THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Green Elements
Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden in Extraordinary Times is a brand new talk by Darren Lerigo of Modern Mint, premiering at the Quay Theatre in Sudbury March 12th 2017.
Darren, the resident speaker here at Modern Mint, will be presenting a brand new talk next year. It came about after being asked by Greener Sudbury, a group who promote sustainable living and biodiversity in the town and surrounding areas, to present an action packed talk about gardening that would get people inspired to get outside and get their hands into the soil.
They have asked him to put together a talk that will give people practical steps they can take to ‘green’ up their garden, but also link it to the wider world, so helping people discover exactly why our gardens and landscapes look and get managed the way they do.
Greener Sudbury are using Darren’s talk ‘Green Elements’ alongside a talk by the fantastic organic gardener Bob Flowerdew to promote the important aims of their group to more people in around Sudbury.
Do check out their website for more information. (Or visit the Quay Theatre website to book a ticket to Darren or Bob’s show!)
The Blurb for Green Elements
The blurb for Darren’s show on March 12th 2017 is below. It gives you a little frisson about the ideas he will be sharing with you:
Darren Lerigo is a former playwright, stand-up comedian, flower farmer and judge of the longest vegetable competition at the local WI.
With a CV like that, you know you’re in safe hands.
In Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden in Extraordinary Times, Darren will explore how our gardens can have a positive impact in a modern world of unrelenting connection, cultural displacement and dwindling natural resources.
Drawing on garden ideas from around the world he will show you how to make your garden a haven for wildlife, reduce damage from slugs and snails, improve your flower borders, sequester carbon in the soil and help arrest the decline of our bee population.
All while growing sweet and tasty tomatoes for your dinner too.
If you are in need of some garden inspiration, or some real world horticultural advice, or perhaps just want a moment to stop and sniff the flowers, then Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden in Extraordinary Times is the talk for you.
Cripey! If that doesn’t rock your world and get you heading over to the Quay Theatre website to book a ticket for you AND ALL YOUR FRIENDS RIGHT NOW then you must have been skim reading it.
Go on, go back and read it properly. We’ll wait…
Topiary Teaching For 2026
A new year, so time to share a few thoughts on what I will be looking at doing with topiary, and the focus on teaching I would like to put in place, for 2026 and beyond. Above is Nandina, made by a student of ours from the European Boxwood and Topiary Society. She took a year to work on this, taking a plant not renowned for being a good topiary plant, but seeing what its weirdness is and what values it does have, then exploring and exploding those. I am thrilled by this. Not just this look for autumn. A …
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 …