Monty Don warns your garden 'will never look as good' if you make one common mistake

Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don issued a warning to British gardeners that their gardens "will never look as good as it can do" if they continue making a common mistake.

The TV gardening, who has starred on Gardeners' World since 2003, was praising the importance of "space between things". He thinks this is an aspect of gardening many amateurs - especially those from the UK - often overlook.

Monty explained that his background in design, coming from a family of architects, means this is never an aspect of gardening thst he overlooks.

He told the Gardeners' World podcast: "The thing that we British underestimate is the importance of space between things. When we're designing our gardens, the British in particular, or at least the amateurs, tend to focus on the plants and their interrelation within borders or within the garden itself.

"What's just as important as that are the bits where there aren't any plants. Either it could be a doorway, it could be a window or a hedge, it could be the bit above the hedge, it could be a lawn or a path or whatever.

"But unless you get those spaces right, the garden will never look as good as it can do. And I think that that's very elementary design language, but without it, it's not going to work."

Monty went on to say that he thinks ignoring the spaces it the number one mistake gardeners make. Number two, according to the expert, is trying to do too much with too small a space.

The celebrated gardener, who turned 70 earlier this year, became Gardeners' World's main presenter in 2003 after taking over from Alan Titchmarsh.

He has held the role ever since apart from a three-year hiatus from 2008 to 2011 when he suffered a mini stroke, putting his career on hold to recover.

Returning to the importance of space in gardens, Monty said: "I come from, all my life, a very strong design and visual background. I come from a family of architects and architecture is really important.

"Sarah (Monty's wife) has been a designer all her life, and trained as an architect. So actual design on an official sense has always been part of my life. But it's more than that.

"To me, it is the single most important thing in any garden without any question whatsoever. But of course there are lots of elements of how they look, some of which are subjective.

Monty Don returns to Gardeners' World at 8pm this evening (Friday, August 15) on BBC Two.