THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Garden Design Trends
At the start of the year Gardens Illustrated gave over a few pages to garden designers to say what they …
Gardening Jobs August
What are the gardening jobs to do in August? 1) Make hay while the sun shines (you can always do this by scything…) 2) Prune wisteria. 3) Deadhead your dahlias. 4) Be water-wise (don’t water your lawn, use harvested rainwater instead of tap water. If you haven’t harvested any rainwater, try somewhere like Harrod Horticultural for ideas.) 5) Start thinking about ordering bulbs for planting in Autumn – we are doing a garden design in Upminster, Essex at the moment and will be adding lots of daffodils – cannot wait! 6) Use up your courgettes – put them in chocolate cake, barbeque them, …
Essex Bees (Part 3)
In part 3 of our interview with Richard of Essex Bees, he offers us reasons for growing your own food. You can check out part 2 ‘downshifting’, while the section of interview about bees and how he started as a beekeeper can be read here in part 1. Definitely worth your full attention! Why grow your own food? Next time you sit down to a meal, look at the packaging to see where everything came from – it will improve your knowledge of world geography! Eating seasonally and with locally produced, non-processed produce is arguably better for you and also supports local businesses. …
Essex Bees Interview (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our interview with Essex Bees (here is Part One) Richard tells us about his interest in Permaculture and, with great alacrity, how you too can ‘downshift’ your life. Where did you learn about Permaculture? I first read about Permaculture in a magazine article. Looking into it further I found that it supports an ecological balance between people and their environment, it tries to create a sustainable life support system for the planet, and suggests action after observation – i.e. think about what you’re doing and don’t ride roughshod over everything else to achieve your interpretation of …