Monty Don Books and Gift Guide 2020 #GardenersWorld

Update: July 1st 2020 : Monty Dons Latest Book

Monty has today announced his next book. It will be called “My Garden World” and will be published on September 17th. Monty said “From a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me from trees, wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals. In a sense this book has been over sixty years in gestation. I have kept notebooks and journals ever since I could write and I have drawn upon these as well as the events of the past year.“

You can pre-order the book and find more detail on Amazon – click here for details.

Update: May 13th 2020

Monty was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the death of Nigel. I’ve have typed up a transcript of the interview where Monty talks about how dogs have helped him with his depression and how special Nigel was to him and his family. 

Click here for Monty Don Today Programme Transcript.

Update: May 11th 2020

Some very sad news today, Monty Don has announced, “I am very sorry to announce that Nigel has died. He filmed every moment of last Friday’s programme and right to the end was happy, healthy and his usual calm, lovely self. But he was suddenly taken ill with violent, unstoppable seizures and despite everything that our wonderful vets could do he slipped quietly away with no pain or suffering and is now buried in the garden with lots of tennis balls. Rest now old friend. See you in the sweet bye and bye.” We will all miss seeing Nigel on Friday nights and send our best wishes.

Update: May 10th 2020

Monty Don was on the BBC Radio 4, Broadcasting House this morning doing the Paper Review. You can find the podcast here https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/broadcasting-house/id129558882?i=1000474138683

Update: May 2nd 2020

I noticed that at the end of last nights Gardeners’ World while the credits were playing the BBC did a little advert for “The VEG Grower’s Almanac’.

This isn’t written by Monty but I’ve included it here as it an offical BBC Gardener’s World book and to be honest I hadn’t heard of it before.

The Kindle eBook is just £1.99 or you can get the hardback version for £12.99 – click here to check the latest price and availablity on Amazon.

At just £1.99 for the Kindle edition you can’t really go wrong. I quite like the idea of having this ebook on my phone so I can check details when I’m down the bottom of the garden.

This would be a great gift for someone is is just getting into vegitable gardening.

Update: April 26th 2020

The May 2020 Gardenars’ World magazine arrived in the post.

A subscription to the Gardenar’s World magazine always makes a great gift – click here to see our subscription special offer.

At the moment you can subscribe to the next 6 months from just £9.99.

Update: March 29th 2019

Just a quick update to let you know that Monty Don’s Down to Earth Audio Book is now available on Audible in the UK.  It was released on March 7th and the 7 people who have left reviews to date have given it a 5 star rating.

You can listen to this book now for FREE with an Audible trial, click on the image below.

February 19th 2019

Monty will be appearing at BBC Gardeners’ World Live at Birmingham NEC for three days this year – Thursday 13th June, Friday 14th June and Saturday 15th June – tickets available here….
https://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com/meet-the-ex…/monty-don

Monty Don’s Japanese Gardens:

Monty Don’s series Japanese Gardens was first shown on BBC Two on February 15 2019, 21:00, and then at the same time for the following two weeks.

The Book is now available on Amazon from £3.99 for the Kindle version to £25 for the hardback edition. It has already been shortlisted for the photography travel book of the year.

Click here to see the latest deal on Amazon.

There is now also a DVD of the series and indeed you can pay to watch it on Amazons online video service. At the time of writing the DVD is £10.99 and the online version is £4.98.

This DVD or the book would certainly make a great birthday or Christmas present for any fans of Monty Don or Gardeners World.

Click here to find the DVD and online video on Amazon.

Update: 8th January 2019

Firstly congratulations to Monty for collecting his well-deserved OBE at the end of 2018.

Just a quick update to let you know that Monty is this week doing an audiobook recording of his book ‘Down to Earth’. This should be available on sites like Audible and Apple in the coming weeks and I’ll update this page with details when I receive them.
If you are like me then watching Gardners World on a Friday night is a little treat you look forward to all week. Monty Don has a nice relaxed way of presenting gardening and his background in organic gardening and his earlier works that combined gardening and cookery greatly appeal to me and I suspect many. Monty started the 2018 series of Gardeners World with a piece about reducing plastic waste which is a key issue at the moment for so many people. His series over the winter about Paradise Gardens was nothing short of perfect, giving much needed positive insight into other cultures and was beautifully shot.

I’ll refresh this blog from time to time but this is my current list of Monty Don books.

Down to Earth: Gardening Wisdom

Paradise Gardens: the world’s most beautiful Islamic gardens

Gardening at Longmeadow

Fork to Fork

Around The World In 80 Gardens

The Weekend Gardener

The Home Cookbook

Nigel: my family and other dogs

The Jewel Garden

The Ivington Diaries

Complete Gardener (The)

My Roots: A Decade in the Garden

The Road to Le Tholonet: A French Garden Journey

Great Gardens of Italy

The Sensuous Garden

The Complete Gardener

Fork to Fork

Fork to Fork Journal

The Weekend Gardener – Beautiful Gardens for Busy People

Click here to save 50% on a your subscription - this makes a perfect gift for a keen gardener.

