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He began gardening as a child but did not take it up professionally until his thirties. His first career — as the co-owner of a jewellery business with his wife, Sarah — ended in disaster in the 1980s when the stock market crashed.

They were forced to sell their shop and offices in Knightsbridge, West London, and lost their home soon afterwards. They moved to a rented farmhouse, where they survived on the dole.

At the end of most weeks they had enough to feed their children but not themselves.

Don became increasingly irritable until his wife issued him with an ultimatum to see a doctor or lose her and the children.

“I was a fulminating, louring, dark presence,” he recalled. “She said if I went to see a doctor she would stay. If I didn’t she would take herself and the children away somewhere. She was living in this godforsaken house with three kids, no money and a husband who was bonkers.”

He overcame his depression and seasonal affective disorder with Prozac and cognitive behavioural therapy, and kept it at bay with a lightbox and by spending as many daylight hours as possible in the garden.

Don lives with his wife and children in a house with a two-acre garden in Herefordshire.

Growing workload

— Monty Don was born in July 1955

— Attended University of Cambridge

— Founded Monty Don Jewellery in 1981, with his partner, Sarah. They married two years later

— Lost the business soon after the Wall Street crash in 1987 and was forced on to the dole in 1992

— Began television work in the mid-1990s, including five years on This Morning (Granada), Real Gardens, Fork to Fork, Lost Gardens and Gardeners’ World

— His books include The Prickotty Bush, The Weekend Gardener, Fork to Fork and The Jewel Garden

Source: Times research

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