THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Happy New Year from Darren and Chloe at Modern Mint!
Modern Mint will be turning 1 next month and what a busy year it has been…
… we have designed gardens, sown meadows, written nearly 200 blog posts, took part in the Chelsea Fringe, performed a new garden show called ‘What Do You Do With This Space?’ and started an online shop to showcase the best in artisan talent – furniture makers, tool makers, soap makers – we are seeking them out and sharing them with you!
Excited?
Absolutely.
Garden Design
With 5 designs on the go at the moment, and 2 meadows taking shape, we have a busy spring this year. And already the phone has been going for more work! So do get in quick if you need help and ideas with your garden this year.
Here are our major projects currently on the go:
A large garden in Upminster, Essex.
A small, private garden in North London.
A large garden in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
Phase two of a large, private garden in Gidea Park, Essex.
Phase two of a meadow in Gidea Park, Essex.
Phase two of a meadow in Grove Park, London.
Organic Topiary
We also have our new shears coming this weekend, to help us with our Organic Topiary work in 2015 – we have been asked to sculpt a number of hedges and trees to give them a more dynamic look.
If you want to know more about this new form of topiary, check out these blog posts:
Or better yet, send us a message. We’d love to tell you why Organic Topiary has such cutting edge style (hehehe…)
Shop
Our shop is a platform for us to share with you the products we love – products that are sustainably sourced, hand-made, beautifully crafted, and support the idiosyncratic voices of the artisans who make them.
They are products for the home and the garden, and our list of suppliers is growing all the time.
If you know someone who is, shall we say, a little different…? Please tell them about us! We want to hear from them. And you, of course – if you want a particualr product, of a high quality, and you just can’t find it on the High Street – let us know and we will seek it out for you.
See our shop to discover what we have already found in our first 3 months since opening…
Blog
Top 5 posts from 2014:
2) Interview with Rosy Bee – Plants for Bees
3) 9 Ideas for a Cut Flower Business
5) Dan Pearson’s Must-Have Plants
Chelsea Fringe
We are curating a book of manifestos answering the question – why do you cultivate your garden? Each manifesto is no more than 100 words. This is a call for authors and garden enthusiasts to share their ideas with us – come on, 100 words – you have that in you, right?
Find out more here Chelsea Fringe 2015 Modern Mint.
Do follow us on Twitter to find out more – and have a great 2015 everyone – from Darren and Chloe at Modern Mint!
Why I Wrote The Book Modern Topiary
I have written this book, Modern Topiary, because I wanted a collation of useful information that would give people access to everything they need to know in order to start making topiary. Topiary is an amazing (and niche) line of work to follow – amazing because it offers up opportunities to travel all over the world, making gardens, meeting people… but also, the work is intensely physical, hands-on, yet requires creative thinking in order to solve the puzzle of how to make the shapes you want. This mixture of the craft and the art is what I love the most …
Buxus the Norfolk Terrier In Modern Topiary Book
This is Buxus, our Norfolk Terrier, who I acknowledge in the acknowledgments of the book of Modern Topiary. The book of Modern Topiary can be read, for free, here. There you go. Buxus the dog on ‘doorstep duty’ at a friend’s house in Edinburgh. For those asking what he looked like!
What People Think Of Modern Topiary, The Book
Yesterday I put out the book – Modern Topiary – that I have spent the last six years writing. Download for free a pdf of Modern Topiary here. And what seems amazing to me, is that not only have people actually been reading it, but then responding to it. So below are a number of comments I have been sent from those who read it last night, and this morning…. “Brilliant read, exactly the right amount of info to take in and digest.” Rachel, a gardener “I love your book, the advice is so straightforward and your writing is so …