THE MODERN MINT BLOG
I saw this a few months back.
Not exactly sure I know what to feel about it:
- Cutting during the growing season when birds and other wildlife are nesting.
- Having to do this each year, with the high carbon footprint attached to it, when it may be less environmentally damaging to cut down the trees close to the cables and replant more in a better, more open space?
- And then of course, there is the use of a freaking helicopter with a freaking rotating blade on a freaking swinging cable being arced around next to live POWER LINES!!!!!!!
I guess you either glory in man’s (and I would put money on it being a man that thought to do this) ability to conquer nature with machines.
Or you marvel at the quality of the flying and care taken by the pilot, whilst wondering if it is no more than finding a solution to a problem that could be designed away before the helicopter and the saw are even needed?
My instinct is to look closer at the latter.
For more on my topiary and pruning work, made far more gently with shears and secateurs, visit The Artisans series in the Guardian.
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …
The Henderson, Topiary Art Interview on Instagram
In a suit… eek! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Henderson (@thehenderson_hk)
Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson
The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …