A MONTH IN THE LIFE OF…

The TV presenter and garden designer gears up for the return of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

garden designer and

TV presenter Mark Lane

Gardening changed my life. In 2001, I was in a car accident, leaving me in a wheelchair. In hospital, my mind went to some dark places, but a horticultural therapist encouraged me to plant bulbs – and I forgot about the pain. Back home, I resigned from my publishing job, completed an Open Learning course in garden design and set up a gardening business.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show will round off my summer. It’s the first time it’s been held in September. Being later in the year, the gardens will be more mature and full of reds, oranges and purples, which is really exciting. Ornamental grasses are also at their best at this time of year, so can be used to great effect.

I look at each garden in detail, examining how they have been put together. This year, there are five ‘sanctuary’ gardens, focused on wellbeing. Each showcases a specific landscape, from Dartmoor to Bangkok. There are also five show gardens and two artisan gardens.

I pinched myself when I was asked to present the show in 2016 for BBC Two. The series producer called me after reading an article I’d written about accessible gardens for the disabled. Now, I also present on Gardeners’ World and Morning Live on BBC One, alongside running my garden design business and writing books. My latest is Royal Gardens of the World.

When I’m filming, my alarm goes off at 4am. I’m usually on site by 7am, as a three-minute feature can take a day to record. The showground is manic on the last day of the build. You have to look in all directions as there’ll be a tree coming from one, a lorry from another and scaffolding flying overhead on a crane.

The designers often look panicked, but there’s a great sense of camaraderie. I’m quite good at guessing who will win Best in Show, but sometimes I think, ‘Really?’ The nursery men and women make everything happen. Designers get all the glory, but you couldn’t have a show without plants.

In a wheelchair, I see the show from a different perspective. I look through plants, not over them. It can be hard to get to the front – a designated area would help. Often, the wheelchair paths allow you only to get on and off at each end of the site, while ramps are too steep.

The BBC team are really supportive. At times, I feel they try to wrap me up in cotton wool but, as far as I’m concerned, if I fall out of the wheelchair, I’ll just get back in. Garden presenters are very similar: we’re all potty about plants, but we often only meet up at flower shows – and last year, we hardly met at all.

I filmed a piece for the BBC’S virtual Chelsea event during the first lockdown from my one-acre plot near Bramling in Kent. I got pretty good at recording using my phone and a tripod.

My garden was a source of solace while I was isolating. In September, I’ll be enjoying late-summer raspberries and looking over photos taken throughout the year as I plan for 2022. I’m always seduced by bulb catalogues when putting my wish list together.

My charity work is important to me. I’m an ambassador for Groundwork, an environmental organisation helping disadvantaged communities, and Thrive, a national charity that changes lives through gardening. I also hope that other wheelchair users will see me on TV and know that they can garden, too.