THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Garden Design App
If you google ‘Garden Design App’ a few options turn up. One for the I-Pad offers to help you create your perfect garden, and tells us it is easy to use. It offers choices of trees, plants, pavings, lawns… oh gosh, everything… but never once mentions logistical issues like soil amplitude, seasonal dynamics, companion plants or the effect of wind and rain on plant growth.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t good, but what a ‘Garden Design App’ cannot do is the human work needed to create a garden.
By human work, we mean creating atmosphere. Inspiring the owner. Giving confidence to people who have never gardened before. Being able to answer questions in a gentle manner, when those questions are asked quietly for fear of being thought stupid.
This is what we at Modern Mint are trying to do – be human.
That way we make the garden you want. Rather than just be an App.
Call us now to speak about your garden… or check out these books, which are not a bad second option if you want to learn a little more about gardening (or being human…)
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….! …