THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Permaculture Magazine
Do any of you read Permaculture Magazine? We have just found out about it and are very excited to see they not only sell lovely copper tools, but also have a fantastic website. On it you can:
Sign up to Permaculture courses.
Hear podcasts and watch videos about how people are changing the way they live to be more resilient and self-sustaining.
Find recipes for making use of plants and weeds you may not think about eating.
Get solutions for your own permaculture experiments.
(Oh, and you can of course buy the magazine….)
What is Permaculture?
“Permaculture is the design of an ecologically sound way of living.”
We thought this quote was beautiful and really inspires us to think about how we garden, work and live.
We hope you will take heart from this phrase and begin to question, then seek answers, for a way of life that suits both yourself and the world around you.
If you want to know more about gardening organically, try this blog: Manifesto for the Modern Gardener.
Topiary Teaching For 2026
A new year, so time to share a few thoughts on what I will be looking at doing with topiary, and the focus on teaching I would like to put in place, for 2026 and beyond. Above is Nandina, made by a student of ours from the European Boxwood and Topiary Society. She took a year to work on this, taking a plant not renowned for being a good topiary plant, but seeing what its weirdness is and what values it does have, then exploring and exploding those. I am thrilled by this. Not just this look for autumn. A …
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 …