’ve never really lost that feeling,’ Monty says.
Monty’s ambition was to become a professional writer. It wasn’t until he was 30, he recalls, that it occurred to him to write about gardens. He and his wife, Sarah, whom he met at Magdalene College in Cambridge while studying, were interviewed about their own garden for a newspaper, and he was soon offered the opportunity to write about others’ gardens.
Following a move out of London to the country, one thing led to another, resulting in an offer to be a daytime television segment host. Monty admits he never aimed to work on television but gave it a go anyway.
‘I’ve always had this policy in life. If you say no, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what would happen. If you say yes, you’ll find out,’ he says.
Glorious gardens
With more than 20 books to his name, his latest publication is a beautiful book and collaboration with acclaimed photographer Derry Moore, Venetian Gardens, which was inspired by his recent BBC2 series, Adriatic Gardens.
‘Gardens always tell you as much about the people that made and care for them as their plants, and the mysterious nature of Venetian gardens tells us much about Venice. However often you visit – and I have been coming to Venice for over 40 years and Derry over sixty – its beauty never wanes, never fails to intoxicate,’ says Monty.
And the rest, as they say, is history…
Monty has been making television programmes for over 30 years and has been lead presenter of Gardeners’ World since 2003. From 2011 the programme has come from his own garden, Longmeadow, in Herefordshire.
Looking at Monty’s garden today, it’s hard to imagine it as the two acres he and Sarah, who celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this September, purchased in 1991, when it was basically a barren field. Having no money but some time on his hands, Monty got to know the land before growing anything.
‘The best thing you can do when you take on a new garden is nothing. Instead, just pay attention. Learn which direction the rain comes from, for example, and where the garden is the warmest and coolest. You need that knowledge,’ he says, ‘and then you start to create a space that is about you and your life in tune with what is happening.’
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Visit: BBC Gardeners World
Venetian Gardens by Monty Don & Derry Moore
Image: Derry Moore