Adam Frost has become a familiar sight on Gardeners’ World, sauntering through swards, watering plants and generally getting his hands dirty in the soil. If he had a superpower, it would be demystifying gardening and showing it’s something anyone can, and crucially, should, do. But four decades ago, he was the one his grandparents were subtly convincing to get outside.
“I had a difficult childhood and so I ended up spending a lot of time with my grandparents,” the 56-year-old recalls. When he was a teenager, Frost’s mother and father, who had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, moved him from Harlow in Essex to Devon, before splitting up. He found school difficult, a later diagnosis of dyslexia explaining some of his struggles, and moved into a bedsit at 16.
“[My grandparents’] gardens became my safe space. I had my tidy nan, with closely knotted daffodils and cut weeds, and grandad, who taught me to grow vegetables at his allotment. He always had this gentle calmness about him, which my old man didn’t; he was on the other end of the spectrum. At that point, I thought it was all my fault, and I bottled things up, but I would talk to my grandad more than anybody. It was easier as we were doing [something], rather than looking at each other. Then there was scruffy nan, who had an overgrown suburban garden that gave me a sense of freedom.”
