By Linda Garrould · Updated 4 October 2026
Monty Don’s latest book is British Gardens (BBC Books, March 2026), written to accompany his BBC Two series, with photographs by Derry Moore. He has written more than twenty books since the mid-1990s — practical guides, memoirs, books about his dogs and a long run of garden-travel books — and below you will find all the principal ones in order, the best to give, and a few presents for a Gardeners’ World devotee who already owns most of them.
There is a particular reason to buy one this Christmas. In September 2026 Monty Don announced that the current series of Gardeners’ World would be his last as presenter, after 23 years. For a great many households Friday night will not be quite the same, and a book is the natural way to keep him on the bedside table.
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Which Monty Don book to buy: quick picks
The newest — British Gardens (2026).
For someone learning to garden — The Gardening Book or The Complete Gardener.
For the Friday-night viewer — Gardening at Longmeadow.
For the dog lover — Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs.
For the armchair traveller — Spanish Gardens or Venetian Gardens.
A small present that needn’t be expensive — Ten Poems about Gardens, with his introduction, or a paperback of The Jewel Garden.
Monty Don’s latest book: British Gardens (2026)
After a decade of looking at other countries’ gardens — Japan, America, Venice, Spain — Monty Don turned the camera on home. British Gardens travels from the far north of Scotland to the Cornish coast, through grand historic gardens, public parks, allotments and nurseries, asking what our gardens say about us. It was published on 19 March 2026 alongside the BBC Two series and went straight into the Sunday Times bestseller list.
Monty Don — British Gardens (2026)
His newest book, published by BBC Books in March 2026 to accompany the five-part BBC Two series, with Derry Moore’s photographs. Scotland to Cornwall by way of Alnwick, Beatrix Potter’s Lake District and the rewilded garden at Knepp. A big, handsome hardback: the obvious present this year, and the one most likely not yet on their shelf.
Coming next: Home Grown, a collection drawn from his monthly Gardeners’ World magazine columns, is listed for pre-order from BBC Books. Retailers were showing different publication dates when we checked, so treat it as a promise for later rather than a present for this Christmas.
Monty Don books in order
Here are his principal books in order of first publication. Early titles appeared under his full name, Montagu Don, and the travel books from 2011 onwards are collaborations with the photographer Derry Moore.
| Year | Title | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | The Weekend Gardener | Early practical book, written as Montagu Don |
| 1997 | The Sensuous Garden | Gardening for the senses |
| 1999 | Fork to Fork (with Sarah Don) | Grow it, cook it — book of the Channel 4 series |
| 2003 | The Complete Gardener | The organic reference; revised DK edition 2021 |
| 2004 | The Jewel Garden (with Sarah Don) | Memoir of the couple and the making of Longmeadow |
| 2005 | My Roots | Collected Observer columns: a decade in the garden |
| 2008 | Around the World in 80 Gardens | Book of the BBC series |
| 2009 | The Ivington Diaries | Diaries of the garden at Longmeadow |
| 2010 | The Home Cookbook (with Sarah Don) | Seasonal home cooking |
| 2011 | The Great Gardens of Italy (with Derry Moore) | Book of the BBC series |
| 2012 | Gardening at Longmeadow | Tour of the Gardeners’ World garden; reissued 2022 |
| 2013 | The Road to Le Tholonet | A French garden journey |
| 2016 | Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs | Memoir of Nigel and the family dogs |
| 2017 | Down to Earth | Gardening wisdom in short essays; new edition 2025 |
| 2018 | Paradise Gardens (with Derry Moore) | Islamic gardens; book of the BBC series |
| 2019 | Japanese Gardens (with Derry Moore) | Book of the BBC series |
| 2020 | My Garden World | The natural year at Longmeadow |
| 2020 | American Gardens (with Derry Moore) | Book of the BBC series |
| 2022 | Venetian Gardens (with Derry Moore) | Accompanies the Adriatic Gardens series |
| 2023 | The Gardening Book | Practical, seasonal how-to |
| 2024 | Spanish Gardens (with Derry Moore) | Book of the BBC series |
| 2026 | British Gardens (with Derry Moore) | His latest book, published March 2026 |
The best Monty Don books to give
Every book below was in stock on Amazon UK when we checked. Older titles sell in small numbers, so if one has gone, a good second-hand copy is no hardship.
For the practical gardener
Monty Don — The Gardening Book
Published in October 2023 and the one to give someone who wants to know what to do, not merely to read about other people’s gardens. Practical, seasonal and written in the plain, unhurried voice of the Friday-night programme.
Monty Don — The Complete Gardener
The big organic reference, first published in 2003 and reissued by DK in a new edition in 2021. If you are buying one Monty Don book for a new gardener, it is this or The Gardening Book; this is the one with more depth.
Monty Don — Down to Earth
Short, opinionated essays on colour, soil, vegetables and the garden year — what he calls the distillation of fifty years of gardening. DK published a new hardback edition in November 2025. Easy to dip into, which makes it a good present for the gardener who reads in ten-minute bursts.
For the Gardeners’ World viewer
Monty Don — Gardening at Longmeadow
The book for anyone who watches Gardeners’ World mostly to look at the garden. A tour of Longmeadow, part by part, with the thinking behind each. This flexibound edition is the 2022 reissue of the 2012 original.
Monty Don — My Garden World
A month-by-month account of the wildlife and weather around Longmeadow — trees, wildflowers, birds and insects — drawn from decades of his notebooks. The paperback; a good choice for someone more naturalist than plantsman.
