Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don candidly discussed why he preferred gardening alone in the famous Longmeadow garden he shares with long-term wife Sarah
Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don candidly discussed why he preferred gardening alone in the famous Longmeadow garden he shares with long-term wife Sarah
Monty Don, the well-known face of BBC’s Gardeners’ World, has opened up about his preference of gardening separately from his wife Sarah at their Longmeadow garden. The 69-year-old gardener said that while sharing gardening is important, he sought “peace and solace” in doing it alone.
“It’s the peace and solace, actually, that helps quiet my mind,” he shared. Monty, who battles seasonal affective disorder (SAD), found getting back to gardening crucial after facing a particularly “dreadful” October and November.
With his condition, that affects one in 20 people in the UK, Monty struggles with the shorter daylight during these months. On the Gardeners’ World podcast, he explained his coping strategy: “I now have a pattern whereby I try and spend one day a week on my own in the garden, which is obviously usually a weekend, one of the two weekend days.”
“It’s a kind of treat I give myself,” he added. “But when I say share, I don’t necessarily mean gardening with other people, which actually, personally, I don’t like very much.
“Even my wife and I, who have always gardened together, we hardly ever physically garden together, we just were in the garden at the same time.”
Elaborating further, he said: “I was thinking more in terms of if you had to garden, no one saw what you did, no one shared the fruits or whether they were literal fruits, or a few flowers, or whatever.
“Then, that might modify how you felt about it, sharing comes in lots of different ways.”
The green-fingered expert has been married to his wife Sarah since 1983, and the couple share three adult children; Adam, Tom, and Freya. Monty has spoken candidly about his mental health struggles and how Sarah was the catalyst in his journey to seek help for his depression.
In a heartfelt conversation with Kate Thornton on the White Wine Question Time podcast, Monty explained: “It’s a lot to do with the greyness, the lack of light and the general sense of the world just pressing in on you and no energy.”
He recounted a particularly tough moment when Sarah confronted him about his wellbeing: “Sarah said to me, ‘Look, I just can’t take any longer your moods and your black depression, you’ve got to do something about it because if you don’t, I can’t live with you – I’ll take the children and I’ll go’.”
Following this wake-up call, Monty sought medical advice and began taking anti-depressants. However, he eventually stopped using the medication and instead found solace in using a light box to ease the transition between seasons.
Monty Don’s British Gardens airs tonight at 8pm on BBC Two.