Horticulturalist Monty Don has shared his gratitude that the latest series of Gardeners’ World has finally wrapped for the year. The BBC evening show is filmed at his cherished Longmeadow garden, where the TV host shares his best tips and tricks for green-fingered viewers. The veteran broadcaster, who has fronted the show for more than two decades, admitted that although he’s accustomed to the annual schedule, he’s overjoyed to walk through his garden without cameras following his every move.
In his latest column for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, the dad-of-three revealed that production teams will return to his Herefordshire home in the spring and the “lack of pressure” provides a much-needed respite.
After a discussion about his winter projects away from the BBC show, Monty chuckled: “Should we be filming all of this? Probably. I would not mind at all, but there is no doubt that filming would make it all take twice as long and add a level of scrutiny and pressure that we are happy to do without for a few winter months before the filming circus returns all too quickly next February.”
The veteran broadcaster also admitted that the programming choices can frustrate many of his loyal viewers tuning in at home. He continued: “This timetable has remained constant for the past 20 years or so, although I suspect that most viewers would like us to carry on throughout winter.
“However, the commissioning and scheduling of programmes move in mysterious ways, so it is unlikely to change in a hurry.” Although the gardening icon has managed to balance life as a gardener and as a TV presenter, his outdoor adventures haven’t been plain sailing – particularly after this year’s unpredictable weather.
Earlier this month, he said on Instagram that he cherished his Herefordshire home, which he shares with his doting wife Sarah and their pair of pooches. But disaster struck their estate when they were hit by floods.
Taking to social media, he shared a stark update with his fans online, which read: “There has been really bad flooding in this part of the country and homes and businesses have suffered very badly, so we are lucky that it is just the fields and garden that is wet here.”
It comes after Monty highlighted the struggles his garden suffers during the changing weather conditions. Speaking on the Talking Gardens podcast, he discussed the difficulties confronting gardeners in these difficult times.
He explained: “It’s the extremes of weather rather than the weather trends that are the problem, so we are getting very wet weather, very dry weather, very cold weather, and very hot weather.
“And we’re in new territory; we’ve all been brought up and trained to find plants that fit niches. But increasingly we want plants that will adapt to extremes and that’s testing everybody.”
