THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Modern Mint Shop
Modern Mint Garden Design has been up and running for almost 8 months now. As well as Garden Design services we also want Modern Mint to be a place to go to for interesting articles, garden knowledge AND we want to share with you in our shop products we love – products that are unusual, fun, sustainable and beautiful.
We want to promote people and organisations that produce items based on their own individual creativity (check out this great arm chair),
locally sourced or artisanal products (this from the potteries in Stoke on Trent, mugs to make you laugh),
… and an ingenious way to use up unpopular wool that would otherwise be heading for the bin (wool wellie warmers!)
Take a look and let us know what you think, more items are going up every day on the shop as we start to build up our collection of goods.
And if you MAKE any unusual products and would like to include them in our shop please do get in touch!
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….! …
ClipFest 2025
On Sunday June 22nd there will be Clipfest 2025 at Ichi-Coo Park in Surrey. It is a celebration of all things pruning and topiary, and I will be there in my capacity of teacher at the European Boxwood and Topiary Society to demonstrate tool cleaning and sharpening, and how to clip. Tickets can be found here on Eventbrite. We are hoping for great weather and to see lots of keen pruners getting their shears out and joining us at this amazing garden! And for more on topiary…
Secateur Holders
A present arrived from Norway today, from a student who visited last February to work with Chris Poole and I on learning topiary. His new hobby – a beautiful and neatly stitched secateur holder. Thrilled with this! The holder will save me keep losing my secatuers too…! Thank you Bernt! It was the same student who introduced me to the APA with whom I am doing a talk at the end of March. Tickets can be bought here for ‘Defining The Essence – Aesthetic Pruning in the Garden’. Do join the European Boxwood and Topiary Society for that!