THE MODERN MINT BLOG
In May please do join me at The Madoo Conservancy in The Hamptons, New York.
It is the garden of the late painter Robert Dash, and I will be teaching a couple of workshops there on Modern Topiary.
If you are in New York in May, or know someone who would love to learn, take a look at available tickets.
If Madoo and New York are, you know, a tad too far, then I will also be sharing topiary techniques via Zoom on Thursday 12th May. The joy of Zoom meaning you can join me in the garden from wherever you happen to be in the world.
This Zoom seminar takes place on World Topiary Day… significant, yes?
See ticket availability for the Zoom workshop from Madoo.
The garden, designed and cultivated by Robert Dash and now overseen by Alejandro Saralegui, is renowned for having English bones, American flesh.
For more about my topiary work, or how I teach, take a look around the website…
Or book that ticket to Madoo?
Modern Topiary, the Book, at Garden Media Guild
My book about topiary, Modern Topiary, has been mentioned on the Garden Media Guild newsletter…. As the screenshot says, the book can be read for free online here. At the bottom of the screenshot, it looks like another Garden Media Guild member has a book out called ‘A Year In A Cottage Garden’…. so if that is where your garden heart lies, check that out too! And at the top of the screenshot, it looks like I was listening to Pelleas et Melisande, by Debussy. What a classy chap I am, listening to classical music as I reply to emails. …
Start of the Whitby Topiary Library
I have been offered a space here in the centre of Whitby, south-facing aspect, with some raised beds in, so that I can make a Topiary Library. In my head, a topiary library is a place to showcase the common (and then not so common) shapes you can make out of topiary. With classical topiary plants, as well as some more unusual pieces. This Topiary Library can act as a reference for people to learn more about pruning and clipping. The space is small but the aspect is great and the beds are deep enough to put some plants in. …
Delivery After Dark – From the Makers of The Amelia Project
Last week I spent most nights stood in cold water streams on the moors of North Yorkshire, helping to film a new project called Delivery After Dark from the makers of the Amelia Project. I worked on the Amelia Project back at the end of 2024, lending my terrible vocal talents to a small part in the episode Didius Julianus. But this project is something new – and exciting! – and thankfully only needed me to be filmed, rather than to actually say anything. But not only did I have to stand in cold moving water at midnight, I also …