1. In 1989, Monty Don made his television debut as a regular on This Morning with a gardening segment, which led to further television work across the decade including his own shows for BBC Television and Channel 4.
60 Facts About Monty Don
1. 2.
Monty Don began his writing career at this time and published his first of over 25 books, in 1990.
3.
Between 1994 and 2006, Monty Don wrote a weekly gardening column in The Observer.
4.
In 2003, Monty Don replaced Alan Titchmarsh, at his suggestion, as the lead presenter of Gardeners' World, only leaving the show between 2008 and 2011 owing to illness.
5.
George Montagu Monty Don was born on 8 July 1955 in Iserlohn, West Germany.
6.
Monty Don is the youngest of five children to British parents Denis Thomas Keiller Don, a career soldier stationed in Germany at the time of his birth, and Janet Montagu Wyatt.
7.
When Monty Don was 10, he added his mother's maiden name, becoming Montagu Denis Wyatt Monty Don.
8.
On Monty Don's paternal side he is a descendant of botanist George Monty Don and the Keiller family, best known as the inventors of Keiller's marmalade.
9.
Monty Don has a twin sister, Alison, who at the age of 19 was nearly killed in a car accident, suffering a broken neck and blindness.
10.
When Monty Don was one, the family moved to Hampshire, England.
11.
Monty Don attended three independent schools: Quidhampton School in Basingstoke, followed by Bigshotte School in Wokingham, where at seven, he was asked to leave school for being too boisterous.
12.
Monty Don then attended Malvern College in Malvern, which he hated, followed by a state comprehensive school, the Vyne School, and a state sixth form college, Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke.
13.
Monty Don failed his A-levels and while studying for retakes at night school, worked on a building site and a pig farm by day.
14.
Monty Don returned to England, determined to attend Cambridge University out of "sheer bloody-mindedness", and passed the entrance exams.
15.
Monty Don studied English at Magdalene College, during which time he met his future wife Sarah Erskine, a trained jeweller and architect.
16.
Monty Don took up boxing to impress his father, a former heavyweight boxing champion in the army, becoming a Cambridge Half Blue for boxing.
17.
Monty Don gave up after getting knocked out and suffering concussion.
18.
Monty Don became a success and in five years, operated from a shop on Beauchamp Place in Knightsbridge with hundreds of outworkers and had secured as many as 60 outlets across the UK, including Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Liberty.
19.
The situation prompted Monty Don to embark on a career in writing and broadcasting.
20.
Monty Don was unemployed from 1991 to 1993, and spent all of 1992 on the dole.
21.
The increased exposure opened doors: soon Monty Don was writing a gardening column for the Mail on Sunday, had a book deal, and an invitation to screen test for a proposed weekly live gardening segment on the ITV television breakfast show This Morning.
22.
Monty Don is the first self-taught horticulturist presenter in the show's history.
23.
Monty Don hosted the show until he put his career on hold to recover from his minor stroke in 2008, and the show continued with Toby Buckland filling in as host.
24.
In December 2010, Monty Don announced his return as host for the 2011 series.
25.
When he returned as host in 2011, Monty Don began to present from his own garden, Longmeadow, in Ivington, Herefordshire.
26.
Monty Don was frequently seen on screen with his Golden Retriever Nigel until the dog died in May 2020, shortly before his 12th birthday.
27.
In 2016, Monty Don introduced viewers to his new golden retriever, Nell.
28.
In 2020, Monty Don signed a contract with the BBC to continue presenting Gardeners' World for three years.
29.
Monty Don is known for writing and presenting his own series.
30.
In 2010, Monty Don presented My Dream Farm, a Channel 4 series which helped people learn to become successful smallholders, and Mastercrafts, a BBC series which celebrated six traditional British crafts.
31.
Later that year, Monty Don presented an episode of Great British Garden Revival.
32.
In 2014, Monty Don became the lead presenter for the BBC's flagship Chelsea Flower Show coverage, again replacing Titchmarsh.
33.
Since 2014, Monty Don has presented three series of Big Dreams, Small Spaces, where he helps amateur gardeners in creating their own "dream spaces" at home.
34.
In 2015, Monty Don presented the four-part BBC series The Secret History of the British Garden, charting the development of British gardens from the 17th to the 20th century.
35.
In January 1994, Allan Jenkins, then editor of The Observer, invited Monty Don to write a weekly gardening column for the newspaper.
36.
Between 2008 and 2016, Monty Don was President of the Soil Association.
37.
Monty Don is currently a patron of Bees for Development Trust and the Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust.
38.
Monty Don is a keen proponent of organic gardening, becoming "officially" organic in his own garden in 1997.
39.
The Monty Don affectation is one tad more painterly than that.
40.
In 2005, Monty Don himself dedicated a whole column to this subject, commenting:.
41.
Monty Don wears a collar and tie when presenting the Chelsea Flower Show.
42.
The couple lived in Islington, north London, while Monty Don pursued postgraduate study at the London School of Economics and worked as a waiter at Joe Allen restaurant in Covent Garden and later as a binman.
43.
Monty Don owns dogs that are not featured on the show.
44.
Monty Don had injured himself after twisting sideways when jumping to catch a tennis ball and had ruptured an intervertebral disc in his spine.
45.
Monty Don said that he had chosen Nigel because the domestic dog signifies the good and bad in human relationships with nature; humans can prioritise fluffy animals over others.
46.
In September 2016 an autobiography entitled Nigel: My Family and Other Dogs was published, telling the story of Nigel and the other dogs in Monty Don's life, including the female golden retriever, Nellie.
47.
On 11 May 2020 Monty Don announced, through his Twitter and Instagram pages, that Nigel had died, six days before his 12th birthday.
48.
Monty Don told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that Nigel had been more than a companion and had helped him with his struggles with depression.
49.
Monty Don exuded a kind of unsullied innocence and we all love our dogs; everybody thinks their dog is special.
50.
Monty Don first wrote about his experiences with it, and its effect on his personal life, in a piece for The Observer in 2000.
51.
Monty Don's editor recalled that it "changed the way that people saw him" and Don himself said the article generated "a very immediate response" from readers.
52.
Monty Don recalled "great spans of muddy time" in his life and realised that gardening "heals me better than any medicine".
53.
At one point, Monty Don's wife threatened to leave with their children if he did not seek help.
54.
Monty Don's wife had found him unconscious on the floor and he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
55.
In February 2008, Monty Don suffered a minor stroke at home.
56.
Monty Don had been feeling unwell since the previous Christmas, owing mostly to exhaustion from travelling to film Around the World in 80 Gardens.
57.
In 2015, Monty Don said that years of gardening had left him with sore knees, one of which causes constant pain and needs replacing.
58.
In May 2022, it was reported that Monty Don had COVID-19 and had been bedridden for four days.
59.
Monty Don was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to horticulture, to broadcasting and to charity.
60.
Monty Don was appointed as a deputy lieutenant of Herefordshire on 14 October 2024.