Monty Don Addresses Rabbit Invasion at Longmeadow
Monty Don has opened up about a frustrating challenge at his beloved Longmeadow garden, admitting that plants can disappear almost as quickly as they emerge due to a seasonal rabbit problem. Speaking on the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine podcast, the Gardeners' World presenter explained that shifting weather patterns create a knock-on effect for gardeners, with excessive rain proving as disruptive as drought.
He said: "One of the really annoying aspects of flood, around us, is that the rabbits all come in out of the flooded fields into our garden. We now have a big rabbit problem because the poor things have got nowhere to go. Again, this is particularly in spring, rather than winter."
Rabbits Devour Plants in Cold, Wet Springs
Don added that the issue is most acute at the start of the growing season, when wet conditions leave animals searching for alternative food sources. "And if it's a cold and wet March, they come in and they eat everything," he said. He noted that the impact can be severe but often temporary, depending on how the weather develops.
"They really work their way through. As soon as it dries up and you start the grass growing and it warms up, they leave because the grass is much nicer than anything we can offer. You know, rabbits love freshly grown grass. That's what they really like. But you know, all these things are to do with water, either lack of it or presence of it," he added.
Longmeadow's Practical Realities
His comments offer a glimpse into the practical realities of maintaining Longmeadow, the Herefordshire garden made familiar to millions of viewers through Gardeners' World. The garden, which Don has cultivated for decades, faces challenges from local wildlife, especially during wet seasons.
Monty Don Reflects on His Career Launch
Separately, Monty has also reflected on the unexpected events that helped launch his public profile in horticulture. Appearing on the "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" podcast, the 70-year-old recalled how a lifestyle magazine feature on his home first brought him wider attention in the 1980s.
"A magazine called Elle, which was really big in the eighties, a sort of lifestyle/fashion thing, came and did an article about our home. Sarah and Monty Don's lovely home, you know, that type of thing," he said. The interest quickly shifted to the garden itself.
"They looked out the window and said, 'Wow! Look at your garden, who did you get to do that?'. I thought, that's fighting talk. I said, 'we did it, it's our garden, planted every single thing, of course we did'."
He added that the resulting feature included photographs that still surprise him today. "So they said, 'Well, can we photograph it?', which they did. And I'm ashamed to say, in it, I'm topless. I genuinely can't imagine why. It's out there folks, you can find it."
Monty said that being a keen gardener in his twenties was unusual at the time, and that the attention from the feature ultimately led to writing opportunities that helped establish his career in horticulture.
