Monty Don dismisses ‘nonsense’ claim as he admits ‘something’s gone wrong’
Monty Don has spoken about his mistakes (Image: Ben Montgomery, Getty Images)
Gardening icon Monty Don has pushed back against a misconception about himself while explaining why making mistakes is a crucial part of the learning process.
Monty, 71, was speaking to the i newspaper when the conversation turned to how, despite his vast wealth of experience, he continues to make errors in the garden.
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The Gardener’s World presenter told the publication: “This myth that I am somehow the perfect gardener is nonsense. I make mistakes all the time. Literally every day. I’ve grown sweetcorn all my life.
“I know how to do it – I’ve done it hundreds of times with success. Last year, they were fantastic. This year, they’ve not germinated. I don’t know why, because they were perfectly good seeds. But something has gone wrong.”
Monty went on to discuss how he had interviewed head gardeners for a book he penned 45 years ago, making a fascinating observation throughout his research.
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Monty Don has spoken about his career (Image: BBC)
He said: “I interviewed around 20 of them around the country, all in their eights, and they all said the same thing: they didn’t really begin to get good at gardening until they’d had some serious failures.
“Because if you succeed at something, you stop working out how you do it. Whereas if you fail, you really have to think: what am I doing wrong?”.
Alongside sharing his own blunders, Monty has also highlighted pitfalls that others should avoid this year, warning in a July blog post that leaving clippings behind could prove damaging to plants. He said: “All Spring-flowering bulbs should have completely died back so that long grass can be cut without affecting their display next year.”
Turning to how this related to his cherished Longmeadow, he went on to say: “At Longmeadow, we often wait until August to do this because not all wild flowers have set seed, but by the end of July most wild flower meadows can be safely cut back.
Monty Don (Image: BBC Studios)
“The important thing is to remove all the grass, raking up every last piece to compost so that it will not enrich the grass and thus limit next year’s wild flower display.”
A further blunder to avoid is mowing the lawn while it is wet. On this point, the BBC Gardeners’ World magazine stated: “Mowing when the ground is sodden can lead to compaction, the mower will smear and rut the soil, and wet grass clippings will clump and smother the lawn below.”
