Dartmoor National Park conjures up images of open moorland, burnished bracken and rocky high tors but not necessarily vineyards. Yet here nestling in a primrose filled valley near Bridford on the south east facing slopes of the Teign Valley, six miles to the south west of Exeter is a small ten acre vineyard planted with …
We’re delighted to announce that Exeter’s Millbrook Retirement Village is set to sponsor Toby’s Garden Festival for a third year in a row. In 2019, Millbrook are sponsoring the Country Gardener Talks Tent, which is dedicated to the nursery growers attending the festival and who are talking on a range of plant species, including orchids, …
Stephanie Hafferty, no dig gardener and author of The Creative Kitchen and co-writer with Charles Dowding of the award-winning No Dig Organic Home and Gardener, is speaking on no dig gardening at Toby’s Garden Festival on Friday 3rd May. We spoke to Stephanie to find out more: What is no dig gardening? It’s a method …
What’s that beautiful noise we can hear? Why, it’s our fabulous musicians getting in tune for the Garden Festival at Powderham Castle! This May we have a heavenly host of songsters, guitarists, contemporary folk musicians and original singer-songwriters, all coming to serenade us while we load our trolleys, bags and every available pocket with plants! …
How better to learn about a specialist plant than from the nurserymen and women who grow them? This year for the first time at the festival, we’ve asked our nursery exhibitors to take the stage in our new Country Gardener Magazine Talks Tent to talk about the plants they raise from seed or cutting and …
Gardening sustainably is the topic for our celeb speaker Frances Tophill, presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World and ITV’s Love Your Garden when she joins us on Saturday 4th May at Powderham Castle. Frances advocates growing sustainably, and that by giving plants the conditions they would naturally grow in the wild, they grow more healthily and …
But then we knew that already didn’t we? Now though, botanicals are everywhere, from the latest designer dresses to wallpaper and cushions and the best artisan gins. Whether potted, planted, indoors or out, as bedroom decor or on your plate, we just can’t get enough of them. The Economist recently declared 2019 the Year of …
Caroline Bawn of Gorgeous Yarns explains how she creates natural dyes from plants… Throughout history, since weaving textiles became common, people have used natural dyes to create colourful garments. In Medieval times people would not have worn the dull browns we might think, but a range of subtle green, brown, yellows and oranges, all from …
A new season of gardening is fast approaching and with it dreams of prize parsnips, romantic roses and other alliterative garden successes, far too plentiful to mention. After all, gardening is as much about hope, as it is about the reality – which can deliver as many failures (best forgotten of course) as brilliant successes. …
Missed out on early bird tickets for Toby’s Garden Festival this year? Worry not! You can still make savings if you buy online. Advance adult tickets are now available at just £10 if you buy online before the festival, making you a 20% saving on the gate price of £12.50. Children under 12 years old …
