If you think of BBC nature documentaries, everyone will think of Sir David Attenborough, then when it comes to garden or gardening documentaries, it is Monty Don who has to be mentioned.
Familiar people like to call Monty "Uncle Meng", and he is the "garden" male god in the eyes of many people.
As the UK's most popular horticultural presenter, Monty has been known for producing and hosting numerous horticultural television shows over the past 30 years, in addition to publishing more than 20 books, and is often at the top of the horticultural bestseller list.
Since 2003, Monty has been the lead host of the BBC's longest-running horticultural series, Gardener's World (1968–present), teaching gardening techniques.
Monty works in the garden in simple shirts, jeans or overalls, always fiddling with all kinds of gardening tools with mud-stained hands, while Monty's dog, Nigel, is often present and accompanies him. The background sound is simply a natural sound such as bird calls and rain sounds.
The pace of the show is very slow, but there are still many people who do not watch it in the past few years. During the epidemic, the film's ratings also set a record high in ten years, which became a spiritual comfort for many people.
Monty has also worked with the BBC on a series of garden documentaries such as World of Flowers, Monty Don's Italian Garden, Monty Don's French Garden, Monty Don's Paradise Garden, and more. Travel around the world, see a variety of gardens and gardens, and learn about the local culture and history.
The French Garden
American Garden
Japanese Garden
Monty always explains in a calm and reassuring voice, garden, plant, nature, and his shows always make people feel refreshed to watch, as if they are healed.
In fact, Monty himself is the one who was cured. He once said: The earth has the best healing power.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > people healed by the land</h1>
Although Monty has hosted a large number of gardening programs, he has never been trained as a formal gardener and is the first self-taught horticulturist in the history of Horticultural World.
Monty was born in West Germany in 1955 and later grew up in Hampshire, England. His parents were very strict with Monty from an early age, his father was an officer, they had a plot of land in their family, and his mother always asked him to help with gardening with other siblings.
He didn't like these jobs until the spring of his 17th year, when he was sowing seeds and suddenly felt the joy of gardening. He recalls: "Suddenly I was stunned by a complete sense of well-being, feeling like I didn't want anything else at all. This was 1971, when the most glamorous things in the world were sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, not gardening. ”
Monty was in the garden as a young man
He was later admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he met his future wife, Sarah Erskine, an excellent jeweler and architect.
In the early 1980s, the two founded a fashion jewelry company together with great success. Their patrons included Michael Jackson and Princess Diana, and made cufflinks for David Bowie.
Monty and his wife Sarah were in a jewelry studio in 1983
However, the stock market crash of 1987 led them to bankruptcy, falling directly from successful businessmen to the bottom. They had to sell everything, furniture, house and everything. An accident in life left Monty suffering from severe depression and depressed mood all day.
Exhausted, Monty and her family left London and moved to remote Herefordshire, buying a dilapidated house and a bushy, deserted land with what little possession her mother had left for her.
There, he regained his youthful love of the land and built his own garden. The garden became his workplace and his "refuge".
Monty was in his garden. Since 2011, he has been shooting Gardening World in his own garden.
He began to write gardening columns in newspapers or appear on television, and was known to more people. The Times once commented, "He gave up the jewelry, but found gold in the garden." ”
In this way, Monty slowly found himself, and gardening rescued him from his deep depression. He once said that during that "muddy time", gardening "healed him better than any drug".
A corner of Monty Gardens
The writing hut at the end of the garden, where Monty usually writes
Believing in the power of land and nature, Monty has built a small farm of his own, where a group of young criminals who break the law can experience hard and meaningful work, share food and troubles together, and hope that they will start over.
In 2018, Monty was also awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his service to horticulture, broadcasting and philanthropy.
The first priority of gardening is to make yourself happy
When I first moved into the old house in Herefordshire, it was surrounded by an abandoned field covered with rubble, only one tree, and the rest were weeds and bushes.
Monty spent half a year weeding, cleaning up the garbage, rake every inch of land three times, and began planning and envisioning.
The following spring, he began to plant seriously, and never stopped, pouring out infinite patience and love, all the way to turn the wasteland into the enviable Longmeadow garden, where all kinds of plants grew.
