As spring arrives, many gardeners are preparing to mow their lawns for the first time in months.

Monty Don, TV personality and host of BBC Gardeners’ World, who resides in Herefordshire, advises beginning lawn care early in the season—before temperatures start to climb.

In a blog post offering tips on how to prevent lawns from becoming overly mossy, Monty explained:
“Moss is always a symptom of poor drainage, made worse by shade. Even the best-prepared soil becomes compacted over time due to matted roots, rainfall, and, most of all, regular family use.”

Monty Don emphasizes that the healthiest grass thrives in well-drained soil, while moss tends to flourish in shaded, poorly drained areas. To combat this, he recommends a straightforward but effective method: aerating the lawn.

His advice? “Stick a fork into the ground and wiggle it,” repeating the process roughly every 15 centimetres (or six inches) across the lawn. Doing this at least once a year helps improve drainage and reduce moss growth.

When it comes to mowing, Monty advises starting in March but warns against cutting too short. “Just give it a light trim for the rest of the month,” he wrote. “The grass will be a lot healthier. You have to think positively.”

Gardeners’ World’s Monty Don says it is ‘pointless’ to plant one flower as he preps huge change

Monty Don, beloved host of Gardeners’ World, has revealed that he considers planting a particular flower right now to be “pointless” as he prepares for a major transformation in his iconic garden.

The renowned TV gardener is well known for his meticulous care of Longmeadow, his home in Herefordshire. Currently, his focus is on The Jewel Garden—a cherished part of the property he plans to revamp in the near future. Last redesigned over a decade ago, The Jewel Garden holds special meaning for Monty, who calls it the “physical and spiritual centre of the entire garden.”

However, Monty’s plans have encountered a setback. He explained that planting magnolias, a flower prized for its vivid blooms, would be futile at this time of year due to their sensitivity to winter conditions. Speaking to BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, Monty said:
“Our propensity for sharp late frosts means that no magnolia has ever been happy at Longmeadow—and I have long learned that it is pointless to persevere with any plant that does not want to be with you, regardless of its suitability on paper.”

Although magnolias typically bloom from early spring through late summer, Monty has grown cautious after years of trial and error. Despite his ambition to refresh The Jewel Garden, he admits it often remains sparse until mid-spring:
“One of the features of the Jewel Garden is that when the rest of the garden is burgeoning with spring flowers and blossom, it remains very empty well into April and early May,” he noted in an interview with the Express.

On his website, Monty shares his deep connection to The Jewel Garden:
“The Jewel Garden is the physical and spiritual centre of the entire garden. Everything revolves around it.”

He also paints a vivid picture of its unique character:
“It was made as a celebration of all the good things relating to our jewellery business in the 1980s, and all the colours are jewellery or metallic in some way. The tone is just like the 1980s—brash, extravagant, and high maintenance!”