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….)
10 Years Of Modern Mint
On Valentine’s day this year (2024) Modern Mint, the company I started when I moved to Essex to explore a fresh, contemporary approach to gardening, will be 10 years old. The cliche is time flies… but it does! So much has happened in a decade, from studying topiary with Charlotte Molesworth, to clipping all over the UK (and eventually in the USA and Sweden) to selling shears and secateurs at garden shows and hiding away my reticence to give talks about gardening and topiary to Horticultural Societies across the UK. Ten years feels a good time to mark a new …
Garden Masterclass Trailer – The Modern Topiarist
In 2022 I did a free video for Garden Masterclass, the Annie Guilfoyle and Noel Kingsley run website that is a treasure trove of the great and good of the horticultural world – well worth looking through all the wonderful talks they have available, like meadow-maker James Hitchmough or nurserywoman Rosy Hardy. They are certainly inspirational! Perfect for watching and dreaming up new ideas during the winter months… As a follow-up to my Topiary Provocations video (which you can see on Youtube for free) I was asked to do a video for their Masterclass series on how to make topiary. …
Charlotte Molesworth’s Garden In The FT
The lovely garden of my mentor Charlotte Molesworth is featured here in the Financial Times in the last week or so… She has been interviewed lots of times but I thought this was a particularly great piece, with some photos done at unusual angles and different parts… so well worth a read. For more on topiary by Charlotte Molesworth…