Toby Neale Buckland (born 11 October 1969) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
gardener
A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby.
Description
A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner supplem ...
,
TV presenter
A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...
and
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
, best known for being the main presenter from 2008-10 of
BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
long running flagship gardening programme ''
Gardeners' World
''Gardeners' World'' is a long-running British gardening programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1968. The 2022 series is the 53rd. Its first series was presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Up until 2020 most of its e ...
''.
In 2008 Buckland won RHS Gold and Best in show for his Ethical Garden at Gardeners' World Live. In 2009 he won the Environmental Award from the
Garden Media Guild for a Gardeners' World Special on peat in gardening.
In October 2011, Buckland launched an online plant nursery, Toby Buckland Nurseries, based at
Powderham Castle
Powderham Castle is a fortified manor house situated within the parish and former manor of Powderham, within the former hundred of Exminster, Devon, about south of the city of Exeter and mile (0.4 km) north-east of the village of ...
in Devon.
Biography and education
Born in
Exeter,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, Buckland was brought up in the coastal towns of
Dawlish and
Kingswear
Kingswear is a village and civil parish in the South Hams area of the English county of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth and opposite the small town of Dartmouth. It lies within ...
. He trained as a nurseryman at Blyth's Devon Nursery and later Whetman's in Devon before studying
horticulture
Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
, first at
Bicton College
Bicton College is a college with around 1,000 full-time and 3,500 part-time pupils, located near Budleigh Salterton, Devon, England. It is part of the Cornwall College group. The college specialises in agriculture and currently offers course ...
,
Budleigh Salterton
Budleigh Salterton is a seaside town on the coast in East Devon, England, south-east of Exeter. It lies within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and forms much of the electoral ward of Budleigh, whose ward population at t ...
, Devon and later
Hadlow College
Hadlow College is a further and higher education college in Hadlow, Kent, England, with a satellite site in Greenwich. The curriculum primarily covers land-based subjects including Agriculture, Horticulture, Conservation and Wildlife Managem ...
of Horticulture and Agriculture, Hadlow, Kent where he trained in Landscape and Amenity management. During that time he spent a year as a horticultural trainee at the
University of Cambridge Botanic Garden as a woodland supervisor.
Buckland opened a nursery at Powderham Castle, located in Devon, until a few years ago, now he and his wife hold a Garden festival there every year in April/May
Television
Buckland's first job in TV was in 1996 as a horticultural researcher for Brian Lapping Associates working on Channel 4's ''Garden Party''. In 1998 he then joined the
Granada Breeze
Granada Breeze was a lifestyle channel operated by Granada Sky Broadcasting, a joint venture between Granada Television and British Sky Broadcasting. The channel was launched as Granada Good Life on 1 October 1996.
Programming
It was aimed at ...
channel as a gardening presenter which led to TV roles designing and building gardens on shows including ''Home Front in the Garden'', ''Real Wrecks'',
Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...
's ''
Better Homes
''Better Homes'' was a lifestyle game show that was broadcast on ITV from 4 January 1999 to 1 July 2003 and was presented by Carol Vorderman.
Format
Two houses were renovated for their owners. The one that increased in value after the televised ...
'' on
ITV and
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
's ''Garden Magic''.
He took over from
Monty Don
Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is a British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series '' Gardeners' World''.
Born in Germany and rais ...
as the main presenter on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' in August 2008. The format of the programme changed in various respects. In December 2010, the BBC announced that they would not be renewing Buckland's contract. Three years after recovering from a stroke, Monty Don returned as lead presenter of the show in March 2011.