Full Monty: gardening for the future

We September

T h e F u l l M o n t y Society has changed enormously since Gardeners’ World first aired in 1968. So, asks Monty, is there still such as thing as a ‘typical’ viewer?

This July, when being interviewed on

stage at the Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, I was asked “Who is Gardeners’ World for?”. It was an interesting question, partly because, in a thousand previous interviews, I had never been asked it before; and partly because it is one that I, and everyone involved in the production team, constantly ask.

Gardening is changing. I would argue that this is inevitable and perfectly natural but it is more than that. For varied reasons, we are becoming a society that my parents – both born over 100 years ago – would barely recognise. I believe that most of these changes are a good thing, but I know adapting to change is demanding and disturbing. This means that for many, Gardeners’ World is a sanctuary of decency and normality, where they can retreat and feel safe from the disturbing strangeness of modern life. That is pretty much how I feel about my garden. It is, amongst other things, my ‘safe place’.

But if you try, on television, to show only that, then two things happen. The first is the risk that ‘safety’ becomes cloyingly saccharine and you slip into a cosy nostalgia of a world that actually never existed. The second is that you make

yourself irrelevant to a huge number of people that have grown up in this modern world.

My children and their friends, born between 1985 and 1990, have never heard, for example, of Geoff Hamilton, let alone Percy Thrower. None of them has ever considered watching Gardeners’ World of their own volition until very, very recently, and when they finally do so, they are slightly embarrassed to admit it.

These are not children or even what might be called Young People. Many will be 40 in a couple of years’ time and the youngest will never see 30 again. They have established partners, are parents, have mortgages, some are balding, putting on a little weight, noticing a few aches and pains. Is Gardeners’ World for them?

There is another raft of grown-ups – a little younger, perhaps leaving college, getting jobs and trying to work out how they will ever afford a house. They are bright, hard-working and deeply engaged with the natural world, environmental issues and the planet that they are inheriting. What, if anything, is Gardeners’ World to them?

It used to be often said that gardening was something you came to in the fullness of time. That it was part of the package of getting your first home, settling down and – as an unsaid subtext – becoming a mature adult. But that won’t wash any more – if it ever did. There is a generation that may never get their own home, that may never ‘settle down’ but yet love growing things and love this physical world every bit as much as the owner of a proudly maintained garden. For gardening to work at all, it has to take all sorts – and celebrate that fact.

So, who do I think that I am talking to when I address the camera each week on Gardeners’ World? When I began presenting gardening programmes 35 years ago, it was my wife’s Aunty Mary. But not any more.

There is a small but vociferous part of the audience who see Gardeners’ World as a chance to both tick the boxes of their own horticultural knowledge and to loudly disapprove if anything is shown or done in a way that differs from their own. We used to be self-conscious about placating this ‘gardening mafia’, but not any more. They are welcome, but Gardeners’ World is not aimed exclusively at or for them.

I think the answer is that Gardeners’ World obviously has to be entertaining and informative for anyone and everyone who has access to a garden of any kind – or indeed, who just loves plants and green spaces.

I am a 67-year-old grandfather and I am comfortable with all the preconceptions and expectations of those of us of a similar age. But, increasingly, I see it as my own mission to inspire and encourage those starting out on the rich experience of making a garden or growing things – any thing, any where. It does not matter how old or young you are. If Gardeners’ World can help shape, inspire and inform your future – rather than shoring up your past – then we are hitting the right mark.

For gardening to work at all, it has to take all sorts – and celebrate that fact

MONTY ON TV Catch Monty and the rest of the Gardeners’ World team at 8pm every Friday evening in September. And listen to the new podcast with him discussing the making of Longmeadow at GardenersWorld.com/podcast