Aft
“If somebody gets something from this, then that’s good.”
When it comes to making a new garden, his advice is to start by spending time looking at where the sun rises and sets and where the wind comes from, as well as testing the soil and sitting in different places to see how things feel.
Other considerations include whether a site is overlooked and has large trees that may cast shade.
“I say to everybody, ‘measure it up and get it on a piece of paper’. For most people, it’s probably the biggest design space they will ever get to play with.
“We wouldn’t go and buy a kitchen without measuring up first; sometimes gardens are approached in a way that’s a bit piecemeal. The more organised the space, and the more you’ve thought about how you want the garden to feel and what you want from it, the better the garden is going to be.”
Adam is currently travelling across the UK with his ‘An Evening with Adam Frost’ tour, which got underway this spring and will continue in the autumn.
In May he will be returning to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival, appearing on Saturday and Sunday May 10 and 11, not just to share practical tips and details of plants, but looking at why we should all be spending more time outside and reflecting on what gardening means to him.
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Afterer several sessions with a psychiatrist, he resolved to simplify his life and moved with his family to a smaller property, which meant saying goodbye to their farmhouse and three-acre garden and taking on a smaller cottage in Lincolnshire.
Adam describes the move early in 2022 as like ‘flipping a switch’ and he didn’t waste time in creating a new garden, drawing on music that inspired him and using plants he loved.
The resulting space, which he sums up as “not a big garden but looks half decent,” is often shown on BBC Gardeners’ World and explored in his new book For the Love of Plants, in which he talks frankly about the challenges he’s faced over the years and reflects on how gardening has helped him by providing a sense of peace and perspective.
Among his key messages in the book is the plea: ‘Let’s not strive to have it now, let’s take our time and enjoy it moment by moment’. “We’re constantly fed perfection; we’re constantly fed images of people’s perfect lives,” Adam explains. “The reality is not that.
“Things come and go and the garden is constantly changing day by day; nowadays it’s really hard because we cannot really garden by the climate like we used to and things come and go quicker. Gardening is about moments.”
Adam had spoken openly about his mental health before writing the book and hopes it will be helpful to others facing personal challenges.
“I think sometimes people presume that because you have a certain life and are on the telly, life is perfect; we have the same life as everyone else and are trying to find your way through it.
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Born in Essex, 55-year-old Adam retains his distinctive accent despite spending most of his life living away from the county.
He sums up his relationship with his father, a landscaper, as ‘complicated’ and as a result he spent a lot of time with his grandparents, endearingly referring to the couples as ‘Tidy’ or ‘Scruffy’ Nan and Grandad, who all enjoyed gardening but had their own distinct approaches.
A tattoo on his arm, ‘You may call me a dreamer’, recalls the times when his father would tell him he wouldn’t amount to anything, although Adam says he realised later on in life that “the only thing that changes worlds is dreams”.
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