THE MODERN MINT BLOG
NGS Sissinghurst
Earlier in the year we visited Sissinghurst, when they opened for the NGS scheme at 6am on a Sunday morning. It was brilliant to be there so early and we had the chance to talk with new(ish) head gardener Troy Scott Smith about how they are trying to ‘revitalise Vita’.
The garden has changed a lot over the years, which is a good thing, but has lost a little of the ‘fine carelessness’ that drove the making of the garden. It is now the job of Troy and his team to bring a little of that chaos and looseness back to the planting, while also catering for the vast amount of visitors that go each year (around 200,000.)
We went to Sissinghurst for 6am in order to miss those crowds of people – we perhaps overestimated the appeal – not one other person arrived that early in the morning. You missed out. It was beautiful.
Do please visit on Monday 15th September and support the NGS.
Also, if you live in Essex and want to visit a garden, we recommend:
Ulting Wick on the 14th and 19th September.
Furzelea on the 10th September.
Woodpeckers on the 26th & 27th September.
They are, like Sissinghurst, all fantastic gardens.
To find out more about Sissinghurst, Sarah Raven recently released a book which we reviewed here – Vita Sackville-West: Creation of a Garden.
Happy garden visiting!
Topiary Workshop 2026 at Waltham Place
The next topiary workshop I will be teaching is now live on the website and can be booked! Just visit Waltham Place to get a ticket for the Topiary Workshop I will be teaching on Friday September 4th at Waltham Place. Myself and Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society (Buxus expert! Like, he knows everything there is to know about the plant! So worth booking just to tap into his knowledge….!) will be teaching here for the… fifth year in a row I think? The garden is a beautiful place to spend time clipping. We will teach …
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …