7 Rules For Modern Topiary: A Manifesto

1. Deploy 4 simple tools – shears, secateurs, a pruning saw and string
2. Experiment with native plants – oak, hawthorn, birch all make fine topiaries…
3. Seek friction – limit yourself to clipping for no longer than 10 minutes, or just once a year, or only crafting a topiary as tall as you can reach…
4. Make for the next generation – give them a landscape to enjoy
5. Compost arisings – or pile them up to capture carbon
6. Don’t design on paper – surprise yourself by working with your hands
7. The form is a suggestion – individual imagination labels the shape

I wrote this manifesto to remind myself of the values I cherish when composing topiary. 

To work lightly, by instinct and in 4-D so that when I retire I will have left behind a body of work that has brought joy to people and improved the expectation we have of our ‘green architecture’.

I encourage you to bend and break these rules, of course. But perhaps they will give you a framework from which to begin composing a new shape on an old shrub in your garden.