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Daily Mirror

Monty Don fires back at complaints about one issue 'spoiling' Gardeners' World

Veteran gardener Monty Don has revealed that Gardeners' World often receives complaints from viewers who can't believe one aspect of the scenes filmed from his garden at Longmeadow A common complaint from viewers of the BBC 's Gardeners' World is the excessive birdsong in Monty Don 's Longmeadow garden scenes. However, the fan favourite gardener has confirmed that it's all completely authentic. On the latest episode of the Gardeners' World podcast, Monty disclosed that many fans are sceptical about the chatty birds in his garden: "We've had a number of letters along the lines of, 'I watch Gardeners' World and I really enjoy it, but it's spoiled for me by the fact that you impose this bird song which is so unrealistic and so over the top... why don't you just record the natural sounds?' "And the answer is; 'I hate to disappoint you, but that is the natural sound'." Monty also mentioned that, at times, even he finds the birdsong overwhelming: "It is really loud. And occasionally when we're filming, we delay filming because the bird song is so loud, that even to us it feels a bit odd and unnatural." Monty and his wife Sarah became the owners of their family abode in October 1991, which, at the time, featured a two-acre field looking rather worse for wear and a smaller neglected area at the front of the house. Longmeadow, nestled amidst vast stretches of farmland, has become a sanctuary for an array of wild birds. Monty highlights the extreme measures of modern farming, including pesticide and herbicide use, that leave avian species starving on barren fields. "So Longmeadow is like, literally an oasis surrounded by not-so-good," Monty said. "We have great density of blackbirds and song thrushes and blackcaps and all kinds of songbirds." Monty admits that these birds create a boisterous symphony: "Round about the first or second week of June, the Dawn Chorus starts about quarter past four in the morning. "We have a fabulous Dawn Chorus that rises to its peak at about five and then it's gone and died down by half past five." He goes on to reveal there's more after the Dawn Chorus, with an evening "Dusk Chorus" as the sun dips: "It's about birds establishing their territory before nightfall," Monty describes. "So you have one blackbird singing really loudly, then another will pick it up and challenge it, and then another in another part of the garden. "And that will go through and that takes you into the dark, and then in the night the owls will call." Monty reveals that making your own patch a paradise for birds is all about leaving things a bit wild, as he puts it: "If you want birds in your garden, the biggest thing you can have is cover, trees, hedges, and shrubs." He points out that features like long grassy areas, a collection of decaying logs, and having a pond will naturally beckon insects which are a siren call to birds after a snack. He elaborates: "Once you've got that, you don't have to do very much at all. It's there. We feed the birds in winter, but that's it."