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 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 …
Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue
With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …
Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December
An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …