The Full Monty

Despite vowing never to get involved in creating a show garden, when Monty was asked to combine his two biggest passions for a very special project, how could he resist?

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It may have come to your notice that I created a garden at this year’s Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show. Until last July I had consistently said - and meant - that I would never consider doing a show garden at any flower show, let alone at Chelsea. Over the years, I have designed anumber of gardens for other people as well as my own but always in my own way, which uses trial and error as much as any carefully formulated design. It is a process of slow and often contradictory evolution. However, show gardens have to arrive fully formed and unalterably fixed by 8am on the morning of Press Day and, as I have had to learn, including not just every small detail but also the detail of the detail. Nevertheless, despite this, when the RHS approached me to see if I was interested in designing its garden for Chelsea 2025 based upon dogs in the garden, I found myself agreeing to do it.

Two things swung it for me. The first one was the involvement of dogs. I cannot imagine Longmeadow without a dog stepping out into the garden with me and remaining at my side all day. They are as much part of the garden as the plants or my family. The second inspiration was a garden that I visited just outside Madrid, as part of my