The truffles Nachos in the neighbourhood 🪴🫜 R & K
Visiting gardens is bad for you. Not only does it encourage too much eating of cake but sets up all kinds of false notions that are ruinous to your garden back home.
Don left London in the late 1980s when he and his wife, Sarah, with whom he ran a jewellery business, bought a big house with 15 hectares (35 acres) in Herefordshire. They lost it, along with everything else, after the 1987 financial crash. He had lived not far from where we are now, on the Hackney border in north London, long before it became fashionable, buying a house when he was 25. His three children, now in their 30s, “couldn’t begin to afford to live in London”.
Most of us would look at Monty Don’s life as something to aspire to - from his stunning gardens to his faithful pooch, Ned.
But in a heartfelt and candid interview as part of the RHS visual podcast, Roots, the Gardeners’ World icon revealed that the origins of Longmeadow and his landscapes hark back to a tougher time, including the failing of his business and a "breakdown".
Speaking with Jo Whiley for the podcast, as well as revealing the one thing viewers will never get to see in his gardens, Monty explained that finding order and symmetry in the structure of his gardens was indicative of his mental state at the time.
He told Jo, "I effectively had a breakdown and making the garden was very much part of the healing process."
Explaining earlier that he and his wife Sarah were able to buy their property thanks to money inherited after his mother passed away, Monty shared that the couple went from high-flying in London to having to shut their jewellery business down and move to Herefordshire on a "shoestring" budget.
Speaking in the video, he said: "I never go into the garden without a pair of secateurs, so it's got to feel comfortable, they've got to be small enough so that you can put them in your pocket or in a holster, but big enough so that you can cut.
'I never go into the garden without this' — Monty Don reveals the top tool every gardener needs
Once you engage with the simple enough business of feeding yourself, of soil and water, weather, season and harvest, it becomes personal. It is about you, your family and friends. Food becomes an aspect of those relationships as well as your intimacy with your plot.
This is the one gardening job Monty Don does every day during June - here's why you should do it too
The gardening guru has shared his favourite job to do through June and why it's so important to do each day
Even if you live in an apartment or are short on outdoor space, there are ways to grow your own food at home.
Planting herbs and vegetables on windowsills, indoors or on small balconies can be a cost-effective option, as well as benefiting your wellbeing.
Here's what the experts say are the best way to get started this winter.