Garden festival at castle will celebrate its 10th anniversary

TOBY’S Garden Festival returns at Powderham Castle next week – and says it is the first garden show in the world to achieve carbon-neutral accreditation.

Hosted by BBC Two Gardeners’ World presenter Toby Buckland on Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4, in Kenton, it will also celebrate its 10th anniversary.

The family-friendly event boasts a programme full of free gardening and food and drink talks, demonstrations, tastings and workshops plus live music. There will be more than 200 exhibitors including award-winning RHS Chelsea Flower Show plant nurseries and British-grown trees, roses, border and wild flowers, aquatics, shrubs and houseplants plus sculptures and garden furniture, local artists, crafts, ceramics, textiles, glassware and jewellery.

Heritage craft demonstrations including stave baskets and brush making and free flower crown making workshops with the help of the British Academy of Flower Arts also run over the two days.

While that is the focus for those who attend, Toby and his team have been working hard to reduce the impact of the festival on the environment over the past 10 years.

They’ve sourced from local sustainable suppliers but knew there was more to do. With the help of eco-auditors Blue Marble, they monitored the carbon the festival produces and have offset it by planting trees as part of a wildlife protection scheme.

Toby said: “Since our first festival, we’ve strived to make a difference, curating our exhibitors to ensure plants, crafts and food are provided by companies that work with nature and support their local economy. We’ve also actively reduced travel when organising the festival by working from a virtual office, partnered with waste companies which recycle what they can and ensure no waste goes to landfill, provided visitors with recycling points for the plastic pots they have at home, gifted wildflower seeds and showcased chemical-free garden products and techniques.”

He added: “With the expertise of Blue Marble, we’ve partnered with an ecological project in Cambodia, The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, which through preserving and enhancing a protected habitat can recapture the carbon Toby’s Garden Festival releases.”

The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary spans more than 290,000 hectares and home to an array of wildlife, including 84 globally-threatened species including yellow-cheeked crested gibbon and endangered Asian elephant.