THE MODERN MINT BLOG
End of May – so it must be time for Chelsea? Chelsea Fringe that is….
What is the Chelsea Fringe?
The Chelsea Fringe is a flower festival that coincides with the Chelsea Flower Show. It is the anarchic, fun, breaks all the boundaries ‘big’ little sister of the main Chelsea event – we say ‘big’ little sister because in some ways, though currently less well-known, it encourages more access to gardening for more people.
We love it, and it suits us here at Modern Mint – which is why we took part last year, with an online project which you can devour here, called ‘You Should Have Seen It Last Week…’
This year, 2015, we thought we should go one bigger and one better – get more people involved, be bolder, do something that really will last a long time – so we have created an ebook, free to read, download and share, filled with 100 word manifestos from gardeners around the country who shared with us why they garden.
It turned out fab, a fantastic glimpse into the minds of those who work the soil all over the UK. We are so grateful to all the people who took part, and to all the people who have read and shared the book (incidentally, the book supports the charity RBST. You should too!)
Please do support the Chelsea Fringe and please do go right on ahead and read our book for the Chelsea Fringe Festival – ‘Contemporary Green’ – we promise it will make you laugh, make you wonder, make you think.
Have a great weekend of gardening folks!
EBTS Boxwood Growers Forum
Through the European Boxwood and Topiary Society I worked with Chris Poole and Sue Mesher, members of the EBTS board, and we set up a Boxwood Growers Forum. This was to discuss how to make sure this wonderful topiary plant stays in the public conscioussness – we know many growers, suppliers and distributors have stopped selling it as the cost of replacing boxwood that has blight, or is nibbled by the boxwood caterpillar, makes it unviable to offer to clients and gardeners. But Boxwood is a phoenix plant, and there are ways to deal with the problems associated with Buxus. …
Modern Topiarist @ Garden Masterclass Poland
My video on Modern Topiary for Garden Masterclass has been translated into Polish, for the keen gardeners (and happy pruners!) of Garedn Masterclass in Poland. Tickets for the first showing and q and a were available here. But it will become available on the Garden Masterclass Poland website at some point in the near future – so if you are a keen clipper and want to know more, but speak Polish and not English, then I suggest you visit the website and get watching. (Of course, if you don’t speak English, you may not be able to read this…. hmmm… …
Topiary Hotline
The European Boxwood & Topiary Society are to run a Topiary Hotline for keen gardeners and people who love to clip. Date is tomorrow, April 16th 2024, and you can get a ticket for the Zoom meeting here – Topiary Hotline. Run by Chris Poole and myself, we set this up as an antidote to the huge amount of questions we have to answer about topiary throughout the summer. The plus is that their is an excitement around topiary and pruning. The problem is we need to help people in a better way… … so we will be giving people …