On his journey through four hundred years of Britain's garden history, Monty Don arrives in the eighteenth century, an age that gave rise to the landscape garden, created on a scale that had never been seen before. Using Lancelot 'Capability' Brown's first commission, Croome Court in Worcestershire, as his base, Monty sets out to investigate what inspired and influenced this gardening revolution. Along the way he visits the landscape garden of Rousham, designed by the maverick William Kent, and Stanage Park, designed by the marketing genius Humphrey Repton. Monty discovers how these great landscapes were created, from revealing the Georgian clay recipe that revolutionised garden sculpture, to discovering the secrets of mowing with a scythe. He also sees how the present Duke of Devonshire is cutting down trees to restore his park to its eighteenth century design.
Monty Don explores the extraordinary transformations that occurred in garden design throughout the 19th century. As a result of an expanding empire, scientific and technological innovation and social change, British gardens became more exotic, more colourful and more widely accessible than ever b...
Monty Don concludes his journey through Britain's gardening heritage by looking at how the nation's gardens have evolved over the last hundred years. He looks at the profound effect that two world wars had on our attitude to gardens and gardening. Today gardening is one of Britain's most popular ...
