THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Nigel Colborn
We wrote last week about the book Gardens of Inspiration.
In it, Nigel Colborn wrote an essay about gardens that have influenced him. W want to quote him further today – as we are currently designing a woodland garden and… well, he wrote beautifully about it here…
“Species that enjoy similar ecologies will almost always look good together… a natural piece of North American woodland, for example, would boast trilliums and smilacina; in Europe, solomons seal and hellebores might occupy the same niche; and in Asia these might be replaced by meconopsis and epimediums.
But in a garden, it is easy to bring all these together, like a horticultural melting pot, and to come up with a ravishing woodland garden. And if plenty of our own natives are added – not just popular plants like bluebells and primroses, but also hedge garlic, figwort, even dog’s mercury – then the garden has ecological as well as aesthetic value.”
Gorgeous. Inspiring. Is there anything better than a woodland edge garden?
For more books by Nigel Colborn, try these now!
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …
The Henderson, Topiary Art Interview on Instagram
In a suit… eek! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Henderson (@thehenderson_hk)
Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson
The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …