Echoing Rosemary's blog of last week I can say that I am thrilled that Toby is to be our new lead presenter.
What is so wonderful about Gardeners' World is that, from time to time, the programme is refreshed by a new face with a new approach to gardening. I never got to work with Geoff, but worked with Alan and Monty - both fantastic and experienced gardeners, but with such different personalities. Now, I'm sure Toby will have his own individual approach to gardening. So it's going to be so exciting for us on the programme working with him and I'm really looking forward to it.
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It's a funny old world. One door closes, another one opens. As we wistfully say goodbye to one gardening era we're suddenly turning to see the dawn of an exciting new season. Finally, after months of speculation, the news is out that Toby Buckland is to step into Monty's shoes and lead the Gardeners' World team through a whole new set of garden challenges. Are we delighted? Yes, we are absolutely thrilled!
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The scent of Monty lingers in the garden - his Sweet Peas are in flower and they truly smell divine. In fact the formal garden has never been so packed with presenters - Alan Titchmarsh in one corner, Percy Thrower in another and Monty's brand new edition in the third. Alys has even managed to grow Geoff Hamilton's lovely mauve Sweet Pea in the fourth - despite the fact we had been warned it's become unstable. Personally I had never heard of an unstable sweet pea before until grower Roger Parsons' explained it meant the flower keeps reverting in colour to one of its parent plants - in Geoff's case pink. In truth there are various different shades of Geoff in our formal garden - but we don't care - we still love him.
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Is it really the first day of August? Where did July go? At least the long awaited Azores high finally arrived. I was at a music festival in Wiltshire last weekend so it couldn't have come at a better time.
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