HEREFORDSHIRE'S own BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don has issued a major update on his future with the hit show.

The presenter, who has hosted the popular show since 2003, first from Berryfields in Stratford-upon-Avon, and then from his own garden at Longmeadow in Herefordshire, has said he might bow out of the hit gardening programme in a few years to pursue other projects.

“I won’t do it forever. I will stop. I have no firm plans, but the BBC knows – I’ve told them," he said.

"It will come to an end sometime in the next three, four or five years. It depends on circumstances and what else I’m doing.”

The grandfather-of-three said: “I’m now 68, I was going to stop when I was 65. I’ll now go on till I’m 70 and then reconsider. The reason for that is that, apart from anything else, it’s not so much wanting my garden back, although there’s a strong element of that. For instance, I always spend Saturdays in the garden and it’s a joy, because I’m there on my own.

“It’s just that, whilst I’ve still got energy, there are lots of other projects I want to do that mean I can’t be here every week.”

One of the projects he has managed to fit in between filming Gardeners’ World is The Gardening Book, a comprehensive guide to growing aimed at newcomers.

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The book, he says, is “basically aimed at my children”, who are in their 30s, and their friends.

For now, at least, he will remain on Gardeners’ World, helping the masses with his gentle horticultural encouragement.

“The biggest issue with Gardeners’ World is not filming here, although it’s very demanding. People think that it’s just a day a week. But we have to prepare the garden and keep it looking good all the time. It’s a lot of background work and that is tiring, demanding and takes up a lot of my time.

“It’s more a question of, maybe I want to go away every other week between April and July that involves [doing] still something to do with gardening and filming, but it’s another project. I can’t do that at the moment.

“I’ve just finished filming a series on Spanish gardens and I’m in the middle of filming a series on British gardens and I’m doing Gardeners’ World and I’m writing two books. But my energy for that kind of thing will start to fade. So something will have to be edited out. And it’s a question of what.”

Don isn’t slowing down just yet though.

“I feel incredibly lucky that my work involves the three things that I love most, which is writing, filming and gardening.”