MONTY Don visits spectacular gardens in the Central region of Spain, from its important historic Imperial Palaces, to modern designs adapted to the challenges of climate change. Monty takes viewers on a three-part journey across Spain in a quest to visit some of the country’s most interesting gardens, community projects and parks.
Covering more than 4000km, he dives deep into green spaces ranging from historical to cutting edge, as well as those created by a new wave of Spanish designers who are working more closely with the landscape and the challenges of the harsh climate. Monty begins at the Escorial – a vast imposing palace and garden, built as a symbol of the power of Spain’s once huge empire that stretched across the globe.
He then travels to the centre of the country’s capital, Madrid, to visit the city’s famous Retiro Park and Paseo del Prado. Here he visits a tropical garden in the unlikely setting of one of the city’s main railway stations, a modern garden created by and for dogs and a dynamic new school where nature and gardening play a central role.
Also on this journey, Monty visits important towns like Toledo, once the capital of Spain, to discover gardens that reflect the rich cultural history of the country.
As he travels around Castile, he also discovers modern gardens, including one made in an olive orchard, and another hewn out of some of the harshest landscapes in the whole of Spain. Monty finishes the first part of this tour in Spain’s third-largest city, Valencia, where locals defied plans to create a motorway and instead campaigned successfully to create a park for everyone to exercise, picnic, play and simply enjoy themselves in. Monty gets on his bike to see for himself what a transformation this has been for those living in the heart of this city.
Series 1, Episode 1 of 3. All episodes available to stream on ABC iview
