Gardener’s World: How I Garden: Easy ideas & inspiration for making beautiful gardens anywhere

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He recalled that after leaving the family home, his "only choices were joining the army, becoming a chef or doing gardening work". While he very nearly joined the army, he managed to secure a job at Devon Parks, where his passion for gardening was ignited. When he was 21, he landed his big break after being hired by legendary Gardeners' World presenter Geoff Hamilton to help out his Barnsdale garden. As an unhappy child, Adam escaped as much as he could to his grandparents. It was from them, rather than his landscape gardener father, that his love of gardening started. I’ll go into the ground when my time is up, still knowing only half of what I could know because [in gardening] you just carry on learning, especially as the environment changes.” While his own children have yet to show an interest in a horticultural or TV career, Sulina is a convert. At 21? I was too busy down the pub with my mates,” he says. At the interview he was bowled over by Hamilton. “I’d never been in the presence of someone charismatic before and I remember thinking ‘wow’. I think it was Geoff’s understated passion for horticulture that got me.” One set of grandparents owned two big greenhouses: one full of coleus, the other with cacti. “They were the first things I learnt to propagate. I set up a stall outside their house and sold my plants to passers-by.”

Adam’s day job is garden design, but this year he is doing 20 days of filming for GW, five of them as its host. He will be presenting at Chelsea, Tatton and Hampton Court flower shows, and at the GW Live show in August. He is an RHS ambassador and is working on two books: one on DIY garden projects, and the other on how to get more from your outdoor space, both to be published in 2022. And once you have removed a mature tree, it can take years before its replacement can properly fulfill its role. Presenters: Aasmah Mir, Luke Jones; Producer: Louise Corley; Editor: Beverley Purcell (20 April 2019). "Patti Boulaye". Saturday Live. 46:16 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 26 April 2019. This certainly resonates with me. When we first moved in, we were determined to get rid of a large cypress ‘Leylandii’.

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Adam suggests summing up your garden with a word. It could be ‘calm’ or ‘romantic’. ‘Then,’ he says, ‘assess something you want to buy against that word. Tell yourself that if it’s not ‘romantic’ or ‘calm’, then it’s not coming home.’ Finally… When I first met her she looked like she’d just come off the make-up counter at John Lewis. I don’t think she even knew what a landscape gardener was. Adam Frost first appeared on the show in 2016 as a co-presenter alongside Monty Don and has loved gardening since he was a child. Speaking to Lorraine last Friday, he said: "I spent a lot of time with my grandparents...classic 70s lawn, greenhouse at the end, run down in the morning, open up and get the tomatoes...from the moment it was light and you could get your trousers on to the moment it was dark, I was out." There are two posts that may be helpful here: what makes a good wildlife garden and how to plant a mini-wildflower meadow.

Easy-care evergreen pots to add interest and structure to your garden all year round. 10+ plant choices for evergreen trees, shrubs and grasses for pots. If you have a gap, Adam suggests you forget about the colour of the flowers. Think about the leaf shape. ‘Put a plant with a different leaf form in the gap.’ He has previously appeared on shows like The Alan Titchmarsh Show and The One Show as well as being a constant face on BBC's Gardener's World alongside Monty Don.It’s a lifestyle Adam and Sulina have created from a determination that their own children – Abbie-Jade, 24; Jacob, 22; Amber-Lily, 16; and Oakley, 14 – would not suffer the unsettled upbringing he endured. He told the publication: "I was sat in front of a psychiatrist and a doctor and said, 'You know, I've got burn-out and depression,' which was a surprise as I only went into the room with Covid. The wheels came off a little bit." The eldest of three and with exams looming, Adam was sent on ahead to Devon to live with an aunt whose hippy lifestyle was, he says, an eye-opener. His family’s arrival only worsened matters, with his parents separating then swapping partners with another couple. Adam’s relationship with his father was already fraught. “His downfall was drink. He was fun to be around until the fifth or sixth pint and then you’d get the slap and you’d live in fear of that.” After this family turmoil, Adam became a contributor to a podcast series for Gardener's World Magazine that featured conversations with psychologists over how beneficial gardening is for your mental health. The problem is exacerbated by modern impatience. “We’ve created a society where if you want something you can have it straight away. One of the most beautiful things for me in a garden is that it does things at its own pace and you have to fall in with that.

He also runs a garden school at Villa Farm, and is horticultural adviser to his wife Sulina’s garden boutique. The garden is managed by Adam, Sulina, their new gardener Luke and whichever of their four children are to hand. What I’d love to do is to take a group of disenchanted kids who are probably using their local parks for all the wrong reasons and turn a neglected park into a beautiful garden with them,” he says.I can see what he means. Think about a garden you’ve seen that doesn’t have any mature trees – just shrubs and herbaceous plants. It doesn’t feel right, does it? It’s all about the soil When Adam started to speak to us all in the hall, he asked how many of us had tested our soil. Only about half a dozen hands went up. There were about 100 people in the room. First you have your mature trees – your oaks and beeches. Then there are the smaller, younger trees.’