THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Feb23

Green Elements at The Quay Theatre, March 12th

In less than two weeks my brand new talk Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden In Extraordinary Times will be presented, for the first time ever, at the Quay Theatre in Sudbury.

The date is March 12th and the time will be 3pm.

See what the blurb says about the talk.


For those of you this kind of thing matters to, there is no 6 Nations rugby on that afternoon. So don’t panic, you won’t be missing out if you come to the Quay Theatre….


Greener Sudbury, a community group in the town who are committed to making the area a better place for wildlife, were the driving force behind me putting this talk together.

They wanted to find a fun way to give people the skills they need to make a garden that really zings – a garden filled with flowers, pollinators and the best tasting, freshest food you can imagine.

Oh, and could I teach people how to do that when their time is limited as well?

Of course I can. I have made a habit of it, through the garden consultations, tidies, topiaries and other work I have completed with Modern Mint over the last few years.

What Will Green Elements Be About Then?

Green Elements at the Quay Theatre on March 12th will consist of me, with a table full of interesting tools, food, flowers and other unusual garden paraphernalia.

I have delved into my experience of making gardens across the country to come up with the most important ‘green elements’ every garden should have. I will explain what they are, why your garden needs them and how you can look after them in the simplest possible way.

Some of these ‘Green Elements’ include:

  • Growing your own nutrient rich vegetables without doing any digging
  • Using plants and beautiful, natural fragrances for health benefits and to welcome people to your home
  • Creating amazing compost that won’t stink to the heavens nor attract rats
  • Dealing with a shady spot
  • Making the lawn into something you can be proud of
  • Getting flowers for pollinators all through the year
  • Tips for helping the birds to survive winter
  • How to prune, when to prune and what to do if you cut off the wrong branch…. or an arm
  • Which native plants really help bees
  • Making a border that looks fantastic and doesn’t leave you overwhelmed by the weeding
  • Techniques from gardeners around the world that will help you improve your soil, grow stronger plants and sequester carbon from the atmosphere
  • Choose the flowers to grow in your garden that will last a long time when cut for the house or a vase
  • Deal with slugs

If that isn’t enough (and it surely should be!) we will also let you know the horticultural secret that allows a farm in the UK to make the world’s best mozzarella, and if you are really lucky you may even get to taste some.*

(*You won’t be that lucky. It is too tasty and I won’t be sharing.)


Where and How Do I Get A Ticket?

Hope to see you, or a friend you have told about this talk, at the Quay Theatre on March 12th.

Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden In Extraordinary Times is going to be a lot of fun, so read more at the Quay Theatre ticket buying site.

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 …

READ MORE

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. …

READ MORE

Apr15

Modern Topiarist @ Garden Masterclass Poland

My video on Modern Topiary for Garden Masterclass has been translated into Polish, for the keen gardeners (and happy pruners!) of Garedn Masterclass in Poland. Tickets for the first showing and q and a were available here. But it will become available on the Garden Masterclass Poland website at some point in the near future – so if you are a keen clipper and want to know more, but speak Polish and not English, then I suggest you visit the website and get watching. (Of course, if you don’t speak English, you may not be able to read this…. hmmm… …

READ MORE