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!
Monty Don British Gardens Episode 4
I hadn’t seen the new Monty Don series ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’ but I was sent a message one evening to say stick it on – episode 4 especially! On the episode were three gardens I make and clip the topiary in… the photo above is my quizzical boxwood emu… which looks ridiculous out of context of the wider topiary garden it sits in… but hey! Showcases what you can do with boxwood, when given enough time to let it grow! But also on the episode were Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens and a place I teach topiary …
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 …
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. …