THE MODERN MINT BLOG
This video is a Ted Talk by Ron Finley, a guerilla gardener in LA. (For those of you who want to know more about guerilla gardening, try this blog post we wrote last year about Richard Reynolds, London’s own guerilla gardener…!)
A friend sent it to us to watch (we had never heard of Ron Finley before but he is a lovely speaker to watch and listen to) and, in the email our friend sent the link in, he described his favourite part of this video. It was Ron Finley saying this:
“Gardening is the most therapeautic and defiant act you can do. Plus you get strawberries.”
Brilliant yes?
For us, the most important part of his speech is this:
“I’m an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. I grow my art.”
We love this idea, to make your work a piece of art, so that you do it with attention and love. This is a fantastic Ted Talk, with many standout moments… do take ten minutes to watch, enjoy… and make your garden your art.
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 …
The Henderson, Topiary Art Interview on Instagram
In a suit… eek! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Henderson (@thehenderson_hk)
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….! …