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.

 

 

 

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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 …

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Apr14

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….! …

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