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.
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …
Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026
With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …
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 …