With a Degree in horticulture and garden design, and a Ph.D in garden history Toby continues to build on 10 years of experience as a writer and presenter. His sixth English book, The Head Gardeners was published in September 2007 and followed on the successes of The Seven Deadly Sins of Gardening (2006), Cottage Gardens (2004), Courtyard Gardens and An Empire of Plants (2000) and The Plant Hunters (1998). To date, the latter has sold in excess of 25,000 copies. He was also a major contributor to The British Garden and The Contemporary Garden (both 2009), 1001 Gardens to Visit Before you Die (2007) and The Garden Book (2000.)

Toby is a regular contributor to a number of British national magazines and newspaper, including BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, The Garden, Gardens Illustrated, The English Garden, The Saturday Telegraph and The Sunday Times. He also writes a weekly gardening column which is syndicated to a number of local newspapers.

On DVD Toby presents Your First Garden Made Easy (2006) the first in a series of how-to DVDs from the Made Easy brand. On screen he presented HTV’s award nominated 8-part series The Great Garden Guide in 2003, previous to which he hosted two series of Lost Gardens for Channel Four (1999 and 2001), and joined the design team on ITV's Better Gardens (1999.) On Radio 4, Toby was conceiver of, and major contributor to the 6-part landmark series, The British Garden (2004.)

Toby acted as Horticultural Consultant for the award-winning BBC landmark series, How to be a Gardener for which he also wrote the horticultural content for the Educational Television Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated website. This followed positions as Consultant Garden Historian to the award-winning televisions series Royal Gardens (BBC) and The 20th Century Garden (C4.)

In 2007 Politikens Forlag published Toby’s first Danish book - Fra Vildnis til Paradis (From Wilderness to Paradise) - an inspirational how-to guide to making a new garden based wholly on his own garden and garden-making experiences. Toby also contributes regularly to the Danish magazines Bo Bedre, Garden Living and Haven; and in 2004 and ’05 a weekly gardening page for Jyllands Posten, the leading Danish broadsheet.

Toby designs gardens across the world. Current projects include gardens for a spiritual retreat in upstate New York, a pioneering town garden in London and a seaside garden in Denmark; while recent assignments include a 2 ha. woodland garden in Long Island and a roof garden in Bombay.

He lectures widely on garden history and design, including Oxford University, the Royal Horticultural Society, as guest lecturer aboard many cruise liners, and has undertaken speaking tours in the US.