When I told my aunt that I was interviewing Adam Frost, she was very excited. “Ask him if he’ll come and live in my garden shed,” she said.

This wasn’t on my list of questions but I understood her enthusiasm. The BBC Gardeners’ World presenter has a large and devoted fan base who admire his award-winning show gardens, books, and ability to convey a passion for horticulture to amateurs and professionals alike. Add in Frost’s easy demeanour and cheeky-chappie grin, and, well, you heard my aunt.

In 2025, this gardening polymath is out on tour, sharing his love of all things botanical (and talking about his new book, For the Love of Plants: Over 150 plants to bring joy to your garden and your life).

“This is a second tour, and I’ll be honest, when they asked me the first time I thought they were joking,” says Frost. “I’m thinking, who’s going to listen to me walking around a stage in a theatre? I’m going to get three ladies and a dog. But it was really well supported, and it sort of blew my mind a little bit.”

When Frost’s inaugural tour ended, he moved house, and what should have been a private, run-of-the-mill event became a national news story. Why was Frost moving? Was his wife divorcing him? Had the BBC sacked him? The speculation went on and on. Frost explains what really happened.

“So I finished the last tour, explaining that the reason we simplified and moved life was that the wheels came off my life in 2021. I ended up sat with a psychiatrist, got told I had depression and burnout, so we decided to simplify life. My last tour finished with me getting locked in a room with Covid and the wheels coming off. Funnily enough, this tour started with me being locked in a room with Covid.

“Actually, that kicked off this whole sitting down with somebody that knows more about your brain than you do, and going on a slightly mad journey and working out the widest connection with plants. Also, what came out of that was this connection with music.”

As Frost was settling into a new, simpler life, he was also in the process of creating a new outdoor space.

“The new garden has been driven by music,” he says. “It’s been driven by family. It’s been driven by memory, and obviously it runs along with me writing a book which has got 150 plants in it. And a lot of these plants are either like old friends – the plants that I’ve known and grown up with – but also new friends, the things that I’ve got that I’m experimenting with. The tour is all of that lot chucked in a bag and mixed up a bit, and me dancing around on a stage, just basically telling naughty stories.”

Plants, plants, plants

During his work on the book and preparation for the tour, Frost returned to the people who have been important to him, those inspirational individuals who shaped his life. He also reflected on the places he’s visited and “the pickles I’ve got myself into”. But when it came to focusing on 150 plants, how did he narrow it down?

“The creation of this garden, really, that’s how the book got narrowed down. It was the idea that I’ve broken this garden into sections, talked about how I’ve created it, why I’ve created it, but each section has got a song that means something to me. And it’s that idea – where do we get inspiration from? What came out of talking to the psychiatrist was this idea that I’m not just drawn to landscape and to gardens, I’m drawn to music. It might be a lyric or it might be a tune, whatever it is, it can take me the same place. I use music a lot if I can’t verbalise stuff, if I can’t find the right words to my wife or when trying to guide my kids, I have this habit of sending songs out.”

For someone who is widely admired for being so frank about his personal and professional challenges, it’s a surprise to hear Frost talk about problems with communication. But that’s also part of his immense likeability. He fesses up and is searingly honest. I have no doubt that his willingness to broach difficult subjects, not least his admission last year about living with the chronic pain condition, fibromyalgia, for the past two decades, has helped people to open up about their own issues.

As Frost freely acknowledges, gardening is a well-known antidote for mental and physical stress, as well as longer-term conditions. For Frost, music is also important. With that in mind, he has created a playlist for his garden, which can be found on Spotify. So, what’s on there?

“You walk in the front gate and it’s What a Wonderful World. Then the front garden is I Can See Clearly Now, and then there’s this Bruce Springsteen lovely thing called Secret Garden…the main garden is something by The Killers because it’s about the family, and all the family love The Killers. We go up a bit and the end of the garden is a song by The Rolling Stones off their new album, and then you come down a little bit and then it’s a bit of Clapton. It bounces around all over the place, really.”

Pet power

I love what Frost says about the relationship between music and gardening. When wrestling with brutish weeds, I’ve always found Motörhead’s Ace of Spaces to be useful. But, when seeking a calmer time outside, I’ve sought out my cats. There’s something special about sharing a garden with pets, as any regular Gardeners’ World viewer will know. Whether it’s Monty Don and his golden retrievers or Frost and his cat Ash, we can all relate (I was delighted to see Ash on the cover of Frost’s new book). And while Frost admits that his dog Isla drifts in and out of Gardeners’ World, there’s a new doggie addition called Buster who, if our Zoom chat is anything to go by, is proper chatty.

“I’ve talked publicly about how Mrs Frost was really poorly,” he says. “That was part of the reason that we ended up simplifying life. She was slightly disconnected from a lot of the things she was doing. And we started a conversation about this [with me saying that] I think you need a purpose girl, all the kids are older, but it was only a throwaway. Anyway, this purpose turned out to be this little Jack Russell. And since he’s arrived, you cannot believe how much an animal [has changed things].”

While the new series of Gardeners’ World is still in its seasonal infancy, regular viewers have already met Buster and, I’m guessing, fallen in love with him.

Even now, nearly a decade since he joined the Gardeners’ World team, Frost still feels incredibly privileged to be in a job where he is paid to talk about something he loves and have a few laughs. I confess that, when I write about gardening, I refer to Monty as Sir Monty of Don. In response, Frost admits that he calls him “His Lordship”. 

“I joke that the great British public get a little bit of posh and a little bit of rough,” says Frost. 

By Helen Nugent, Editor of Northern Soul

Main image photo credit : Dorling Kindersley: Jason Ingram

 

Adam Frost will continue his tour in September and October 2025. For tickets, click here. 

To buy For the Love of Plants: Over 150 plants to bring joy to your garden and your life, click here.