Monty Don branded 'ignorant' in tense row as he hits out at fan's 'unnecessary rude' putdown
Monty Don OBE is no stranger to offering up solutions to fans' queries about their gardens on social media.
However, this appeared to backfire on the BBC presenter this week when one Twitter user was less than impressed with Don's input.
Don had responded to one concerned fan who voiced their worries about the amount of bracken populating the hills near Keswick.
The user had included a video of the problem, prompting Don to reply: "My experience is that bracken nurtures little and swamps almost everything.
"I have spent 20 years trying to reduce it by repeated and timely cutting and rolling to allow tree planting to succeed.
"It is working but a slow, hard process," he added but his response irked a separate social media who felt the need to try and correct the gardening expert.
"No, it's part of natural succession," the user argued. "However that process takes many decades. Man is just too impatient to see the changes happening.
"We usually interfere : either plant or use adaptive grazing depending which direction we require to effect faster."
Instead of ignoring the fan's differing opinion, Don hit back as he continued the discussion: "You rarely get any succession of any kind following bracken.
"It remains the dominant species for centuries simply because it is such a successful plant. Thus it is inimicable with any kind agriculture, silviculture or horticulture."
At this point, the disgruntled user appeared to have heard enough as they fumed at Don: "Oh, the ignorance of basic ecology."
A clearly irked Don tweeted back and branded the user "rude" for their remark.
He said: "Sidestepping the unnecessary rudeness of that remark, I have farmed a bracken-covered hillside for the past 20 years, with and without sheep, with and without pigs, cattle etc.
"In that time we have planted about 7,000 trees but not one has grown naturally in amongst the bracken."
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The fan failed to reply to Don's final comment as the row appear to fizzle out.
The gardening expert is best-known for being the face of the BBC's Gardeners' World which he's hosted since 2002.
Don regularly keeps fans updated on both Twitter and Instagram and often melts hearts with snaps of his beloved pet dogs - and occasional co-stars - Nell and Patti.