THE MODERN MINT BLOG
UPDATE: I STILL TEACH TOPIARY COMPOSITION, BUT AM GOING TO MAKE A VIDEO OF THE CLASS TO ALLOW MORE PEOPLE TO VIEW IT – FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK OUT THE TEACHING PAGE!
Topiary Composition and design is a major part of my work – which is why I have created an online seminar for keen gardeners and creatives to learn how to compose a piece of topiary.
There are several dates available so please head here to buy a ticket.
The seminar lasts two hours (including q and a) and will explore the process needed to look at a shrub or hedge and work out what you can design from it.
These principles have been learnt the hard way – through mentoring, experimenting and years of practise.
Hopefully, it will help you shortcut any mistake and get you to a wonderful piece of topiary in no time – and not be too back-breaking to maintain!
Do join me for my topiary composition seminar.
I have been a topiary artist for a long time – you can see my work here in the Artisan Series in the Guardian newspaper or some of my basic work on the website here.
I also teach topiary and pruning at many places including the European Boxwood and Topiary Society and The English Gardening School.
Most topiary I am asked to make is either quite dull, or based on historical shapes that are fiddly and difficult to maintain. I want, through this topiary seminar, to give you the skills to update your hedges and shrubs to a modern way of gardening – easy to maintain, light, full of life and possibly even a ggod home for birds, or a provider of nectar filled flowers for bees.
This means choosing the right plants, giving them time to grow and evolve, and placing the right plants around it to show it off.
Often with topiary less can be more, so you will (if you join the seminar) be given real world examples and the htought process of how I made it – and why.
I want you to go away inspired, with a better understanding of what makes a good topiary and how it fits into a modern garden.
Join me if you are a gardener or a creative person on one of the days here, online, for a topiary composition seminar!
Or check out my topiary work here.
Why I Wrote The Book Modern Topiary
I have written this book, Modern Topiary, because I wanted a collation of useful information that would give people access to everything they need to know in order to start making topiary. Topiary is an amazing (and niche) line of work to follow – amazing because it offers up opportunities to travel all over the world, making gardens, meeting people… but also, the work is intensely physical, hands-on, yet requires creative thinking in order to solve the puzzle of how to make the shapes you want. This mixture of the craft and the art is what I love the most …
Buxus the Norfolk Terrier In Modern Topiary Book
This is Buxus, our Norfolk Terrier, who I acknowledge in the acknowledgments of the book of Modern Topiary. The book of Modern Topiary can be read, for free, here. There you go. Buxus the dog on ‘doorstep duty’ at a friend’s house in Edinburgh. For those asking what he looked like!
What People Think Of Modern Topiary, The Book
Yesterday I put out the book – Modern Topiary – that I have spent the last six years writing. Download for free a pdf of Modern Topiary here. And what seems amazing to me, is that not only have people actually been reading it, but then responding to it. So below are a number of comments I have been sent from those who read it last night, and this morning…. “Brilliant read, exactly the right amount of info to take in and digest.” Rachel, a gardener “I love your book, the advice is so straightforward and your writing is so …