THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Oct11

Need A Talk For Your Garden Club Via Zoom?

Need a talk for your garden club? Via Zoom because of Covid-restrictions this winter?

Then I can help!

It is great you are trying to keep your club going, and though Zoom is not the same as getting a group together and talking about gardening live, of the moment, right now it is the best alternative we have got.

How I Do A Zoom Talk For Your Garden Club

I’m very happy to do Zoom talks and have moved about 20% online so far (from end of March 2020 to the start of October 2020) – although that number is growing in the last few weeks!

I did a talk on Thursday night for a group, who were using Zoom for their garden club for the first time… it felt a big step, and the committee had understandable nerves about if it would work… but we ended up having a great time…

Click here for their reaction.

Just so you know more about how a Zoom talk would work, I can:

  • Set up the meeting and send you the link to login the day before we start. You then circulate this amongst members who are attending.
  • Cost is £75.
  • Talks tend to be 45-55 minutes, with a following q and a. I try to use the benefits of Zoom rather than just copy a normal talk – so screen sharing, polling, reactions and discussion are all thrown into the mix.
  • At the start I go through how it all works so anyone new to Zoom can get a feel for it too – but so far all Zoom talks I’ve done have been great fun.

If you feel you need a little more help beforehand, I am happy to book a 15 minute practise with a few members or your committee, for an additional £15.

This can be done anytime before the talk, to go through how it will all work, get a feel for polling and reactions etc… and anwer any questions you may have. This may well be useful for you in helping to make sure your group has a fantastic experience and wants to continue.

The 5 talks I have so far adapted for Zoom are:

A Very British Garden – about compost making, dealing with slugs, great plants for your borders and no-dig vegetable growing.

Clippings – about how to prune, roses, wisteria, fruit trees, shrubs and topiary.

Helping The Honeybee – about the best plants for bees.

What Do I Do With This Space – sharing good ideas for your garden about reducing maintenance, stopping plants being eaten and choosing native species.

Diluted – how we use water in the garden, wisely and… not so!

I have more talks planned on further topics when the topiary season finishes for me, and time becomes a little freer…

Any questions do please contact me. But I hope this helps and that we get to meet in person one day, but certainly via Zoom at your garden club if that continues to be impossible for the near future!

Contact Darren Now.

 

 

 

Oct29

The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus

Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …

READ MORE

Oct29

Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026

With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …

READ MORE

Aug04

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 …

READ MORE