In his regular pieces to camera, the Gardeners’ World star is frequently upstaged by his pets – Ash the cat and dogs Isla and Buster – and he admits his indulgence is ‘getting worse’
Adam admits that he spoils his pets(Image: BBC Gardeners’ World)
Adam Frost’s love of plants is well-known. Speaking to Gardens Illustrated about his mental health, the Gardeners’ World expert said that when he was “sat in front of a psychiatrist with depression and burnout,” he described some of his plants as “old friends.”
But it has emerged that the Essex-born garden designer is also a great animal lover. At his home near Stamford, Lincolnshire, Adam and his wife Sulina have a cat, named Ash, and two dogs, Isla and Buster.
Adam admits that they tend to spoil their pets: “It’s got worse as we’ve got older,” he told The Times.
“I don’t think Mrs Frost would shout at me for saying she’s probably using them slightly as child replacements, with the fuss she makes of them.”
Miniature Jack Russell Buster joined the Frost household comparatively recently, with Adam explaining: “To be fair, Buster partly arrived because my 18-year-old son said, ‘Dad, I think you need to get Mum something to care for,’ although he did follow that with, ‘Because she’s doing my head in.'”
Adam admits that Sulina calls the shots in the garden (Image: INSTAGRAM/ADAMFROST)
The Frosts’ pets tend to steal the show when Adam records Gardeners’ World segments from his three-acre countryside garden. Adam recalled that while he was doing a piece to camera, “Buster decided to relieve himself behind me.
“I didn’t know it had happened,” he added, joking that the show’s edit team must have been in two minds about leaving the unscripted moment in the final broadcast version.
Ash the cat tends to leave a mark on Adam’s work too, treating boxes of seedlings in the cosy greenhouse as improvised cat beds: “You go in and half of them are flat in the shape of a cat,” he says.
Adam says he’s often upstaged by his pets(Image: Southport Visiter)
With his latest tour coming to an end, Adam revealed that he and Sulina would be taking some well-earned time off for a holiday. He added that any money made from his latest book, For the Love of Plants, “goes towards Mrs Frost’s holiday fund, so she’s a very happy lady as well.”
Sulina can be “a bit scary,” Adam says. Referring to the old saying that “behind every successful man is a strong woman,” he told Yours magazine that there’s a slight difference when it comes to Sulina.
He said: “They always say behind every successful man is a strong woman. She’s more than strong, she’s a bit scary.
“The kids say she’s a lioness. If you’re unpleasant to me or the children, you end up with the wrath of Mrs Frost. We don’t want to cross Mrs Frost.”
Even in the garden, where you might think Adam would call the shots, Sulina has weighed in with her own opinions. While Adam likes “gardening for wildlife,” Mrs Frost prefers a tidier plot.
He recalled finding that one particular evergreen, which he thought looked perfectly fine, had been “trimmed back” by Sulina. Adam ruefully describes himself as “the most experienced understudy in the country.”
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