The Secret History of the British Garden

The Secret History of the British Garden episode 4: Monty Don concludes his journey through Britain’s gardening heritage by looking at how the nation’s gardens have evolved over the last hundred years. He looks at the profound effect that two world wars had on attitudes to gardens and gardening.     Today, gardening is one of Britain’s most popular pastimes and the horticultural industry is now annually worth over nine billion pounds to the economy. Monty uncovers the stories and reveals the pioneers who led this gardening revolution. For Monty, gardens are every bit as important as the houses we […]

The Secret History of the British Garden episode 3: On his journey through 400 years of British gardens, Monty explores the extraordinary transformations that occurred throughout the 19th century. As a result of an expanding empire, scientific and technological innovation and social change, British gardens became more exotic, more colourful and more widely accessible than ever before.     Monty visits the most influential gardens of the period, from Queen Victoria’s royal retreat at Osborne to the very first public park, Derby’s Arboretum. At Kew and Edinburgh botanic gardens, he uncovers scientific secrets that enabled a wealth of new exotic

The Secret History of the British Garden episode 2: On his journey through four hundred years of Britain’s garden history, Monty Don arrives in the 18th century, an age that gave rise to the landscape garden, created on a scale that had never been seen before. Using Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown‘s first commission – Croome Court in Worcestershire – as his base, Monty sets out to investigate what inspired and influenced this gardening revolution.     Along the way, he visits the landscape garden of Rousham, designed by the maverick William Kent, and Stanage Park, designed by the marketing genius Humphrey