Author: Toby Buckland
Traditional wood craft demos
For 2022, we’ve expanded our new Heritage Wood Crafts Zone, where you can watch Devon craftspeople at work, using ancient skills and traditional tools to make household, gardenware and charcoal. John Williamson of Dartmoor Woodcraft makes stave baskets, identified by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) as a critically endangered craft which use pre-industrial green woodworking …
Plant Nurseries at the Festival
Shopping basket at the ready? We’ve got a blooming great line-up of nursery exhibitors joining us at Toby’s Garden Festival on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 April at Powderham Castle. These wonderful growers will be offering a huge array of quality, local-raised plants for your garden. Everything from cottage garden plants, to exotics, climbers, clematis, …
Talk: Rebugging the Planet
Author Vicky Hird is joining us as a Friday speaker to talk about the importance of bugs! Bugs are everywhere but people often don’t realise they live surrounded by these wild creatures. From worms to wasps and bees to beetles – bugs are beautiful, inventive and economically invaluable. They are a vital part of our …
Talk: A Healthy Veg garden
Gardener and smallholder Sally Morgan delves into a myriad of ways to create a healthy, biodiverse growing space packed with vegetables and flowers fueled by a healthy soil. She provides plenty of ideas on how to improve your soil, mix up your planting, try different rotations, attract pollinators and natural predators plus manage pests and …
Telegraph wine writer, Susy Atkins, joins us on Saturday
Grape news! The marvellous Daily Telegraph wine writer – and local Devon gal – Susy Atkins is joining us on stage at Powderham Castle at Toby’s Garden Festival on Saturday 30 April. The BBC Saturday Kitchen expert will be giving a talk alongside other celebrity experts, including garden designer and BBC Gardener’s World presenter, Arit Anderson, RHS judge Jim Buttress and festival host and TV gardener, Toby Buckland. …
Meet BBC Green Planet cameraman, Tim Shepherd
SPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT: Joining us at Toby’s Garden Fest on Friday 29 April is professional wildlife cameraman for over 30 years, Tim Shepherd. Tim who lives and works locally in Devon specialising in timelapse and is known for ground-breaking TV series, including BBC’s Private Life of Plants which treated plants growing and behaving as living creatures like any …
Stop and smell the flowers
If you’ve ever used gardening as a way to be more mindful and make you feel better on stressful days, then you might be interested in our brand new talk session for 2022. Sara Dance, a Teignmouth certified breath coach and Wim Hof Method instructor, will be joining us at Toby’s Garden Festival on Saturday …
Take Tea in the Castle
We are introducing a brand-new festival ticket for Toby’s Garden Festival in Spring 2022, including entrance to the festival at Powderham Castle on either Friday 29 or Saturday 30 April and tea/coffee and cake in the castle . Served after 2.30pm, here’s your chance to relax in the castle music room and libraries, with your choice …
Fest talk: Women’s Land Army
In 1943, over 1700 women were serving in the Women’s Land Army and the Women’s Timber Corps in Devon. Living and toiling individually on farms or as part of a gang that lodged in a hostel and worked on the land wherever they were needed, the Land Girls and Lumber Jills were crucial to maintaining …