THE MODERN MINT BLOG
It’s that time again, mild panic starts setting in … Christmas gift shopping time! You want to get something good, and not a standard gift you can get on the high street. You want something a little different, something that looks like you’ve put some effort in!! Modern Mint is here to help you with our countdown to the top 10 gifts for garden lovers that are slightly unusual.
At number 10 is a perfect stocking filler – seedballs! Small and in a beautiful designed tin. These come in 5 different varieties, from £4.50. If you want to bulk buy for a corporate gift or you have a lot of friends emails us on shop@modernmint.co.uk for a bulk buy option!
Number 9 The bronze look is everywhere at the moment for interior trends, but why not for the garden also? The Castor trowel at £32 and Nunki weeder at £27 are great looking tools. But there is more to them than their beauty, there is logic behind the use of bronze and cooper in gardening tools. Experiments carried out after the Second World War by an Austrian named Viktor Schauberger showed when used on the land, there was a marked improvement in productivity.
Number 8 Know someone who loves the scandi-cool look? Then go for the Nordeck chair … its sleek design speaks for itself. Prices start at £122.
Number 7 The Mouillere Overshoe (£39.99) from our friends in France. Luc who invented the shoe is the best person to tell us about his shoe – check out this video!
Number 6 Know a keen cook but not such a great gardener? A Grow Your Own Pizza Kit (£11.99) is the perfect addition to the window sill. 
Number 5 Do you know a stud muffin or a queen bee (or perhaps a fun guy)?
Number 3 A reminder of a recent holiday to Thailand? A hint that you like a good pad thai or green curry? Introducing the Thai Curry Plant Gift Set (£46)!
Number 2 Low maintenance and beautiful to look at. These terrariums come in a range of styles and even some seasonal baubles … bit different than tinsel don’t you think?
And our Number 1 is … the giant bean bag! Its come in an array of great colours. Perfect as extra seating when the house gets full and in the summer great for sunbathing on!
Head to the Modern Mint Shop for many more gift ideas!
EBTS Boxwood Growers Forum
Through the European Boxwood and Topiary Society I worked with Chris Poole and Sue Mesher, members of the EBTS board, and we set up a Boxwood Growers Forum. This was to discuss how to make sure this wonderful topiary plant stays in the public conscioussness – we know many growers, suppliers and distributors have stopped selling it as the cost of replacing boxwood that has blight, or is nibbled by the boxwood caterpillar, makes it unviable to offer to clients and gardeners. But Boxwood is a phoenix plant, and there are ways to deal with the problems associated with Buxus. …
Modern Topiarist @ Garden Masterclass Poland
My video on Modern Topiary for Garden Masterclass has been translated into Polish, for the keen gardeners (and happy pruners!) of Garedn Masterclass in Poland. Tickets for the first showing and q and a were available here. But it will become available on the Garden Masterclass Poland website at some point in the near future – so if you are a keen clipper and want to know more, but speak Polish and not English, then I suggest you visit the website and get watching. (Of course, if you don’t speak English, you may not be able to read this…. hmmm… …
Topiary Hotline
The European Boxwood & Topiary Society are to run a Topiary Hotline for keen gardeners and people who love to clip. Date is tomorrow, April 16th 2024, and you can get a ticket for the Zoom meeting here – Topiary Hotline. Run by Chris Poole and myself, we set this up as an antidote to the huge amount of questions we have to answer about topiary throughout the summer. The plus is that their is an excitement around topiary and pruning. The problem is we need to help people in a better way… … so we will be giving people …