Monty Don – one man and his dog

The RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden is the first you’ve designed at the show. Why a garden for dogs and why now? Was RHS Chelsea on your bucket list?

I’ve never believed in bucket lists. They’re absurd and should be banned! No, it’s much more random than that. Two years ago, I was filming in Madrid for my BBC series on Spanish gardens and was struck by the dogs garden at La Moraleja, designed by Álvaro Sampedro. Dogs had been very much a part of that design. I thought it was fun and nicely done and, when I got home to Longmeadow, my garden in Herefordshire, it made me think about the ways my dogs use the garden and how they react to it.

At the moment, we only have three dogs and it’s the fewest we’ve had for about 20 years. I’ve always had dogs; they are part of my life and part of my garden, so to combine the two at RHS Chelsea seemed a good thing. But most importantly, it wasn’t my idea! It was put to me by the RHS. I’ve always said I would never do a Show Garden at RHS Chelsea – actually, no-one has ever asked me – but the chance to do an RHS Chelsea garden that wasn’t being judged, well, that was different.

• See the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden

What do you think visitors will make of it?

The whole point of the garden is twofold. On one hand, it’s a dog owner’s garden, and so therefore you need a lawn, because dogs need a lawn. There’s a place for dogs to wallow, there’s long grass, there’s short grass to chase a ball and there’s shade. And then there are twists: there are lots of balls of different kinds – there’s alliums and topiary hornbeam balls, and we’ve got a dog rose and dogwoods.

I wanted to make a garden with nothing other than a very obvious story behind it. It’s not a stage set, it’s a garden. I’m not trying to sell my wares as a garden designer. All I’m doing is making a garden I like and I know my dogs will like. That simplicity is a great strength. It says, “Look, just enjoy it”. It’s fun. Gardens can bow under the weight of the story and message. This garden absolutely has shoulders free of any weight whatsoever. What you see is what you get. Like any good painting or piece of music, a good garden is not improved by being explained.

The RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden design

You’re not being judged for a medal as other gardens will be. Are you still nervous about it?

I’m aware that people will judge! I’m still awake at three o’clock in the morning, thinking “What on earth am I doing? Have we done this? Is that going to work?” May 20th is very late for tulips, for example. What if we have really hot weather beforehand, or really cold weather? You’re just thinking, what’s plan A, B, C, D and then on down. I don’t believe anybody who does an RHS Chelsea garden doesn’t have that same feeling. The first thing I said to Jamie Butterworth (of Form Plants, who is growing and sourcing the plants for the garden) was, “We cannot screw this up. This has got to be good”. And by good, I mean really good; this is not playing. You’ve got to do it absolutely as well as possible, as it’s going to be seen in real life by tens of thousands of people, and on television by millions.

I have two concerns: one, that all the enthusiasm and fun we’ve had putting it together is reflected in the final garden. And two, we know we’ve made the garden we wanted to make as well as we can. And if no-one else likes it, I don’t mind. I mean, that’s not really true – if no-one else likes it, I do mind, but as long as I like it, Jamie likes it and 51 per cent of the public like it, I won’t worry too much.

Any nail-biting moments so far?

Our main tree was going to be a beautiful black mulberry (Morus nigra), but on being loaded onto the truck from the grower, it snapped right at the trunk. I was surprised and sad, but I sort of figured if that’s the worst thing that happens, so be it. It was a real shame because it would have been perfect, but the replacement – a really nice multi-stemmed apple (Malus domestica) – is good. My dogs are obsessed by apples. They treat them as a ball, chasing and eating them. From September to November they eat hundreds. My late golden retriever, Nigel, used to regularly eat about a dozen apples a day. The green sludge deposited around the garden afterwards is not pleasant, but you just have to deal with it.

Ned has a leading role in the design of the garden for RHS Chelsea

Tell us more about the RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden – will it be like your garden at Longmeadow?

We made a decision very early on that we weren’t going to make a mini Longmeadow. What we have done though, is take little details from Longmeadow – one is field maples (Acer campestre). I really like them as a garden tree, and they’re not used much. I was brought up with hazel (Corylus avellana) and it has great meaning to me, so we’ve used that too. I also like the flora of coppiced woodland very much, so we’ll have primroses (Primula vulgaris) and bluebells (Hyacinthoides nonscripta) and that sort of woodland shade planting, which in May, is just beautiful.

So mostly British

A native plant is one that originated or arrived naturally in a particular place without human involvement. In the British Isles, native plants are those that were here during the last ice age or have arrived unaided since.

native trees. Why not something a bit more unusual?

I wasn’t particularly going for native trees, but it goes back to this being a garden that people can relate to. Also, it’s a reflection of my influences. I was brought up in Hampshire, which is surrounded by hazel coppice with beech standards. I have lived for the past 40 years in Herefordshire, where we have wonderful oaks and ash. On my farm in Wales I’ve planted 8,000 trees – we have some wonderful sessile oaks (Quercus petraea) – and miles of hedgerow. If you love gardens and landscape and plants, it feeds into who you are, it becomes you. We’re all strongly influenced by our geology; if you live in coniferous woodland, and have done all your life, the way that it forms shade, the way they grow and the fact that most are evergreen, will shape your world view.

