THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Brought By Bike is an excellent website I found last month, where businesses offer their services by (of course) bicycle.
Modern Mint and my topiary work is now live on the site offering my topiary services, via bike, to the following two postcodes –
CM1
CM2
Now I can imagine I will need to borrow a ladder should anyone have a larger shrub, but most town gardens in the Chelmsford area have a need not just for privacy but to let light into the house… so a balance must be struck when shaping hedges and shrubs to cover both needs.
So hopefully I won’t need to borrow a ladder too often, as people will want shorter topiary designs. I believe the topiary work will entail more of an editing down of branches, to create a dappled light – so lots of mophead topiaries, or acer pruning, or funny swirls and blobs…
Using a bike to get to work is a dream of mine…. the reduction in my carbon footprint, the exercise and just the slightly less hurried nature of it all – the work will be done, and I will hear see a little of the world on my way there!
As an aside, if you would like to reduce your carbon footprint, you can plant a tree – Trees For Life.
Or use Bulb as your energy supplier, as I do at home – Quote For Renewable Energy At Home.
So I hope if you live in Chelmsford you will consider having your topiary composition Brought By Bike. To see more of my topiary work go here, or get in touch and we can chat about how I could help you.
Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue
With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …
Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December
An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …