Branch out into olıves

Monty Don has added a touch of the Med to his garden – and here he explains how you can too

During the 1970s and even 80s an olive tree in a British garden was either a foolish indulgence bound to end in tears or a proclamation that this was an exceptionally sheltered site. Either way it was an extreme rarity. Our climate made it as exotic and impractical as a date palm or banana grove. But times – and the climate – have changed. I noticed olive trees have begun to be de rigueur in the front gardens in smarter London streets.

Well, I have joined the smart olive set now. Last year I made a Paradise Garden, based on my experience of visiting Islamic gardens around the world. Paradise Gardens have certain elements that are considered essential, and that includes fruit. These should include dates, pomegranates, figs, citrus and olives. Figs are easy and grow well. Dates are out of the question in my cold, wet Herefordshire garden for

reasons of climate and size. Pomegranates are a push, but I do have two in pots that need a lot of winter protection. I have a number of oranges and lemons that are lovely and they too spend winter in the greenhouse. And I have olives.

I started with a pair of tall lollipop trees, all spindly stem and round, mophead top, but they looked out of scale with the rest of the garden. However, they did survive last winter without any protection. Then, when I visited Malvern Spring Festival in May I saw a stand filled with olive trees ranging from ginormous to petite, and could not resist a pair of larger trees more in balance with the rest of the planting yet small enough to keep in very large terracotta pots. For the record the pots cost as much as the trees, which says something about how expensive good pots are, as well as how large olives are.

You might be able to grow olives in the ground in the Scilly Isles or Cornwall, or even sheltered parts of London, but by and large a pot is a safer bet. They are quite hardy and will take temperatures into minus double figures but they hate the combination of cold and wet, so growing them in a pot means you can move them into shelter.

Olives, like many Mediterranean plants, need really good drainage so make a potting mix based upon a peatfree potting compost mixed in with the same quantity of either horticultural grit or perlite. The trees bear their fruit on the previous year’s growth and pruning is best done in late March or early April. You can prune olives into any old mess and they’ll regrow very quickly. However, it is best to grow them as a lightly clipped, rounded shape or to prune the interior hard to an open bowl of branches, which is what I have done.

Although the flowers will produce a mass of tiny fruits, the chances of them developing to ripeness are remote. In the Mediterranean the fruits are harvested in late autumn after a summer that has blazed since early May, but our fruits do not get enough sun to develop fully. However, the flowers are decorative, with a lovely, subtle fragrance.

But the whole point of growing olives in this country, other than completing a Paradise Garden, is their combination of the sheer gnarled handsomeness of the trunks and branches topped by the lovely glaucous leaves, as well as that wonderful touch of the Mediterranean that they add to our gardens.

Monty in his Paradise Garden