Renowned gardener Monty Don has said there is one plant, which contributes to his diet every day, that he couldn't go without. Monty, who celebrated his milestone 70th birthday in July last year, revealed all when he was asked by Jo Whiley, on the RHS YouTube channel, which three plants he would take with him to a desert island.

The third of the plants Monty said he would bring along "had to be something edible", and thus it was a toss up between either a pear or a specific type of lettuce. Monty explained: "It has to be something edible. It’s really difficult because it would have to be, what’s a treat? It would either have to be a Bon Chrétien pear because a ripe pear from the garden is wonderful or, it sounds really weird, just a really good lettuce. It is a good Parris Island Cos lettuce.

“Because I eat lettuce every day of my life and I love all the different varieties that come in season and just for the sensuous experience of knowing I’ve sown the seed, and grown it, and the rest of it. So, it has to be something edible.”

Monty's favourite Parris Island Cos, which is a popular variety of romaine lettuce, is very nutritious. It offers a dense source of vitamins A, K, and C, in addition to folate and dietary fiber.

Alongside a healthy diet full of homegrown fruits and vegetables, Monty maintains an active lifestyle while working on his famous Longmeadow garden, where Gardeners' World is filmed, and walking his dogs.

Monty also chatted to Jo about the Chelsea Flower Show making its return to London next week, where he and fellow gardening experts will come out in force to display their talents.

Recently, Monty admitted that the pressures he faced to support his family meant he was working almost every single day of the year, after he was invited for a screen test on This Morning in the early 1990s.

What followed was the start of a glittering televisual career in which he travelled the world and developed National Treasure status.

Speaking to the i newspaper about why he was working so much, he admitted it wasn’t because he was seeking fame, but because he needed to look after his wife and children.

He said: “I certainly never intended to do television. I only agreed to do it because they offered me £300, and I needed £300 because we were broke. I needed to earn money to get back on my feet, to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.

“So it was purely practical: if people are prepared to pay me quite well to do something that I know I can do, great. I’ll take it. It wasn’t until a long time after that I could relax and say: ‘I’m doing this because I want to.’”