I have to admit something.
I cried watching a gardening television show. Not during the reveal of some kind of makeover for a deserving family. Nope. I cried watching Monty Don talk about American gardens.
Let me back up a bit. For those who are unfamiliar, Monty Don is perhaps the most well-known gardener in the world. He has been the host of the wonderful “Gardeners’ World” television show on BBC (in the UK) for 16 years and has done countless other specials on gardening and written several books as well as writing regularly for several publications. He is a gardener’s gardener, a guy who wears the same faded blue pants and jacket and a sweater with holes in it because it’s obviously his favorite.
He’s also an incredibly knowledgable, self-taught gardener, from whom I’ve learned more than probably any other single source. And if you think I’m carrying on, you should be happy I haven’t joined the legions of his fans who think the only thing better than his gardening knowledge is his rugged and perhaps slightly earthy good looks.
I believe I’ve seen every Monty Don special, including those on Italian, Japanese and paradise gardens. I even went down the rabbit hole and watched a show called “Fork to Fork” from 1999. I own at least two of his books, maybe three. Finding these shows can be difficult, but some are available on BritBox or Netflix. Others can be found with a rather aggressive search of YouTube or through a highly sketchy website called HD Clump. (Warning: the BBC is on top of people who record and repost these shows on YouTube, so they often come and go on random channels.)
So when I found out via Instagram that Monty was coming to the U.S. for a three-part series on American gardens, I not only tried to figure out a way to stalk him, I started counting down until the moment I could watch them. I struck out on the stalking, but I was delighted to see the first episode last Friday. (I caught it on YouTube, but I see it’s also here.)
Why was I so excited about this series? Because I desperately want Monty’s approval. It is absurd to think of a person who doesn’t know you exist as a type of mentor, but I do. And while I would be horrified to have Monty in my garden (if he didn’t like it, and I doubt he would, I would simply wither). But I wanted his approval of our best gardens in this country.
In the first episode he visited several gardens that I’ve been to, so I was especially excited to hear his thoughts on the Lurie Garden, Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer Gardens and Central Park. I found a bit of personal satisfaction in hearing him comment on noticeable aspects of some of these gardens in the same terms I myself have used (or at least thought). I was also disappointed that he seemed underwhelmed by what I think are excellent examples of creative, interesting and important gardens.
He also visited gardens I didn’t know existed, including the most amazing community garden I’ve ever seen in the Bronx, where people of all cultures and ages came together to grow, do yoga and art and just be together. Although I’d heard of Federal Twist in Stockton, New Jersey, which is inspired by the prairie and generally allowed to run rampant, this was a closer video look than I’d seen of it. When owner James Golden told Monty that he “Forgot to mention that I hate gardening,” my mouth was agape (and, frankly, so was Monty’s). I mean how could you say that to Monty? James clearly is one of those people who has a great deal of confidence and he was speaking the truth to Monty. I liked that. Monty, who managed to land in the U.S. during last summer’s heat wave and still insisted on wearing his increasingly dampening linen jacket and scarf, declared that he “adored” the garden.
Of course, trying to summarize the “American garden” in three hours is ridiculous, and I never saw any examples of some of the excellent home gardens that don’t have a presence on the Internet for a TV producer to be able to find. I wish they’d stop at a great garden they saw just driving from one place to another. It’s an almost impossible task to capture the American garden in this format, so I’m sympathetic to the series’ shortcomings.
Monty liked a lot of the gardens. At least I think he did. He visited gardens from the middle of the country to the east coast and managed to find a unifying theme: the pioneering spirit that is in the DNA of this country. And I will be honest, I had never thought this before (although, in retrospect, I wonder if that idea was cooked up before he visited any of the gardens).
At Chanticleer—the garden Monty says he was referred to more than any other—he commented on the wide range of garden styles there, something he said you’d never find in the U.K. “What’s binding it together is not so much design but an incredible sense of optimism and enthusiasm and the idea that with the resources and the will you can do and make anything,” he said.
As an American, there are times, when it can be difficult to take pride in this country. But as I watched Monty talk about the pioneering spirit he found as a unifying theme among otherwise disparate gardens, I was full of pride. And yes, I shed a tear. And not just because a British gardener approved of them, but because he is absolutely correct.
(The second part of the series is now up and, at least for now, available on YouTube and here.)
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