Monty Don's glorious Jewel Garden at Longmeadow is getting a makeover – and some shrubs have already been giving the chop.
Full of colour, texture and character, the Jewel Garden (which is one of four distinct areas of Longmeadow at Monty's Herefordshire home) is actually a celebration of Monty and his wife Sarah's previous costume jewellery business – hence the rich, intense and somewhat extravagant use of colour from magentas to blues.
Work begun on the Jewel Garden when filming of BBC's Gardeners' World wrapped in October last year. Monty began to 'systematically lift all herbaceous plants', splitting and planting out new divisions in nursery beds.
'We became increasingly ruthless about what we kept and what went to the compost heap,' reveals Monty in the March issue of Gardeners' World magazine. 'I have also been ruthless about removing shrubs that I don't think earn their keep – so assorted tree peonies, lilacs, buddleias, sambucus, ribes and even a few roses have been dug up and shredded.'
Monty hopes his new-look Jewel Garden will return ‘to the spirit of the original garden’, based on photographs that he's documented over the past 30 years. As well as adapting to the changing climate, Monty plans to have larger clumps distributed more widely across the garden, and more winter structure and bulbs.
'As ever at Longmeadow, the driving force will be to choose plants that serve the garden rather than creating a space to indulge in growing plants,' he says. 'I know many people select their plants because they love them and will find a place for them. But no individual plant grows at Longmeadow just because we like it. It must also work towards a collective end so that the sum of the plants is greater than their parts. What you leave out is just as important as what you put in.'
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Monty, who is gearing up to make his RHS Chelsea Flower Show debut as a garden designer this May, reveals that he hasn't rigorously planned the redesign of the Jewel Garden.
'I also never have a planting plan. I make it up as I go along,' he admits. 'I have a colour theme – in this case jewel and metal colours, and an intimate knowledge of the site and the soil. The rest is instinctive, it is fluid, and I have no desire or even belief in a finished, realised border or garden.'
For Monty, his garden will always be a work in progress – moving plants, adapting, changing and experimenting. He promises the process will be shared with viewers on Gardeners' World over the coming months, with filming of the long-running BBC series commencing this March.
• The new series of Gardeners' World returns on Friday 14th March at 8pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
