THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Modern Mint Shop
Modern Mint Garden Design has been up and running for almost 8 months now. As well as Garden Design services we also want Modern Mint to be a place to go to for interesting articles, garden knowledge AND we want to share with you in our shop products we love – products that are unusual, fun, sustainable and beautiful.
We want to promote people and organisations that produce items based on their own individual creativity (check out this great arm chair),
locally sourced or artisanal products (this from the potteries in Stoke on Trent, mugs to make you laugh),
… and an ingenious way to use up unpopular wool that would otherwise be heading for the bin (wool wellie warmers!)
Take a look and let us know what you think, more items are going up every day on the shop as we start to build up our collection of goods.
And if you MAKE any unusual products and would like to include them in our shop please do get in touch!
Topiary Workshop 2026 at Waltham Place
The next topiary workshop I will be teaching is now live on the website and can be booked! Just visit Waltham Place to get a ticket for the Topiary Workshop I will be teaching on Friday September 4th at Waltham Place. Myself and Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society (Buxus expert! Like, he knows everything there is to know about the plant! So worth booking just to tap into his knowledge….!) will be teaching here for the… fifth year in a row I think? The garden is a beautiful place to spend time clipping. We will teach …
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …