THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Jul15

Finnish Gardens

From our trip to Western Finland last summer to check out some Finnish gardens, the Finnish landscape, and get some garden ideas

Director Darren Lerigo looking relaxed...
Director Darren Lerigo looking relaxed…

The landscape around you effects the way you behave. Notice how much colour the Finnish people use… symptomatic of the short growing season…

Do we use enough colour in the UK? Or do we not appreciate just how bold we can go? Although a white garden is lovely, we can take lessons from people who like a more vibrant palette – try The Bold and Brilliant Garden if you need ideas.

Bedding plants must be shipped in from Sweden.
A Finnish Greenhouse. Amazing, yes…?

Everything gets recycled and reused, like this spade being used as a shallow surface to grow plants… echoes of Derek Jarman’s Garden by the sea, anyone…?

all recycled - derek jarman

We hope to go back soon, as the Finnish gardens and landscapes we saw last summer were beautiful and inspiring. Don’t forget to check out our trip to Japan either…

And for a real colour boost to your borders – go make use of this sale by clicking the link below!

Apr16

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. …

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Apr15

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… …

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Apr15

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 …

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