THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Best Gardening Hat
The photo above has a truly international flavour – an Italian wearing a Brazilian gardening hat!
Our very own Stefano posed for this shot last week in Chelmsford, Essex, surrounded by the beautiful flower heads of Stipa gigantea (a plant that has an exotic travelling history itself, being found growing wild in Southern Spain and into Morocco…)
He was wearing a new product we have here at Modern Mint – the eco-friendly gardening hat!
This is a product we discovered about 12 months ago when one of our lovely clients told us about it. He said it was durable, strong, kept off the sun and the rain and best of all it was a hat made from recycled materials!
We were thrilled with it so decided to spend the next year testing it out in all conditions, to see if this hat really was the product it appeared to be. Lo and behold, it passed all the tests and has now made it into the Modern Mint ranks.
Check out the eco-friendly gardening hat.
The hat is made from truck tarpaulins that have been used on cargo trucks running from the North to the South of Brazil, carrying the beans of the coffee you may have drunk this morning. These hats have seen it all – the sunshine, the rain, the red dust roads, giving them a look that no factory could ever hope to replicate.
Each hat is unique and tells a different story of its trucking life below the equator. They are built to last, and should keep the weather off of you here in Blighty!
The making of the hats is done with adult only labour in Brazil, and the employees work in good conditions and are paid a living wage. Which goes without saying, right?
We provide sizes for people with big heads, people with medium sized heads and people with small heads – do see the size guide for more information but you should be able to get a recycled hat that fits you!
We cherish our eco-friendly, recycled, strong and weather resistant gardening hat from Brazil – we hope you will enjoy it too.
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….! …
ClipFest 2025
On Sunday June 22nd there will be Clipfest 2025 at Ichi-Coo Park in Surrey. It is a celebration of all things pruning and topiary, and I will be there in my capacity of teacher at the European Boxwood and Topiary Society to demonstrate tool cleaning and sharpening, and how to clip. Tickets can be found here on Eventbrite. We are hoping for great weather and to see lots of keen pruners getting their shears out and joining us at this amazing garden! And for more on topiary…
Secateur Holders
A present arrived from Norway today, from a student who visited last February to work with Chris Poole and I on learning topiary. His new hobby – a beautiful and neatly stitched secateur holder. Thrilled with this! The holder will save me keep losing my secatuers too…! Thank you Bernt! It was the same student who introduced me to the APA with whom I am doing a talk at the end of March. Tickets can be bought here for ‘Defining The Essence – Aesthetic Pruning in the Garden’. Do join the European Boxwood and Topiary Society for that!