Monty Don FAQ’s

What secateurs does Monty Don use / recommend?

The short answer is a well maintained clean sharp pair of secateurs. It’s important that they are sharp so that you make a clean cut with minimal damage to the plant. They also need to be kept clean so that you don’t spread infections from one plant to another. 

In a articles Monty has written for the Daily Mail and Telegraph he has specfically mentioned Tobisho Secateurs. These Japanese secateurs are hand-forged deep in the mountains of Yamagata and the quality of the steel is very good indeed. There are  different types but Monty says he prefers their bypass secateurs because they work like scissors so they’re less clumsy. He says you must keep them sharp. Otherwise you may as well not bother.

You can find Tobisho Secateurs on Amazon, but be warned they are expensive, as an alternative if you just want a good reliable pair of Secateurs for occasional use at the weekend these ZEM Pruning Shears on Amazon have a 4.5 Star Rating and over 1,300 reviews from happy customers. At the time of writing they are just £10.99 and available for next day delivery in the UK – click here.

Can I watch Monty Don on Who do you think you are on BBC iPlayer?

Currently the recording of the programme isn’t available but the BBC do repeat these programmes from time to time. I watched it at the time and it was a brilliant story. On his father’s side, Monty had heard that his ancestors were part of the famous Keiller marmalade dynasty, based in Dundee. Following their invention of chip marmalade, the Keillers became immensely rich, but Monty’s immediate family saw none of the fortune. So where did the missing marmalade millions go?

If we hear of a repeat we’ll post an update on this page an send an update in our Newsletter (click here to register). In the meantime you can findout more and see a short clip here on the BBC site.

Where is Longmeadow and does Monty Don live at Longmeadow?

People often ask this because they want to know if they can visit Longmeadow. You can’t visit Longmeadow as it is Monty Don’s family home and garden and they would never get a moments piece.

Longmead is in the village of Ivington in Hertfordshire, if you put this into Google maps you can soon spot the distinctve layout of Longmead on the satalite view.

Don’t forget Longmeadow is NOT open to the public.

Monty Don and his wife bought Longmeadow in 1991. The story of how they created the gardens we see today along with pictures from the start is told in Monty Don’s book The Ivington Diaries, this is now out of print but you can find collectors used editions from about £60 on Amazon – you can also look inside the book to get an idea of what a big project this was.

Where does Monty Don live?

At Longmeadow where Gardeners’ World is filmed. See above.

How can I email Monty Don?

Monty hasn’t made his email address available to the public but he has set-up a contact form on his blog which you can use to make contact with him – or more likely his PA / PR team who will filter the requests. 

Who is Monty Don?

Believe it or not this is a question frequently entered into Google. This page should tell you a lot about the man and his work, but here is a little more detail.

Monty Don O.B.E. is the UK’s leading garden writer and broadcaster. He has been making television programmes for over twenty years.  He has been lead presenter of the BBC’s Gardener’s World since 2003 and since 2011 the programme has come from his own garden, Longmeadow, in Herefordshire. 

Born in 1955, Monty grew up in Hampshire where he gardened with his family from a young age, and was educated at a variety of schools followed by Magdalene College, Cambridge.

In the early 1980s, Monty and his wife Sarah set up and ran a fashion jewellery business which enjoyed considerable success, but closed in 1990 just as Monty’s television and writing career was taking off.

Monty was the Observer’s gardening editor from 1994 until 2006. He now contributes a regular column for the Daily Mail and Gardeners’ World Magazine.

Monty is a committed organic gardener, and was for many years the President of the Soil Association.

Monty appears live in public at key literary and gardening events through the year.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in H.M. The Queen’s Birthday Honours, 8 June 2018.

Does Monty Don live at Longmeadow?

Yes, see above.

When was Monty Don born & When is Monty Dons Birthday?

He was born 8th July 1955.

When does Monty Don prune roses?

1. Hybrid teas, floribunda and Hybrid perpetuals. These flower on the current season’s wood. So they should be pruned hard each spring.

2. Shrub roses. Monty prunes his in early spring by removing exceptionally long growth, damaged or crossing branches and then leave alone. He says there is also a strong case for doing this in late summer or early autumn.

3. Climbing Roses can be subdivided into two groups:

a) True climbers which tend to have single, large flowers covering the period from early summer right into autumn, should be pruned in Autumn or Winter

b) Ramblers which have clusters of smaller flowers just once in mid summer. These need little pruning but should be trained and trimmed immediately after flowering as the flowers are carried mostly on stems grown in late Summer.

Where can I buy Monty Dons straw hat?

There is a nice article on the Guardian Website entitled “Dirty Dressing” written by Monty Don. In this article Monty discussed his style of dressing.

To follow.

Where can I buy Monty Dons merchandise?

We already have a nice selection of Monty Don books and other merchandise above but over the coming weeks we hope to expand this to bring your our favourite pieces of merchandise from around the web.