Q&A with gardening guru Adam Frost  

Liz Nicholls

Liz Nicholls chats to dad and Chelsea & Gardeners’ World star Adam Frost whose new book For The Love Of Plants is out on 13th March ahead of his spring UK tour

Q. Hello again Adam, lovely to talk to you again! Last time we spoke about mental health… how are you? “Hi Liz! I’m ok thank you. I always struggle those first couple at the start of January… Actually part of this tour is about what happened to my mental health. With me, I need to be out doing things, and I keep busy. As my old Nan would say: busy hands…” 

Q. How’s your garden now? “Yeah it’s all right; I was out over the weekend. The bulbs are about to pop up; the leaves on some tulips are coming , I’ve seen some Iris Reticulata. Things are just starting to push through the ground, so give it a few weeks and that first flush of bulbs will come alive. They provide a smile don’t they?” 

Q. Tell us how your grandparents’ allotment inspired your love of gardening… “I had quite a difficult childhood so my grandparents played a massive part in my life. I had Tidy Nan and Scruffy Nan. Tidy Nan had that a classic allotment, rectangular 1970s lawn, little rockery, concrete path, washing line. She was a bit of a control freak, so she’d tie everything up within an inch of her life. But it was a safe place to be. If I wasn’t with them, I was across the road with Scruffy Nan. They both had quite high-flying jobs: Grandad was a gun engineer. At the weekends they lived quite a bohemian existence, they were on the wild side, also never threw anything away. Nan had these Belfast sinks all over the place that were these little worlds, you know? There was freedom there; we were allowed to be out until dark. Mrs Frost says I’m scruffy but I’m always tidy in my head!” 

Q. Are you still on a mission to help youngsters get into gardening? I know you weren’t happy at school…. “Yes, I’m dyslexic. I was that kid; I was told you can join the Army, be a chef or be a gardener, because you’re not going to equate to a lot else. Horticulture is often sold to the less academic kids like me, the ones the education system has failed, which I find bizarre, in the sense that not only is it a career that you can go into and train as a horticulturalist and end up in the sciences, in the arts, in retail. But also why does anything that’s done with your hands have to be given to someone who doesn’t fit the system? I always say to young people: if you don’t know what to do, go and train in horticulture for a few years because you’re learning a skill set that’s going to lead you through life in various different directions. Saying that, it is getting better; we’ve got more people going into horticulture – interestingly – from geography. Biology in our schools is mostly animal centric, whereas actually we don’t learn much about plants. I think it’s a great industry to get involved in. Let’s face it most of the young people leaving school are going to be working until they’re nearly 80; learn how to look after a garden, how to grow your own food. These are going to be of value in your life, even if you go and drift off to do something else. I keep shouting about it and keep spreading the word!” 

Q. Tell us about your book! “Well, I did the last tour, the first one (I thought it was like a big joke, I didn’t think anyone was going to turn up! Well, they did!) Anyway, that tour finished, and at that time we were going through a lot as a family. My wife had been poorly and one of my littl’uns had been poorly, then the wheels came off me. We moved house, and this moving house became quite a big thing in the media world; the papers were phoning up, asking ‘why are you leaving this big farmhouse with massive garden?’ The reality is, I got locked in a room with Covid, the wheels fell off and I was sat with a psychiatrist, and he said you’ve got burn-out and depression. So I finished the last tour being honest with people on stage. We start the book locked in a room with the psychiatrist. Also I’ve got this huge connection with music: I’ve used music all the way through my life. The book really is about moving, creating a new garden, but each part’s got a song attached to it, and there’s 150 plants in it. I look upon them as old friends. It bounces about, the book, and that will become the stage show, with some naughty stories, places I’ve been, the pickles I’ve got myself into along the way. The book’s quite personal; I’m halfway through doing it as an audio, which is a bizarre experience… mate!” 

Q. What would young Adam say about you doing all this now, doing audiobooks, being on stage? “’You’re having a laugh!’ At school, in English, they’d be coming round the classroom asking you to read out loud…. At the time didn’t realise I was dyslexic, so all I was thinking was ‘how do I get out of this classroom?! I will do anything! I’d rather have the slipper from the headmaster than read out loud’. Fast forward 30 years and here I am doing this book, literally, reading out loud, thinking ‘what am I doing?!’ Ultimately, I finished the book eight months ago so it’s been a nice way to go back in, but it’s exhausting. Being dyslexic, your mind bounces about. It’s been crackers. That’s the other thing about me going into schools now, and even with my kids. One thing the psychiatrist said to me at one point was ‘I reckon statistically you don’t exist’. I said what? He said ‘think about your past, where you come from, what you’re doing now… if you were fired into a computer system, statistically there’s such a small percentage [of the old you] that you wouldn’t even show up on a graph!!’ I don’t think the young me would have believed any of it. I never set out to do it. I left home at 16 and all I wanted was life to be a bit better than it was. And the harder I worked, the better life got. When I was ill, I learned that if you don’t change those survival habits you have as a youngster, by the time you get into your late 40s, early 50s, those habits start to unpick you. That’s been fascinating, understanding how the brain works, and how we are as human beings.” 

Q. You’re exploring your love of music in the tour too, aren’t you? What piece of music lifts your mood? “I asked the family group chat: ‘what’s one song that gets you going’ and they all came back with Mr Brightside by The Killers. We’ve seen them live, there’s pictures of us going absolutely crackers. Wherever my kids were, if they were at a party they’d be jumping up and down to that song. Mrs Frost, too. It’s a great song, for my family. Just for me? Probably an old one: Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now. I’ve always loved the lyrics, how you can relate to parts of your life. But it’s endless, I get totally lost in music!” 

Q. Do you watch much telly? “Not loads but yeah. For us it’s that 9 o’clock drama, sit down and watch for an hour… well, whatever her ladyship, known as Mrs Frost, decides! She tells me. As you can see behind me is a picture of Peaky Blinders in our snug room… Mrs Frost loves a naughty boy!” 

Q. Do women still proposition you in the supermarket? “Yeah! And she just throws me under the bus, she finds it hilarious, while I’m [miming] ‘help!’ I come across as confident but I get so shy! One lady at a show and a lady said something about me doing audiobooks that I can’t repeat! It was along the lines of how my voice did certain things to her and she’d like to take the audiobooks to bed at night.. I came out with something like ‘oh that’s nice’ but I could feel my heart getting a bit quicker. Life’s mad!” 

Q. Have you ever been star struck? “I’ve met loads of people who have blown me away and lots of talented people I class as friends now. But people are people! Apparently one of the reasons I get sent to do interviews, like The King, Adam Clayton from U2, is because I talk to everybody the same. Having said that, we went to Jools Holland’s Hootenanny and it blew my mind! So much talent in one room: Bob Geldof, Roger Taylor, Jungle, CMAT, Ruby Taylor – who I love – said she couldn’t believe she’d met her favourite gardener! (I asked her to repeat that for Mrs Frost). Now we’re going to Ronnie Scott’s later this year. Musicians are magical people.” 

Q. What’s your essential bit of gardening kit? “I got some secateurs while in Japan 10 or 15 years ago; they’re not expensive out there. Also a little Dutch planting trail which I always get asked about, as well as Ash the cat!” 

Q. If you had a magic wand what would you wish for? “Just to live in a nicer world. To put the news on and hear that all was good with the world…. I’d need some magic wand, wouldn’t I?! Hence going into the garden and losing myself.”