"For a good garden, the gardener is just as important as the plants in the garden. You are an integral part of the garden. The garden exists because of you. ”
"I have traveled around many gardens around the world and have deeply felt that the garden must be built by the heart, otherwise it will not touch the viewer's mind at all. The first priority of gardening is to make yourself happy, otherwise you may not be able to impress anyone. ”
Top: Panorama of the Gardens of Langmeido
Bottom: Monty's garden floor plan on its official website
①The Cottage Garden ②The Jewel Garden ③The Paradise Garden ④The Vegetable Garden
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The Cottage Garden
Cottage garden
For the first 20 years, the cottage garden was a specialized vegetable garden, as it was close to the kitchen, fresh produce was available to the family. Over the past decade, it has been planted with more flowers, as well as fruit trees and some herbs, and is filled with a variety of colors throughout the year. In summer, more than 50 different old-fashioned shrub roses bloom.
Front and back comparison of the garden
02
The Jewel Garden
Jewelry Garden
The Jewelry Garden is the location center of the entire garden and also the spiritual center. Built to commemorate the early years of jewelry, the color of the garden is also matched with jewelry or metallic colors.
The scenery varies throughout the four seasons.
In the spring, the rich tulips bloom; in the summer, many plants will grow, such as dahlias, bananas, cannabis, sunflowers, etc.; in the autumn, the tender plants in the jewelry garden will be uprooted, and then hibernated until the next winter.
⛲️
03
The Paradise Garden
Paradise Garden
The Garden of Paradise was built by Monty after visiting many countries in 2017, following the concept of an Islamic garden. The garden is based on four symmetrical flower beds with a small fountain in the middle.
What started as an exercise and an attempt has now become an important and beloved part of the garden.
04
The Vegetable Garden
Vegetable garden
This is where Monty grows vegetables, and together he and his wife grow their favorite foods.
"Our basic gardening philosophy is that if a plant doesn't want to exist, you absolutely can't force or cajole it, whether it's edible or decorative. So the vegetables and varieties we choose are what we like and love to grow in our garden. ”
Use greenhouses and greenhouses to protect plants, and carefully plan your planting to harvest all-natural food on a seasonal basis.
Seek an ideal garden and you will end up disappointed
Now 66 years old, Monty is still busy in the garden every day, sharing the view of his garden on Instagram almost every day, updating his gardening notes on the website every month, introducing the gardening he has done in the past month, and giving advice to everyone.
Monty still feels depressed at times, but says he has "learned how to manage it." The green in the garden is the best healing.
"Green can save a whole day, a whole month, a whole year. Green's endurance and enduring toughness are unmatched by other colors. ”
"Life is short and absurd, full of pain and sorrow, but even in the face of the deepest suffering, gardening can make us feel the sunshine and joy." 」
The days go by day by day, the seasons change, the garden has a new look every season, even every day is different, and you can always see unexpected scenery.
Change is the most important feature of the garden, no garden can be perfect, but with love you will reap companionship and healing.
"For a garden, seeking an ideal 'end' will eventually lead to disappointment.
It's changing, it's always been. It can get better, and it often gets worse.
What we have to do is embrace change and adapt to it. ”
"Every garden is an ongoing project, and just as we have come to this day of life, this moment is perfect."
Colorful trees in the garden
As an untrained gardener, Monty's gardening know-how is to do it as you please, arguing that "a combination of confidence and intuition is the foundation of growing good plants." ”
He said, "I was, and am, an amateur gardener. My only professionalism comes from my lifelong career in gardening and my passion for my own garden. ”
People often ask him how to do it "right", but gardening doesn't have all the right answers, and there is no knowledge of superiority, but more of a participation in it.
"Even the best gardeners, the true experts, have only captured a glimpse of the float in their garden, in everything that is incomparably complex and delicate."
Monty also trims the shrubs in the garden in the shape of a dog
Monty was lucky enough to build his own garden, "Happiness takes some luck. Creating a garden increases the chances of happiness. ”
But for the vast majority of young people, owning a garden is a luxury. Over the years, Monty has also begun to teach people the tricks of raising houseplants in the show.
"No matter how small the garden is, it is no problem. Flower boxes and pots on the windowsill are perfect for growing herbs, many dishes are used, and one square meter of land is enough to grow salad leafy vegetables all year round. ”
"The real importance of gardening lies in the power it brings to people, no matter how small or even seemingly insignificant the garden is. If you start growing anything, the results will surprise you. ”
Monty often remembered the barren fields of his early years, weaving fences to protect the small plants in the yard. For Monty, their appearance remains beneath the lush gardens that they now exist, in the traces of time, "they are so small, but full of dreams."
He derives peace and joy from the land and the garden, and more people use him as a window to feel the beauty and relief of nature from him.
It's important to "go outside and let the dirt stain your hands, let the sun shine on your back, let the rhythm of nature connect with you, that's probably the best medicine," he says.