Forde Abbey

New for Autumn 2017! Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival at Forde Abbey 16th & 17th September

We are delighted to announce our new Garden & Harvest Fest in the beautiful grounds of Forde Abbey in Somerset. It’s set to be a weekend of autumnal gardening delights with gorgeous plants to buy from local nurseries, delicious food and entertainment for all the family. As well as celebrating the fruits of the season, you can join us for a free programme of garden demos in Forde Abbey’s stunning Kitchen Garden and talks from Toby and TV gardeners Christine Walkden and Charlie Dimmock.

Powderham Castle

Toby’s GardenFest is back at Powderham Friday 28th and Saturday 29th April 2017

Toby’s popular Garden Festival is back for a fourth year in the beautiful setting of Powderham Castle near Exeter. This spring we’re thrilled to welcome as our experts Chelsea garden designer Adam Frost of BBC Gardeners’ World and pest guru Pippa Greenwood who will be giving talks and answering your garden questions. Packed with beautiful plants from more than 100 local nurseries, delicious West Country fayre, local musicians and entertainment for the whole family, it’s a great gardening day out.

Would you like to exhibit at Toby’s GardenFest Powderham in 2018?

We are taking the details of interested traders for next year’s show – if you’d like to be contacted when details are released, please complete this form.

Forde Abbey Preview Video

Powderham Castle Video

News and information

Natural Dyes with Flora Arbuthnott July 21, 2017

Flora Arbuthnott, printmaker, forager, and natural dyer joins us at Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival to give a workshop on making natural dyes from plants. We asked Flora to tell us a little about herself and the art of natural dyeing: “I am inspired by wild plants and natural forms. Being in nature is an … Read more

Do it like Poldark: Learn to Scythe at Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival July 18, 2017

Fans of Aidan Turner will be pleased to know that scything is to feature as one of the many harvest demo’s running at Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival this autumn. Hosted by Dorset-based scythe trainer Chris Riley of Pratensis Countryside Services, the demo’s will show how to manage long grass areas and wildflower meadows using … Read more

Enter our Ready, Veggie Bake Competition! July 17, 2017

Do you cook a cracking courgette cake? Love baking with beetroot? Go potty for pumpkin pie? If you think you have what it takes to bake Britain’s Best Vegetable Cake, then the organisers of Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival want to hear from you! Not only is baking cakes with vegetables a novel way to … Read more

Come Hug A Tree at Toby’s Garden & Harvest Fest July 17, 2017

Devon nurseryman Kevin Croucher from Thornhayes Nursery looks ahead to his Tree Tours at Toby’s Garden & Harvest Festival at Forde Abbey’s this September: If you go to a large country estate in Britain, you will find woodland and hedgerow trees, but also generally a park and an arboretum, where various generations have collected or … Read more

Forde Abbey: “One of the Great Gardens” July 12, 2017

Paul Webb, a former National Trust head gardener, returns to Forde Abbey gardens after fifteen years and remembers why he rates it as a great garden. I guess all us head gardeners have our own ideas about what makes a great garden. Yes, on one level it is about the quality and pedigree of the … Read more

Win a Glass of Champagne with Charlie & Christine! July 6, 2017

Toby is giving two lucky visitors to his new Garden & Harvest Festival the chance to enjoy a glass of fizz with the Festival’s celebrity speakers, Charlie Dimmock and Christine Walkden. Everyone who purchases a VIP ticket online in the run-up to the Festival is being entered in a prize draw to meet the celebrities … Read more