TV gardener Adam Frost: How a smaller garden helped me through burnout and depression

It was during lockdown that down-to-earth gardening presenter and designer Adam Frost began to feel overwhelmed with life.

His wife Sulina had been ill in hospital and his daughter had also been sick, then he contracted Covid and shut himself away in his room to quarantine.

“The wheels came off basically and 10 days later I was at the psychiatrist’s with burnout and depression,” says the Gardeners’ World presenter and seven times gold medal-winner at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

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Looking back, he agrees it was a culmination of overwork followed by isolation during the pandemic which affected his mental state. He’d been running his gardening school, filming TV series, writing, appearing at gardening shows and then Covid struck.

“I’d worked so hard since I was about 16 and here I was, a typical 50-year-old bloke, not really saying what I should have been saying and just carrying on.

“The loss of adrenaline (during the pandemic) because I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything and being stuck with my own brain for 10 days ended up piling up on top of me.

“It was like somebody had removed my footings and we (he and the psychiatrist) slowly went through everything. Through that, we talked a lot about work and why I’m drawn to plants, people and places.”

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The multi award-winning garden designer, RHS ambassador and TV presenter and his wife decided to simplify life and moved from their large house and three-acre garden in Lincolnshire that he was struggling to maintain, to a  house with a smaller garden.

This was three years ago. The new garden – where BBC cameras film segments for Gardeners’ World – gave him an instant sense of relief, he agrees. It measures 30m x 32m at the back and 10m x 30m at the front, set out as interconnected spaces.

“I’m a working-class kid and I’ve done all right. But looking back, we were in a huge great house, huge garden, and I don’t think I ever felt that comfortable in it, whereas this house feels a bit more like a head gardener’s cottage which the 16-year-old me would have been quite made up with.”

Frost, 55, has lovingly tended his new space, terracing, relaying and rebuilding, but the plants are the stars of the show and his journey has culminated in his new book, For The Love Of Plants, in which he charts the garden’s progress, looks at the plants which have shaped his life and offers tips on how to add seasonal interest, as well as practical advice and information on plant care.

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Each section of his garden, whether it’s the entrance where fruits and herbs abound, to the terraces and the gravel garden where he and his wife like to sit, has been given a corresponding song which reflects the atmosphere or moment he is trying to achieve.

“The two consistent elements in my life have been music and plants,” he says.
Many plants remind him of a person, time or place. Bedding plants and fuchsias, for instance, remind him of his pals at the Parks Department where he worked at 16, while old-fashioned roses remind him of his grandmother.

Fruit trees

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“Looking at the front garden, I see fruit trees, which I love, but also the personal, local stories of them. I’ve got a Lord Burghley (apple tree) and discovered that Lord Burghley was born in the house next door to where I live. I love that sense of history.”

Silver sorrel

“It always puts a smile on my face because I love using sorrel when I’m cooking fish – it works really well. I love using herbs in general in the kitchen, the fact that you have a plant that you can then change into something else and share.”

Astrantias

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“Astrantias always remind me of Geoff Hamilton (the late Gardeners’ World presenter),” he says. Frost worked with Hamilton in the 1990s and recalls that Hamilton introduced him to this cottage garden favourite.

“I was 21 when I worked for him and he was peat-free, organic and talked about stopping destroying the countryside. He was totally ahead of his time.

“Astrantias work in so many styles and have been a good go-to for me ever since. I don’t think I create a garden now that does not have one or two astrantias in it.”

Family favourites

“The Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’ is my daughter’s favourite plant so I love that, and Mrs Frost loves her grasses so there are lots of different ones (in the garden).”

Musical connections

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Each area of his new garden is paired with a song – the gravel garden, for instance, is matched with Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.

“It must have been getting a lot of air play when Mrs Frost and myself got together and it’s the place we go in the day to have a glass of something.

“Also, I love the history of the song, which was apparently written when he was frustrated waiting for somebody to get ready. And I spend an awful lot of time waiting for my wife to get ready.”

The future

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Frost stills a psychiatrist once a month for a catch-up, and his family monitor how much work they let him take on, he says.

“We’ve all got an elastic band and once you can work out how much stretch there is in your elastic band you can read the signs.”

As well as the plethora of garden shows he will be covering this year, he is also embarking on a 14-date tour An Evening With Adam Frost this spring and another in the autumn, discussing the book and the creation of this garden, which he reflects has helped his mental health.

“It’s partly because I can just go and garden in it. I can potter. With the other one, I was going at 300 miles an hour. Now, we can go away for a couple of weeks, come home, have a weekend in the garden and it’s manageable, which means you can enjoy it and you’re not chasing your tail.”

For The Love Of Plants by Adam Frost is published by DK, priced £22. Available now.