THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Balmoral Cottage is the garden of my topiary mentor Charlotte Molesworth. She will be opening her garden in 2019 on the following dates:
- April 7th
- May 5th
- September 22nd
- September 29th
For the NGS Yellow Book. Highly recommend you visit as it is a fantastic garden, grown over 34 years and completely organic.
Dates are still to be confirmed for the South East Open Studios. But they will be open sometime in late spring to showcase Charlotte paintings, as well as sculptural work for the garden by other artists local to this part of Kent.
The Potting Shed Holiday Let, Benenden
You can also stay in The Potting Shed at her lovely garden, and discover from her first hand how it was made and is maintained. It is a brilliant little bolthole for a long weekend or week away, close to Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, Hole Park and of course – the sea!
Visit The Potting Shed Benenden for more details.
Charlotte is keen to be as green as possible, reducing her carbon footprint and making sure we allow garden life to survive and thrive. At Modern Mint, we have a similar ethos and have used a green energy supplier for a long time now.
Buying green energy is the simplest way to make a difference – almost as good as having a compost heap!
We use Bulb as out green energy supplier. We recommend you do too – if you sign up, we both get a financial benefit (alongside the moral one) and they do all the paperwork for you. They even pay any fees you may be charged for leaving your current supplier.
Find out more about using Green Energy and making a difference to the world in the simplest way possible.
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 …