THE MODERN MINT BLOG
So here we have a new programme – All Gardens Great And Small – with the comedienne Miranda Hart and her gardening mother, Dee Hart-Dyke.
You can watch the first episode here on More4.
And here we are with our tools out, soaking up the sunshine on the day of filming.
But why would you watch All Gardens Great And Small? Why especially this first episode?
Because you can see the wonderful work of our friend, topiary artist Charlotte Molesworth, and get a rare glimpse into her extraordinary topiary garden. She is the first garden visited by Miranda Hart’s mum, and it looks fabulous.
It should do, because we spent blooming ages through spring helping her clip and prune the hedges, trees and topiaries. We also helped weed through the exceptional flower borders that Charlotte and her husband Donald have been tending, caring for and cultivating over the last 33 years. (You even see Charlotte holding her preferred gardening trowel, which she got from us here at Modern Mint….)
It was incredibly fortunate that on the day of filming the sun shone bright, as it meant not only did Dee Hart-Dyke get a chance to really look around the garden but also had an opportunity to try out some pruning, with Charlotte teaching her how to make a topiary bird.
The boxwood plant used on the show was one Charlotte had grown herself, from a cutting she took years previously. Digging it out from her boxwood nursery was a job left to Modern Mint back in early spring…
Please do take a look at All Gardens Great And Small with Miranda Hart and her mum – it is, of course, an innuendo-laden programme – but they have done a great job seeking out some unusual places to visit and share with you.
And we are of course so proud to have been involved in making the first garden of the series such a visually arresting and fun one.
If you would like Charlotte Molesworth and Modern Mint to help you with some topiary, we travel all across the UK (and recently into mainland Europe!) to clip, cut,a dive and design.
Here is a design done for a client in Kent, of topiary ducks sat looking into a pond…
So do watch contact us to start a conversation about the topiary in your garden.
(Or buy yourself a pair of these shears, the ones used by Charlotte in the programme, and get started at home….)
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….! …