Words: Lucy Wood <\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/MA_01428672_preview-1024x683.jpg\")
W<\/strong><\/em>ATCH<\/strong> T<\/span>here\u2019s something in the air and it\u2019s not just the uplifting scent of spring. Garden designer and BBC Gardeners\u2019 World <\/em>presenter Adam Frost is quietly making changes in his own little parcel of England.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n As our gardens and green spaces burst into joyous riots of colour, it\u2019s a good time to take stock and appreciate what we\u2019ve got in the here and now. \u201cEnjoying the moment,\u201d as Adam puts it, \u201cand not the race to get wherever we\u2019re going.\u201d It\u2019s a familiar outlook since the pandemic began. \u201cWe talk a lot about that now, being in the moment, but how many of us actually do that?\u201d he says. \u201cThat connection with our environment, the outdoors, nature\u2026 that\u2019s it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Adam\u2019s latest book, The <\/em>Creative <\/em>Gardener, <\/em>featuring more than 20 projects for all types of gardens, is about enjoying hands-on processes rather than the end result. It was written during the Covid lockdowns, so, perhaps unsurprisingly, became focused on time: past, present and future. \u201cI am handy,\u201d Adam says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t good at school, academically. One of my grandads was a gun engineer, my old man was a landscaper, and my Uncle Greg was forever doing bits and pieces with me. I\u2019m happiest using my hands. It\u2019s not necessarily the outcome, it\u2019s the doing: feeling woodgrain under fingertips, the satisfaction of knocking a nail in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n The book, he admits, was \u201cmammoth\u201d. \u201cI made every single project in it; they are things to look forward to, to get outside with.\u201d And outside is where he longs to be, never more so in spring. \u201cI love everything bursting into life, the limes and greens, the blues, whites that appear early on in the year; that early sun on my back, getting my hands into soil that\u2019s warming a little, getting going in the veg garden, the air\u2026 everything\u2019s fresh. Spring is a celebration, about blossom and early scents. I guarantee I will be on my hands and knees, nose-deep in wild tulips.\u201d<\/p>\n\n This tactile, personal link with nature runs deep: \u201cI had a difficult childhood and I associate being outdoors \u2013 long walks, running, out with the dogs, the garden \u2013 with safety. I was often escaping something, going off playing in the fields, and they were calm places to be, yet it took until my mid-40s to work that out.<\/p>\n\n \u201cI love my work and I feel privileged in so many ways, but sometimes you need to take stock. People might think \u2018he\u2019s on the telly, he\u2019s writing books, doing this and that\u2019 \u2013 none of that was planned, it just happened, and it\u2019s fantastic. But I\u2019m now considering why I do things. I went through a process of writing down what I actually did and thought, \u2018Frosty, you must be mad. How did you think this was a good idea?\u2019 If anyone else showed me that kind of workload, I\u2019d tell them it was impossible.<\/p>\n\n \u201cSpring a celebration… I will be on my hands and knees, nose-deep in wild tulips\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cI want to spend more time with Mrs Frost and the kids, doing the things I love. We live in a world where we are brought up to get results, buy a house, buy a bigger house \u2013 the stuff that society expects of us. Writing a book, the lockdown, has made me rethink what\u2019s important.\u201d Adam says he is taking time to reshape his life. \u201cI don\u2019t quite know how it will end up, but I\u2019ve gone into 2022 very differently to, probably, any other year since I was 16, when I first trained in gardening.\u201d He has seven gold medals from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a design business, not to mention a famous garden, thanks to presenting BBC Gardeners\u2019 World, but for 52-year-old Adam, the best thing is being in Lincolnshire with his family. That\u2019s wife Sulina, who\u2019s from Stamford, and their children, 25-year-old Abi-Jade, Jacob, 24, Amber-Lily, 17, and Oakley, 15.<\/p>\n\n LOVE FOR LINCOLNSHIRE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n Essex-born, Adam moved to Lincolnshire aged 21 to work with the late, great Gardeners\u2019 World presenter Geoff Hamilton at Barnsdale Gardens over the border in Rutland. The Frosts\u2019 limestone farmhouse in the village of Barnack sits within a garden that\u2019s deliberately regional. Adam has spent an age sourcing the right types of seeds to grow native plants \u2013 especially wild ones \u2013 for conservation and diversity, to in turn attract wildlife. That\u2019s something he picked up from Geoff.