Toby Buckland

Toby's First Blog

Well, this is something new! And very exciting. Following what has been a fantastic growing season, mild and extremely prolonged, we have a wealth of plants to whet your appetite. You might have followed our progress over the last three months in The English Garden Magazine but if not, here's a quick potted history of how we got to this point....

Basically, Lisa and I took got the opportunity to take on some land inside the old Walled Garden of Powderham Castle back in April. We were only too happy as until then we were having to shoe-horn all the plants we'd been propagating through winter into the greenhouse, garden, paths, shed roof you name it - even the postman was complaining about all the plant tray trip hazards.

Much battling with rabbits, moles, and clearing of rubbish ensued followed by some giant-pumpkin-growing antics, the delivery of quite a few barrowloads of soil improver, a trip to A&E and lots of growing and propagating. 

Yet more growing followed and now we are finally opening our virtual doors to you. Possibly a bit later than hoped, but good things are worth waiting for. I must say thank you too - to my dear friends and talented photographers, Jason Ingram and Howard Rice for the magical images on the website. The ropey ones are all mine. And thanks to Powderham Castle too for the occasional loan of their tractor and trailer. It's two decades since I passed my tractor-trailer loading exam but you wouldn't know it. The dents hardly show at all, really.

You can get in touch via email or tweets. I'd love to hear what you think.