THE MODERN MINT BLOG
The next topiary workshop I will be teaching is now live on the website and can be booked!
Just visit Waltham Place to get a ticket for the Topiary Workshop I will be teaching on Friday September 4th at Waltham Place. Myself and Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society (Buxus expert! Like, he knows everything there is to know about the plant! So worth booking just to tap into his knowledge….!) will be teaching here for the… fifth year in a row I think?
The garden is a beautiful place to spend time clipping. We will teach you about technique, so you have a good foundation to work from back at home or in gardens you work in. Then we will look at the tools you need, the plants you are likely to work with… and some you might just covet! And finally we will look at design and the shapes that are possible to make.
This is a practical course, you will be clipping. A lot. And different things. But it is lots of fun – short, sharp (tools) and intense. Places go fast so do get onto Waltham Place and book a spot soon.
Buxus, my Norfolk Terrier, came with me to work on the hedges last year. He had the most amazing time running through exploring the garden. I don’t expect you to do quite the same if I meet you on the course, but it will certainly be an informative and fun day.
If you need one-to-one teaching or for a private group, perhaps as part of training for staff or just to improve the garden you are in, then please do look at my teaching page for more information too.
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 …