{"id":629240,"date":"2026-09-27T16:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629240\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:42:11","slug":"monty-don-says-he-may-have-to-let-go-of-his-gardeners-after-leaving-bbc-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629240\/","title":{"rendered":"Monty Don says he may have to let go of his gardeners after leaving BBC | Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 15 years, viewers have looked in amazement at Monty Don\u2019s beautiful Herefordshire<\/a> garden, known as Longmeadow, as he hosted the show Gardeners\u2019 World from his own back yard.<\/p>\n

But now the BBC presenter, who announced earlier this month that he was leaving the show<\/a>, has said he may have to let go of the gardeners who have kept the space beautiful and broadcast-ready.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time since announcing his departure, Don revealed that the BBC<\/a> had paid part of the salaries of two full-time gardeners to tend to Longmeadow ever since he began hosting the show from his garden in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had two full-time gardeners, and have had them since I have been on Gardeners\u2019 World, and from day one it\u2019s been in my BBC contract that I have to have two full-time gardeners,\u201d the 71-year-old said during an event at the RHS Malvern autumn flower show.<\/p>\n

Answering questions from the audience during a session hosted at Three Counties Showground, he said this was because the garden had to look camera-ready at all times. \u201cIf I\u2019m off filming in the Rhine or India or somewhere like that, somebody has got to be getting it ready,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The presenter has said he would not open the garden to the public, as it is a private space. Photograph: BBC Studios<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC pays a contribution towards their wages. Not enough, but they do pay something, which is great. Obviously, that contribution is going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

His current team of two gardeners, a propagation expert and a landscaper have been with him for 10 years, he said. \u201cThey are a great team and we all work together really well. I will have to think of ways \u2013 I can\u2019t afford it unless we earn money from it, so I am going to think of ways of earning something from the garden, but I can\u2019t do that until the middle of next year at the earliest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presenter has said he would not open the garden to the public as it was a private space, and organising parking in the area would be too difficult.<\/p>\n

Don and his wife, Sarah, created the 2-acre garden in the village of Ivington in 1991, at which time it was a neglected field with one hazel tree.<\/p>\n

It is now split into four gardens: the cottage garden which is filled with shrub roses, the jewel garden with its bright, multicoloured flowers, the Islamic-inspired paradise garden, and the vegetable garden, which provides produce almost year-round.<\/p>\n

Don said he was leaving the show, which he has hosted along with his dogs, after 23 years because it was \u201cthe right time for a change\u201d. He will continue working with the BBC on other programmes, as well as pursuing his own projects, such as writing books.<\/p>\n

The final series hosted by Don will continue to be broadcast from Longmeadow until later this year. It is understood he will shortly begin filming a travel programme for the BBC, named Island Gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 15 years, viewers have looked in amazement at Monty Don\u2019s beautiful Herefordshire garden, known as Longmeadow, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-629240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}