THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Woodpeckers, Essex, NGS
We visited the 1 1/2 acre garden Woodpeckers at Burnham on Crouch over the last bank holiday weekend. It felt like …
Vulnerability
We have spoken of how gardening can teach us about having the confidence to fail, and we would like to continue to explore these themes. Because gardening can be the catalyst for something even stronger – the ability to be vulnerable. Every time a designer expresses their idea to a client, they open themselves to ridicule. But this is the job of the professional designer, to express what could be. Or those people who work so hard to open up their gardens to visitors in order to raise money for charity. They are doing the same thing, expressing the ideas they have about …
Furzelea, Essex, NGS
Today Modern Mint visited another garden in Essex that was open for the NGS (last week was Ulting Wick.) The garden is designed and looked after by owner of the house Avril and her husband, who nowadays is chief pruner – for example, on this lovely yew ‘blob’… how we love to see shapes like these (especially next to a wilder or more chaotic planting…!) Imagine cloud pruning this (yew is forgiving, should you get it wrong!) What a fun days work, a physical and mental exercise, training your patience and your creative eye… if the shears you used for cloud pruning …
Ulting Wick Garden, Essex, NGS
The National Gardens Scheme is well underway for 2014. Yesterday we saw the garden at Ulting Wick in Essex, owned by Phillipa Burrough and run by herself and full-time gardener Neil. This garden has been featured in Gardens Illustrated, and is renowned locally for the exuberant display of tulips in the spring. It was a real pleasure to walk around and superbly cared for – Phillipa herself was a pocket rocket dashing around with the lawnmower preparing for the big open day on Sunday 27th April. If you are free, do head to this part of Essex and take your …