UKTV Gardens: What's your favourite style of garden / garden design?
Toby: "I really like gardens that you can get lost in, quite otherworldly places that are kind of magical. It's quite romantic and you're in amongst it."

UKTV Gardens: What is the coolest plant or flower in the world? And why?
Toby: "My opinion changes a lot but at the moment, I would say it is eremurus - foxtail lilies. It's not very straightforward to grow so when it comes up, it's a relief. It has spikes of flowers, three or four feet tall on a stem. It's really spectacular when it grows. Of course, you've got to then get it through the rest of the year so it's kind of a prima donna!"

UKTV Gardens: What has been your biggest gardening cock up?
Toby: "There's been a fair few! But I would say my worst cock up was when I was gardening professionally for other people. I always used to try and get the job done as quickly as possible - and I once drove through someone's garage doors in a tractor. What I used to do was jump off the tractor, run and open the garage doors and let the tractor roll into the garage. Why would anyone do this?! Anyway, this one time, I jumped off and my jacket got caught in the forward gear so the tractor then ploughed through the doors before I could get them open."

UKTV Gardens: Is the changeable British weather a gardener's friend or foe?
Toby: "A friend, definitely. It gives you an appreciation of when the sun's shining, doesn't it? You can't have highs without lows. People think working in hot houses in botanic gardens is a cushy number but I used to do it and it really isn't pleasant. After half an hour, you're really bored and actually quite sweaty as it's so humid whereas, if you're working outside, working up a sweat, at the end of the day, you're in the mood to go down the pub and enjoy yourself. If you've been indoors, you just feel cooped up."

UKTV Gardens: Who is your gardening hero? And why?
Toby: "The person I really admire at the moment is Tim Smit, the guy behind the Eden Project. The reason I like him is he was a record producer, not a trained gardener, but he is a man with vision. He sees the big picture. For years, botanic gardens have been searching for a future - for new ways to get the idea of conservation across - the idea of the lovely feeling of growing plants and how important it is. It's been a dead end for years. Then along comes Tim Smit, a man who knows nothing about gardening, and wipes the floor and makes a globally significant botanic garden. Fantastic."

UKTV Gardens: John Steinbeck once said: "There is nothing pleasanter than spading when the ground is soft and damp." Would you agree?
Toby: "For me, gardening is made up of lots of different little skills. None of these skills are very difficult in themselves but when you get good at them, it's a bit like twisting worry beads - like a mantra. It's something you do that makes you feel good - it's the repetition of it. When you're good at anything, there's a kind of joy and your body sings and that's what gardening is like for me."

UKTV Gardens: What would you be doing if you weren't doing this for a living?
Toby: "Building. Again, it's lot of little skills...! No seriously, my family were all builders and when I was growing up, there were high land prices and a bit of a recession going on so there was no work in the building trade going so I did what my grandfather did and got into this."

UKTV Gardens: Which famous people's gardens have you worked on?
Toby: "I once did the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion's garden. He wasn't the Poet Laureate at the time but he'd just done a BBC series and I have to say, he was the nicest guy. Thing was, I was gardening out of Cambridge at the time so I was driving down to North London where he lived - and I was leaving really early in the morning and I kept forgetting to turn my car's lights off. Do you know what? He used to help bump start my car. Top bloke."

UKTV Gardens: Alan Titchmarsh once joked that his obituary would read "The Man Who Planked Britain". What will yours read?
Toby: "Here lies the late Toby Buckland. No really, it'd be something like he sowed, he pruned, he's planted."

UKTV Gardens: Is decking chav?
Toby: "No! It isn't. I tell you why. I've just moved to a coach house and I reckon decking would work in our new garden. In the right place, it's good."