THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Jun10

Brought By Bike – Topiary Making

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…

 

topiary swirltools recommend

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.

Jan28

Monty Don British Gardens Episode 4

I hadn’t seen the new Monty Don series ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’ but I was sent a message one evening to say stick it on – episode 4 especially! On the episode were three gardens I make and clip the topiary in… the photo above is my quizzical boxwood emu… which looks ridiculous out of context of the wider topiary garden it sits in… but hey! Showcases what you can do with boxwood, when given enough time to let it grow! But also on the episode were Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens and a place I teach topiary …

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Nov01

Topiary Art In Hong Kong, The Henderson

Here are a couple of photos of the topiary work I have been doing in Hong Kong for the Art Garden at the bottom of the brand new skyscraper, The Henderson. The building has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and this November 2024 the garden at the base of the structure will be planted up, with lots of topiary originally designed by Gillespies Landscape Architects, grown by Tarzan Nursery in China, and then clipped and refined into shape by…. me. Will update with photos from The Henderson Art Garden when all is completed and the garden is opened, but …

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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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