Monty Don

Absorbing a healthy amount of dirt builds your immune system.

— Monty Don

I love high summer as well, but nothing beats a perfect May morning.

— Monty Don

We know that gardening is good for you. It is fantastic, all-round exercise.

— Monty Don

I often eat cakes while my fingers are caked in soil.

— Monty Don

Plant breeding has been going on for millennia and it's a gradual process.

— Monty Don

“magpies, jays, sparrowhawks, kestrels, all”

— Monty Don

I'm bad at sleeping. I get somewhere between three and six hours a night.

— Monty Don

As you get older your own problems are not that interesting.

— Monty Don

In my teens I wanted to be a rock star, I really did. At that time there was nothing I wanted more.

— Monty Don

Many gardens are hijacked by their plants and end up looking like a room overstuffed with furniture.

— Monty Don

We undervalue food in this country, yet Britain has beautiful food and beautiful growing conditions. It is astonishing the range we can…

— Monty Don

I always see gardening as escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing…

— Monty Don

Pulmonarias need splitting every two or three years, as they rapidly develop into a doughnut with an empty centre that quickly gets…

— Monty Don

I myself did not officially become organic until 1997, although I was always hopeless at using chemicals.

— Monty Don

Apples hate strong wind and damp, cold soil so try and place them on well-drained, rich soil in a sheltered position.

— Monty Don

When you plant something, you invest in a beautiful future amidst a stressful, chaotic and, at times, downright appalling world.

— Monty Don

Once you engage with the simple enough business of feeding yourself, of soil and water, weather, season and harvest, it becomes personal.…

— Monty Don

The horticultural industry is unimaginative and dominated by vast, supermarket-like outlets. But the small nurseries and growers remain - praise them with…

— Monty Don

It does seem to me that the British in particular, British horticultural literature and television programmes, focus a huge amount on how…

— Monty Don

My gardening apprenticeship was similar to the way a chimney sweep is pushed up a chimney. It was enforced by my parents,…

— Monty Don

I have been growing vegetables since I was a boy. When I was about 17 I was the only one of five…

— Monty Don

I think we put far too much interest in trying to get ten to 20 year olds interested in gardening. I think…

— Monty Don

I had a difficult relationship with my parents, who died young, but they instilled self-discipline and a sense of honour and loyalty…

— Monty Don

We don't value food in Britain, so therefore the cheaper it is the better it is. We all eat far too much,…

— Monty Don

Intellectually the French are wonderfully open, in a way the British just don't begin to be. You can question ideas in France,…

— Monty Don

The more people share woodland, absorb it and regard it as part of their personal heritage and culture, the richer our society…

— Monty Don

Earth heals me better than any medicine.

— Monty Don

“a little, would have existed to keep animals”

— Monty Don

You do not need to know anything about a plant to know that it is beautiful.

— Monty Don

I like dogs because they are not humans.

— Monty Don

Tony Blair is a dreadful man; really truly dreadful.

— Monty Don

You can trace the entire history of Britain by looking at gardens.

— Monty Don

I live in the middle of country so I walk a lot.

— Monty Don

I see myself as a writer who happens to garden.

— Monty Don

From the ages of 18 to 50 I ran, rowed and lifted weights at my home gym.

— Monty Don

The biggest obstacle to good gardening is the desire to know the answers and not the questions.

— Monty Don

Bamboos can go from shining health to shabbiness in weeks. The problem is too much wind, too little water and tired compost.

— Monty Don

I just think that gardening is about the future, a slow thing, that is deep and spiritual as well as spiritually rewarding.

— Monty Don

Gardening is seen as a pastime that is almost like belonging to the Church of England - a sign of maturity and…

— Monty Don

If I'm honest, the thing I am proudest of is my varieties of wild flowers in the hay meadow.

— Monty Don