Garden designer and TV presenter Joe Swift is heading to Devon to meet up with an old
friend and share a few gardening tips with the rest of us, writes Catherine Courtenay
‘Me and Toby are good mates outside of work, so we like to meet up. I’ve only been to his festival once before, but I really enjoyed it. It was fun, really good fun.’
Joe Swift is chatting ahead of his visit to Devon as one of the guest speakers at the garden festival set up by fellow TV gardener and Devon resident, Toby Buckland.
‘We did a Q&A last time. Toby is a great compere and a brilliant gardener as well, so any question I don’t know I just pass them on to him and he always knows the answer.’
Joe is well known for his TV work, a regular on Gardeners’ World, he also co-hosts the BBC’s Chelsea Flower Show coverage, with Monty Don.
The two are a winning combination, Joe’s easy-going enthusiasm often results in Monty receiving a few teasing remarks.
‘We get on very well,’ says Joe. ‘But I have to jolly Monty up a little bit; he gets very serious you know. I’m like, “Monty, it’s fun! Come on! It will all be gone in a week so let’s make the most of it!" He’ll be talking about sustainability and I’m like, "It’s not sustainable – it's a flower show!”’
One of the perks of being at Chelsea for the BBC means Joe gets to see fellow gardening presenter friends, like Carol Klein, Rachel de Thame and of course Toby Buckland. ‘It’s the only place we’re all in the same place at the same time, so it’s really lovely for all of us. We’re all out in our little worlds most of the time.
‘And that’s also the good thing about Toby’s festival, I get to see him and in the past Frances [Tophill] and Adam [Frost] have been there. These shows are really good because you actually meet people and you just immerse yourself in a world of chatting about gardens.’
Joe ended up on Gardeners’ World in 1998 after answering an advert in the back of a magazine. Following a screen test he started doing bits and bobs on the programme.
It was, and still is, ‘the exemplar of gardening programmes’, he says, and he’s always been a huge fan.
‘And then I went on to do Chelsea and that was, wow! Amazing. I’d been visiting Chelsea as a designer and a punter and then to be able to walk onto the gardens and give my feedback, was like a footballer being able to commentate on the FA cup final.’
Joe’s gardening career stretches back to when he was a teenager, an ‘art school drop-out', who was in a band that also fell by the wayside. ‘I started landscaping for a local gardening company. I used to mix up cement for the bricklayers.’ He went on to help with soft landscaping, learning his trade through ‘a hippy called Antonia, who was a brilliant gardener’.
From there he studied garden design, before setting up his own company. He is now design director of Modular, which both designs and builds gardens and landscapes, both domestic and commercial, big and small gardens.
‘People think there are gardeners and then designers, but the minute you put a plant next to another one you are designing.’
Joe insists that in terms of garden design, ‘the best solution is the most simple solution’. It’s not about big budgets and ‘throwing money at it’, he says. Even in a big garden there are ways to reduce maintenance and increase the impact.
Once you’ve looked at soil and aspect, find plants you like, choosing for colour and texture.
‘Try planting in big brushstokes rather than having lots of fiddly things going on.’ he says. ‘It all ends up with this little or large plot which is packed full of your personality.’
‘That’s what I talk about at these shows. I try not to get bogged down in why someone’s plant is dead...Dig it up! Compost it, and let’s all move on, shall we?!’
Gardening trends come and go, but Joe is full of enthusiasm for what he now sees happening – a move towards sustainability and biodiversity.
‘Young people don’t see the garden in the same way; they don’t see it as lawn with planting, they see an ecology going on within the garden. Also, they might not have a traditional garden; they might share a front garden space, or an allotment or community garden. They might dig up the tree pit in the road outside their house as that is the only area they have to garden in.
‘I think that things have moved on and it’s quite refreshing talking to someone age 30 or 35 as they see the garden in a very different way.’
Looking back he says, ‘When I started it was very environmentally unfriendly. There were pesticides and then lots of feeding and watering stuff and putting all the wrong plants in the wrong places - but it didn’t matter, as long as it looked good and you could keep it alive.’
‘I look back at some of the stuff we used to do which was very minimal, a lot of paving and gravel and concrete and very few plants, and I’m a bit like, “Oh my god, why did we do that?”
‘I think now things are heading in a really good direction and it’s nice to be a part of it.’
So now, when clients want a big lawn for the grandchildren to play on, Joe will gently persuade them otherwise.
‘Children will have much more fun playing in a garden where they can run through bushes and shrubs and hide behind topiary, rather than just a big fat football pitch.’
There’s also a much more relaxed approach now, he says. ‘We enjoy the decay through the winter. In the old days we’d cut back in the autumn. Now you can leave it and cut it back in spring and it will regenerate itself. It’s more relaxed and more natural looking, the gardens work with the landscape.’
Nature is a source of inspiration to Joe. ‘I have visited so many gardens over the years. They are always different and always great, but sometimes I like to be out in the wild a bit more.
‘You can’t compete with nature; it always does it so beautifully, like in a bit of woodland or coastal area or whatever it might be.’
Gardening, ‘is part of me,’ says Joe. ‘It’s a relationship and I need it. I know that if I’m working in our garden for a day or two, I sleep well, I feel good...
‘I always say when you are in a garden you’re living in the past, the present and the future at the same time. You have stuff you might have planted ten years ago which is now looking great; then you’re doing what you’re doing right now; but you’re also painting a picture for the future.’
‘Wellbeing’ is a buzzword these days, he says. ‘But any gardener has known it all their lives - that being out in a garden and just connecting with that piece of land and with the plants you are putting in, there is something wonderful about it - and it is essential. I couldn’t not do it. And I’m very lucky to make a living out of doing what I love to do.’
Joe at the festival
Joe will be sharing his garden design tips at Toby’s Buckland Festival on Friday April 28 at Powderham Castle, near Exeter.
Hosted by BBC Radio Devon and TV presenter, Toby Buckland, the two day festival runs on April 28 and 29 and brings over 150 garden, craft and local food exhibitors to the stunning 14th century castle.
Now in its ninth year, the celebration of all things gardening is also a chance to join talks and demos on a range of topics, including flower farming, keeping chickens, planting a wildflower meadow and growing organic fruit and veggies.
New for 2023, is a Devon Food & Drink Hub showcasing the best artisan food and drink producers in the county with talks hosted by Daily Telegraph wine guru, Susy Atkins, and Otter Farm food writer, Mark Diacono. Plus, local wine merchant Wickhams will be offering visitors a chance to try and buy a range of wine, from vineyards in Devon, England and abroad.
Other attractions include stone balancing, book signings, outdoor kitchen tastings, tree climbing, stilt walkers, a miniature steam railway, heritage wood crafts and animals, including alpaca and chickens. Plus, you can make your own flower crown to wear at the fest with help from the British Academy of Flower Arts.
Advance tickets are available online from £13.50, under 16s free, parking free and dogs on leads welcome.
