Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don has opened up about a long-standing decision made by the show’s bosses that has been in place for decades
Gardeners’ World’s Monty Don has shed light on a long-standing show policy that sees filming in his Longmeadow garden come to a halt during the winter months.
For years, Gardeners’ World has been a staple for gardening enthusiasts across the nation, but now Monty Don has explained why the cameras stop rolling in his garden when winter sets in.
In a recent update about life at Longmeadow, Monty told Gardeners’ World magazine how the crew packs up all their recording equipment as filming stops from the end of October until springtime.
As the production team prepares to put away their gear, he shared that everyone living on the property breathes a “sigh of relief”: “So we all breathe a sigh of relief and for a couple of weeks we bask in the lack of pressure of not having to prepare for the arrival of the next film crew.”
He also gave a nod to his two full-time and one part-time gardeners who help maintain the garden amid its demanding filming schedule. Moreover, he explained how the filming hiatus allows him and his expanding family to spend more time enjoying Longmeadow.
However, while the cameras and lighting equipment are stored away for the colder months, Monty revealed that personally, he’s actually bracing himself for one of the busiest periods of the year.
Over the coming months, he plans to tackle the backlog of gardening tasks that have built up over the year: “In fact, for the next month or so we enter the busiest period of our gardening year.”
He added: “For a start, we can now make a mess — a luxury that we now indulge in. All the housekeeping projects that have accumulated through the year can now be tackled.”
Throughout his career, Monty has become one of gardening’s most trusted figures, appearing on numerous television programmes and authoring several books sharing his horticultural knowledge.
Yet he’s perhaps best known for fronting Gardeners’ World, taking over from Alan Titchmarsh after he stepped down from the programme in 2002.
Since becoming the BBC show’s main presenter in 2003, he’s been broadcasting the series from his own Longmeadow garden since 2011.
Gardeners’ World is set to return to ours screens this evening (17 October) at 8 p.m.