THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Did You Know…
… Iceland is Europe’s largest producer of bananas. Solanaceae (plants from the nightshade family) are known to produce alkaloids that …
The Bee Cause
(For some background on bees start here…) The Bee Cause is a campaign run by Friends of the Earth. They have helped the Government draw up a Bee Action Plan to help stop the decline of pollinating insects. Now, on the 16th April 2014, you are invited to feedback to the Government on how to make their Bee Action Plan even better. This is your chance to speak. To attend all you need to do is register using the workshop registration form which is near the bottom of the page here. Hope you can make it! To help grow plants for bees, …
Interested in big things, and happy in small ways…
It was Edith Wharton who wrote the words that give us the title of this post, and they seem to match well to the act of gardening. Gardening has the power to make you calmer and less stressed. Jokes about the National Health Service becoming the Natural Health Service are common – when you see a Doctor and all she prescribes is ‘go out, walk more, be less stressed and lose some weight’ but there is something to it – being outside in ‘nature’ is beneficial. There is prominent data collected on the health benefits of views of nature for those recovering from surgery, that patients recovered quicker, caused …
The Alternative to Mowing
Over the weekend we saw an advert for Artificial Lawn that claimed it was the ‘only alternative to mowing!’ Let us be serious – that is no more than marketing hype, and a lie. The first alternative to mowing that springs to our mind is… don’t mow. Really, keep it that simple, and don’t mow. Let the grass grow longer, flower and set seed… and see how the garden looks. You might be surprised by what grows when a lawnmower is not cutting the heads off a plant every week through the growing season – orchids have even been known to …