THE MODERN MINT BLOG
We hope to inspire you with these must-read books for wildlife gardening – make time for them, and enjoy!
1) Start simply with Chris Baines…
2) Enjoy the sharp wit of Henk Gerritsen…
Henk Gerritsen: Essay on Gardening
3) We have always been a fan of botanist Ken Thompson…
No Nettles Required: The Reassuring Truth About Wildlife Gardening
4) The lovely writing style of Val Bourne (along with her excellent knowledge) will inspire you…
The Natural Gardener: The Way We All Want to Garden
5) We read this from Pam Lewis in one sitting…
Sticky Wicket: Gardening in Tune with Nature
6) We don’t know this one yet , but we keep hearing the name of Keith Wiley and it all seems to be good…
On the Wild Side: Experiments in New Naturalism
We hope you enjoy these suggestions of books for wildlife friendly gardening! To find more, search Amazon from here…
Brought By Bike – Topiary Making
Brought By Bike is an excellent website I found last month, where businesses offer their services by (of course) bicycle. Modern Mint and my topiary work is now live on the site offering my topiary services, via bike, to the following two postcodes – CM1 CM2 Now I can imagine I will need to borrow a ladder should anyone have a larger shrub, but most town gardens in the Chelmsford area have a need not just for privacy but to let light into the house… so a balance must be struck when shaping hedges and shrubs to cover both needs. …
Transforming Topiary
Transforming Topiary – a video made for the European Boxwood And Topiary Society by Charlotte Molesworth and I, in her garden. We take a dog topiary and work out how to update it, turning it into a bird. Worth a watch I think, and hopefully useful to you! You can see more of my clipping on the topiary page. Or read my Spring 2021 Topiary Provocation here.
Phillyrea From 1682
Phillyrea is one of my favourite plants for topiary. I have been using it for quite a few years as a specimen shrub, mostly due to the fact it clips well and has a tough habit – all good characteristics for a topiary plant. It also has a reputation for being an excellent nectar source for bees… Read more about Phillyrea here. Mentioning this to Malcolm Thicke, a market garden historian and writer, he sent me a some photos of topiary and phillyrea mentioned by John Worlidge in Systema Horticulturae from 1682…. incredible! He also mentioned to me that in …