Fabulous news for 2025! This handsome chap is our celebrity garden speaker for Saturday 3rd May 2025. Between planting and design projects, as well as writing and filming for BBC Gardeners’ World, Joe Swift is a very busy guy, so we’re over the moon to have tempted him back to join us to talk at the festival at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, in the spring. 

Joe Swift has presented on Gardeners’ World since the late 1990’s and has fronted numerous TV shows including Open Gardens, Small Town Gardens, Garden Makers and Garden Invaders and appeared on Celebrity Masterchef. He writes regularly for The Times and has written 3 books – ‘The Plant Room’, and ‘Joe’s Urban Garden Handbook’, and ‘Joe’s Allotment’. Joe has designed many gardens for TV, including one for Comic Relief, many for Gardeners’ World & all of the Alan Titchmarsh’s ‘How to be a Gardener 2’ series.

Joe is also patron to many gardening charities including The Horniman Museum and The Harington Scheme. He also plays bass guitar, is a life-long Arsenal fan and plays football and golf whenever he gets the chance!

As ever, all talks are free to festival visitors – so be sure to book your festival tickets as soon as they come on sale this autumn!