<\/p>\n\n \u201cGardens are about space, plants and people \u2013 but also place. I\u2019m happier creating a garden that feels like it belongs. The countryside plays a massive part in our lives. We have red kites flying over. We saw a marbled white butterfly in the garden, and I was jumping up and down like a kid. I go on early morning runs all year, seeing the seasons change, often through the grounds of Burghley House nearby, thinking about how \u2018Capability\u2019 Brown wandered around. That heritage inspires me.<\/p>\n\n \u201cLincolnshire is a gem. It\u2019s huge \u2013 the diversity of its landscape is incredible. There\u2019s Stamford in the south, a beautiful limestone market town, then across the Fens with big skies and up into the Wolds. Then there\u2019s Lincoln and the coastline… it doesn\u2019t get enough fanfare.\u201d Since joining <\/span>BBC <\/em>Gardeners\u2019<\/em> World <\/em>in 2017, Adam has done his bit to showcase the county.<\/p>\n\n \u201cIt all feels slightly daft, it\u2019s just my garden,\u201d he says, of his \u2018celebrity\u2019. \u201cI\u2019m just a bloke who loves what he does. Let\u2019s be honest, I\u2019m talking about gardening. I\u2019m not a rock star walking out in front of Wembley. It\u2019s rather strange, but a huge privilege. When someone says they have had a go at a project, or I meet a youngster at a show, these small things all add up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n APPRECIATING THE MOMENT<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n Why Adam loves plants in three words? \u201cThey represent life,\u201d he says, instantly. There\u2019s no doubt that he is taking his own advice, given in his book The <\/em>Creative <\/em>Gardener, <\/em>by making a conscious e ort to slow down and reconnect with the present moment \u2013 but it\u2019s not easy. \u201cI\u2019ve become stricter,\u201d he admits. \u201cAn average day starts at 5.30am with a run, sorting the family, and then getting into the o ce or on the road. I sit down at about 9pm. I find [work] easier in the summer \u2013I struggle mentally with winter\u2019s lack of light. To come home and have a potter, whether that\u2019s watering pots or weeding, is a lovely way to see the day out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Adam is now taking time to appreciate his achievements. \u201cIf I look at the teenage-toerag me, to where I\u2019ve got to\u2026 I mean, I\u2019m dyslexic, so writing a book was beyond anything I\u2019d dreamed of. I would tell him to enjoy it more \u2013 I\u2019ve always done something and cracked on to the next thing. I never spent enough time taking a moment. Now I\u2019m doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n RHS The Creative Gardener: Inspirational Projects and Ideas To Create the Space You Want, by Adam Frost, is published by DK, \u00a320.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Adam\u2019s favourite country places<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Woodlands <\/strong>\u201cThe Lincolnshire countryside and coastline are stunning,\u201d says Adam, \u201cbut it\u2019s freezing when the wind comes in! I\u2019m a sucker for woods and their sense of shelter. To be in a wood and the only person there \u2013 that\u2019s near-paradise. I\u2019d live and die in a wood. I like the calmness they provide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 For more on Lincolnshire woodlands, go to explorelincolnshire.co.uk\/things-to-do\/<\/a> outdoors-and-nature\/forests-and-naturereserves.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Clare\u2019s Cottage <\/strong>\u201cPoet John Clare (1793\u20131864) is one of my heroes,\u201d says Adam. \u201cHelpston is a couple of villages on from me, and I love the walks from Clare\u2019s Cottage. They give you a taste of Lincolnshire \u2013 it\u2019s a good place to start to explore the county.\u201d Visit the restored house and gardens on Mondays and Thursdays, 10am to 3pm. clarecottage.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 Burghley House, Stamford <\/strong>\u201cI love the grounds\u2026 some of those oaks and horse chestnuts,\u201d says Adam. \u201cAs sad as this is, I take photos up-close of trees, or take time looking around a tree\u2019s diameter, enjoying encounters with nature.\u201d burghley.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4 Easton Walled Garden, near Grantham <\/strong>This 450-year-old garden \u2013 with its yew tunnel, long borders, rose meadows, woodland and orchard \u2013 is revered in the gardening world. \u201cSpending time there is lovely,\u201d says Adam. visiteaston.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adam Frost appears on BBC Gardeners\u2019 World, <\/em>Fridays at 8pm on BBC Two<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/3b6521d2-24a7-4c21-bfe4-e4387e7de696.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/bb6f0701-85ed-4916-807d-c4bc5337094d.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/cccca0ce-d37c-4aa8-851b-b9c1707e1a0e.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/RHS-The-Creative-Gardener_preview.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/04\/738c50cc-2ec1-4412-b2df-28ba08f1189e.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA PLANT LOVER\u2019S GUIDE TO THE EAST MIDLANDS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n