The Gardeners’ World Almanac (foreword by Monty Don)
Strictly speaking a Gardeners’ World magazine book rather than a Monty Don one — he writes the foreword — but a sound month-by-month companion for anyone who plans the garden around the programme.
For the reader who wants the man as well as the garden
Monty and Sarah Don — The Jewel Garden
Written with Sarah Don: the jewellery business, its collapse, depression and the making of the garden at Longmeadow. The nearest thing he has written to an autobiography. The paperback.
Monty Don — Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs
The memoir about Nigel, the golden retriever who stole the show, and the dogs who came before him — the right present for the viewer who tuned in partly for the dogs.
For the armchair traveller
Monty Don — Spanish Gardens
The 2024 travel book, from Madrid and Galicia to Mallorca and Seville, again with Derry Moore. Pairs well with British Gardens if you want to give two.
Monty Don — Venetian Gardens
The 2022 book behind the Adriatic Gardens series: the gardens of Venice, with Derry Moore’s photographs. Stock was thin when we checked, so order early if this is the one.
Earlier travel books are still about — Japanese Gardens (2019), Paradise Gardens (2018) and American Gardens (2020) — though stock was down to the last copy or two on several when we looked.
Monty Don’s cookbooks
Monty and Sarah Don were growing and cooking their own food long before it was fashionable to say so. Fork to Fork (1999) was the book of their Channel 4 series, and The Home Cookbook (2010) is a collection of seasonal home cooking. Both are older titles with very little new stock left; second-hand copies are easy to find and make a lovely present for a cook who gardens.
Gifts for a Gardeners’ World fan beyond the books
If they own the whole shelf already, give them somewhere to go: RHS membership covers entry to the society’s own gardens and many partner gardens across the country for a year, which is about as close as most of us will get to a Monty Don travel series.
For tools, our gifts for gardeners guide picks out the secateurs, gloves and trowels worth giving, plus a short and rather useful section on what not to buy.
Monty Don’s dogs
For many viewers the dogs were half the point. Nigel, the golden retriever who wandered through shot after shot, became a national figure; he died in May 2020 and is buried in the garden at Longmeadow. Nell was another long-time regular. Peggy, the wire-haired dachshund, and Patti, the Yorkshire terrier, both died in 2026. Ned, the younger golden retriever, is the dog now at his side — he was sitting beside Monty when he announced that he was leaving Gardeners’ World. Nigel has a book to himself, Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs.
In May 2020 Monty spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about how dogs helped him through depression; we kept a transcript of the interview.
Who is Monty Don?
Monty Don OBE, born on 8 July 1955, is Britain’s best-known gardening broadcaster and writer. He became lead presenter of BBC Two’s Gardeners’ World in 2003, stepped away after a minor stroke in 2008 and returned in 2011, when the programme moved to his own garden at Longmeadow in Herefordshire. He has presented a long run of garden-travel series, most recently British Gardens and Rhineland Gardens, and in September 2026 announced that the current series of Gardeners’ World would be his last. He is a committed organic gardener and was appointed OBE in 2018.
If you want to garden along with him, our Monty Don’s February jobs and when to prune roses are good places to start.
Monty Don books and gifts: frequently asked questions
What is Monty Don’s latest book?
British Gardens, published by BBC Books on 19 March 2026 with photographs by Derry Moore, to accompany his five-part BBC Two series. A further book, Home Grown, drawn from his Gardeners’ World magazine columns, is listed for pre-order but its publication date had not settled when we checked.
What are Monty Don’s books in order?
His principal books run from The Weekend Gardener (1995) and The Sensuous Garden (1997) through The Complete Gardener (2003), The Jewel Garden (2004), Gardening at Longmeadow (2012), Nigel (2016), Down to Earth (2017) and My Garden World (2020) to the travel books with Derry Moore, the most recent being Spanish Gardens (2024) and British Gardens (2026). The full table is above.
Which Monty Don book is best to start with?
For practical gardening, The Gardening Book (2023) or The Complete Gardener. For the man himself, The Jewel Garden. For the garden on screen every Friday, Gardening at Longmeadow.
Has Monty Don written a cookbook?
Yes — two, both with Sarah Don. Fork to Fork (1999) accompanied their Channel 4 series about growing and cooking your own food, and The Home Cookbook (2010) collects seasonal family recipes. Both are older titles, so new copies can be scarce; a good second-hand copy is a perfectly respectable present.
Has Monty Don written an autobiography?
Not a conventional one. The Jewel Garden, written with Sarah Don, tells the story of their life, the failure of their jewellery business, his depression and the making of Longmeadow. Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs and My Roots fill in more.
Is Monty Don leaving Gardeners’ World?
Yes. On 8 September 2026 he announced that the current series would be his last as lead presenter, after 23 years. He has said there are more books to write and programmes to make, and he continues to garden at Longmeadow.
Where is Longmeadow, and can you visit?
Longmeadow is Monty Don’s home garden at Ivington, near Leominster in Herefordshire, and Gardeners’ World has been filmed there since 2011. It is a private family home rather than a visitor garden, so the books and the programme are the way in.
What are Monty Don’s dogs called?
Ned, a golden retriever, is the dog now seen at his side — he sat beside Monty for the September 2026 announcement. Viewers will remember Nigel, the golden retriever who died in May 2020, and Nell; Peggy and Patti both died in 2026.
Related reading
Gifts for gardeners · Our gardening pages · Monty Don’s February garden jobs · When to prune roses · How to start composting · Hedgehog houses
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