To me, character is the single most interesting thing there is about a tree. And then obviously how the foliage appears, whether it flowers, and so on. I’m not trying to denigrate the obvious virtues of trees, but at the same time, if it doesn’t have character, I don’t want it. I am not impressed at RHS Chelsea by someone saying that a particular tree is really rare. I say, “Is it beautiful? Do I like it?” I don’t really care whether there are only three in the world or if there are 3 million. If I like it, I like it. I’m like that about all plants. I’m not swayed by a plant’s rarity or difficulty in growing. So the trees evolved from the garden vernacular that I like and use, rather than from any deliberate decision to not use slightly more obscure trees.

Field maples being planted at RHS Chelsea

We’ve heard the water feature is inspired by both the stream in Radio 2 presenter Jo Whiley’s garden and your farm in Wales. Tell us about that.

We were going to have a pool where the dogs could bathe and swim, and then we thought it would be nicer to have a stream with a very shallow piece of water in it. There’s a ford on my Welsh farm. A track crosses over it and the stream comes down the hillside. In summer it’s just a trickle and in winter the water roars down, but it’s usually very shallow. So the water feature is based entirely on what my dogs do when they’ve been for a walk, which is go in and lie down in it. Usually, it’s only about two or three inches deep, so they lie on it, get their tummies wet and cool, have a drink and then move on. 

You’ve said previously that your golden retriever Ned will be involved in the design process. Has he had a paw in anything?

The idea is that Ned will create the paths in the garden. We’ll be following him around a replica of the garden and marking where he goes. Dogs don’t move in a linear way, unless they want to get somewhere; normally they move sideways, following scents. If Ned changes his route, we’ll dig up the plants and put paths where he goes. The idea is that this area will be completely fluid, dictated by Ned. In the building there will be a screen playing a loop of my dogs – Ned loves to watch himself on TV – and there’ll be pots of couch grass for dogs to have a nibble. It’s a weed that everybody wants to get rid of, but dogs love it!

Monty Don filming for the BBC coverage at RHS Chelsea

Come show week, will you be on the garden? What burning questions do you anticipate from visitors?

Once the show starts, I’ll be busy presenting coverage for the BBC, but yes, if I’m not doing something for an hour, I’ll be on the garden. People will be able to view it from all four sides and I will be there to talk to people. As to what they might ask, when I go anywhere in public, sooner or later, someone will say, “I know I shouldn’t, but could I just ask about my dahlias or alliums?” It’s more about advice, y’know, “how do you get your alliums to look like that? Mine don’t”. I gave a talk earlier this year about British gardens – what they mean and what they can tell us. Inevitably, half the questions at the end were about people’s own gardens. I understand why, because gardens are personal, a part of people’s lives and home. That’s the whole point of gardening. 

You’re 70 in July, what does the future hold, post RHS Chelsea? Any more ambitions?

Filming BBC Gardeners’ World will take me through to October. In April I started filming a new travel series going from the source of the Rhine to the sea, visiting gardens in Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Holland and France. I’ve got a couple of gardens that I’m working on for charity and have more talks to do. That will take me through until November. I’ve decided I won’t do any more tours after that, but I do have a contract to write three more books. But I never have ambitions or bucket lists – or at least, I don’t plan. I never have.   

Monty’s collaborator, nurseryman Jamie Butterworth, talks us through his part in the RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden – and what it’s like to work with his hero

The trees

Usually designers want the biggest, best or most unusual trees for RHS Chelsea gardens. Initially, I sent Monty options for some weird and more unusual trees for his garden for dogs. His reply was: “Actually a hazel or field maple would do the job for me”. This has been his approach from the very start: everything in the garden has to be ‘him’ and relatable to gardeners. We’ve picked three big field maples that have loads of character. They are 50-plus years old, covered in moss, have limbs growing into each other, and are utterly gorgeous. I found them during a week of just walking and walking through miles of growers’ tree fields in Europe. When you stand in front of certain trees you just know they’re right. They’re all unique and they all have a story to tell.

The lawns

The garden has a lawn for dogs to flop onto. It won’t be overly weedy, but it’s definitely not manicured. I can’t recall the last time I saw a normal lawn at the show. Shaggy lawns are back, and we’re growing turf at RHS Garden Wisley using a special seed mix of tough grasses that will cope with dogs. The RHS will look after the lawn at the show and then it and other elements of the garden are being relocated to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

The weeds

We want the lawn to look authentic so I’m growing 500 daises (Bellis perennis), along with other weeds we’ll plant into it, such as Rumex (dock) and Plantago lanceolata (ribwort plantain). Guy Barter, RHS Chief Horticulturist, is advising us on the species mix and weeds. We’re definitely not rewilding though – this is a gardening garden.

The Don

Monty is the reason that I got into gardening in the first place, when I was nine years old. So yes, he’s an idol, a hero, but he’s also a gardener. When we’re together, we just chat as one gardener to another. It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you’re from, your gender or ethnicity, gardening cuts through all walks of life. I recently mentioned to my fiancée that I was going with Monty to pick out pots for the Dog Garden at Whichford Pottery, Warwickshire, and then out for lunch. She said: “Should I be jealous?” – I think she was envisaging a scene from the film Ghost, with Monty and I behind a pottery wheel. It wasn’t quite like that, but honestly, creating this garden has been so much fun. The whole point of it is that it’s joyous and uplifting, and the process has been all of those things from day dot. 

Monty Don and Jamie Butterworth with Ned