gardening

After the success of last year, Toby Buckland's Garden Festival at Powderham Castle is back and bigger than ever on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May!

There will be explosive 'daytime fireworks' with coloured smoke and showering steamers down from the Gate House. Toby and the Countess of Devon will be cutting the ribbon.

Teign Trees will be swining from the trees at the entrance of the castle! There will also be live music from the Cataclews and much more.

Topsham Flower Club are decorating the Chapel at Powderham with incredible flower arrangements themed on the work...

After last year’s outstanding success, Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival is back at Powderham Castle on Friday 1st & Saturday 2nd May and heralds a new style of gardening show, combining expert horticultural knowledge with plenty of delicious local food, craft, live music and family fun - a great day out for everyone.

10 Things ………..

1. It’s a festival!

“I love a party,” says Toby, “for me the festival is a giant garden party where I can invite some of my favourite friends to speak and share their vast knowledge but there’s plenty more going on too, it’s a place...

Gardeners should start preparing early for their great slug and snail hunt this year as winter temperatures have provided the perfect conditions for their arch enemies.

According to Wyevale Garden Centres – the UK’s largest garden centre group - last year, gardeners spent £11.6 million in their battle to protect their botanical spaces, battling over 30 species of slugs including a voracious invader discovered on our shores only last year – the Spanish slug (Arion vulgaris).

Slugs like mild and warm winters and Met Office statistics show that average temperatures were...

Anyone with an interest in gardening to benefit wildlife is invited to an event on Wednesday 18 February between 10am and 2pm at the Axe Estuary Wetlands, Seaton.

The East Devon District Council Countryside team will be developing their wildlife garden on the nature reserve and are looking for help with practical hands on tasks such as clearing and planting.

Steve Edmonds, Countryside Team Leader (Sites) said: “Our aim is to encourage a wider range of native insects, invertebrates, birds and mammals to the site by making sure they have a good variety of food sources and...

A total of 150 exhibitors have snapped up the available space Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival at Powderham Castle, four months before the event, which takes place on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May.

The annual two-day Garden Festival was launched last year by horticulturalist, nursery owner and TV presenter Toby Buckland, and was an immediate success, drawing around 8000 visitors, with several exhibitors having to restock several times during the event to keep up with demand.

The new festival showcases many local nurseries from the Westcountry who otherwise are overshadowed...

Toby Buckland’s annual garden festival at Powderham Castle, Devon, is fast becoming recognised as one of the most important events of its kind in the South West, attracting celebrity gardening experts and providing an annual rendezvous for enthusiastic gardeners and award-winning regional nurseries.

Next year's festival on 1 and 2 May will be a bigger event with the same mixture of some of the country’s best plant specialists plus gardening craft and equipment stalls, entertainment and high quality local food producers.

Horticulturist, writer, TV presenter and new President...

Calling all keen gardeners! Green-fingered enthusiasts in and around Exeter are being sought by WESC Foundation, specialist centre for visual impairment, to take part in an exciting new fundraiser this month. The inaugural WESC Foundation Sensory Open Gardens event is looking for people with beautiful, interesting or unique gardens to sign up and open their garden gates to friends, family and their local community in an effort to raise vital funds to help children and learners of little or no sight.

Funds raised will go towards updating WESC Foundation’s own sensory garden, which...

Lapford & District Horticultural Society open their gardens on the 28th and 29th of June in aid of Devon Air Ambulance Trust. Twelve unique parish gardens can be viewed including the school and allotments. Nine gardens are located in the village, with three about a mile away.

The floral selections range from petite patio-type gardens, to large displays, all with distinguishing qualities from variable soil to an assortment of flowerage. There will be the opportunity to meet the livestock of some of the gardeners, and plants will be available for purchase. Cream teas, homemade...

Otter Nurseries will be paying homage to its own anniversary at this year’s Devon County Show with a display based around events in its history.

The team at the popular East Devon garden centre has designed a two-sided stand to both acknowledge the roots of the business and show how far it has come.

One side of the stand will be a step back in time to 1964 with old gardening equipment, a vintage T20 Ford tractor and some of the first types of plants sold by the nurseries, such as pansies and lettuces.

The opposite part of the stand will be bang up to date to show...