MONTY DON

It does seem to me that the British in particular, British horticultural literature and television programmes, focus a huge amount on how we garden and hardly at all on why we garden.

When you're 15 whatever your parents tell you you should do, you're not going to do it.

We know that gardening is good for you. It is fantastic, all-round exercise. That is easy to see and evaluate. It inculcates high levels of well-being. That is undeniable and needs little measurement.

No apple is reliably self-fertile, so each tree needs a pollinator. A neighbour may well have an apple that will do that for you, but it is better to always plant at least two trees to be certain of pollination.

We are extremely uncomfortable with the spiritual aspects of gardening, and yet most people feel it in some form or other, even if it's a sense of connection to the greater world on a beautiful day.

I am always more interested in people than plants. Nature doesn't make gardens, people make gardens. And the story of a garden is always the story of a person.

I think that's my strength, that I am an amateur gardener who loves gardening. I've read about it, I've written about it, I've done it all my life but at heart, I'm just a passionate amateur gardener.

From the ages of 18 to 50 I ran, rowed and lifted weights at my home gym.

The thing I like to stress about TV is that it's a team exercise. You really can't have too much of an ego.

The British have such an odd relationship with food - and the land. I want the public and the Soil Association to see that growing things in a garden is no different to growing things in a field.

By having a direct stake and involvement with the process of plants growing, of having your hands in the soil and tending it carefully and with love, your world and everyone's else's world too, becomes a better place.

The more people share woodland, absorb it and regard it as part of their personal heritage and culture, the richer our society will be. The more people can work in woods and use them practically rather than go through the motions as a kind of ersatz exercise, the more they will care for the places themselves rather than the political idea of them.

I have learnt that gardens are like happiness: you cannot pursue them as an absolute thing or moment.

I have been growing vegetables since I was a boy. When I was about 17 I was the only one of five children living at home. My parents were ill and I took over the vegetable garden and I have had one ever since.

As September rolls into October, I become obsessed with apples. Now obviously this is provoked by the ripening fruit clustering on the trees in our orchard, but it is as though all things pomological ripen in me, too.

I myself did not officially become organic until 1997, although I was always hopeless at using chemicals.

Earth heals me better than any medicine.

I love filming. I love the teamwork. It's a tight-knit group spending months on the road together. All the experience is shared.

There is a British assumption that you mustn't speak evil of anyone's garden because it is rude - it is like criticising their home, their children or their pets.

Some plants become weeds simply by virtue of their success rather than any other factor. You merely want less of them.

I feel ashamed if my hands are too clean and untouched. It's a measure of how much time I've spent travelling and poncing around.

Woods are rich with biodiversity and, above all, places of trees and light that spangles a thousand greens through the leaves.

I'm bad at sleeping. I get somewhere between three and six hours a night.

Gardening is easy. Stick it in the ground the right way up and most plants will grow perfectly well.

I see myself as a writer who happens to garden.