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.
Start of the Whitby Topiary Library
I have been offered a space here in the centre of Whitby, south-facing aspect, with some raised beds in, so that I can make a Topiary Library. In my head, a topiary library is a place to showcase the common (and then not so common) shapes you can make out of topiary. With classical topiary plants, as well as some more unusual pieces. This Topiary Library can act as a reference for people to learn more about pruning and clipping. The space is small but the aspect is great and the beds are deep enough to put some plants in. …
Delivery After Dark – From the Makers of The Amelia Project
Last week I spent most nights stood in cold water streams on the moors of North Yorkshire, helping to film a new project called Delivery After Dark from the makers of the Amelia Project. I worked on the Amelia Project back at the end of 2024, lending my terrible vocal talents to a small part in the episode Didius Julianus. But this project is something new – and exciting! – and thankfully only needed me to be filmed, rather than to actually say anything. But not only did I have to stand in cold moving water at midnight, I also …
Modern Topiary (The Book) – Message From Lady Clippers, And Others!
My topiary book – Modern Topiary – has recently been put out as a PDF, which can be read for free. (Have a look here to download and read/share it!) Then last week I received a lovely email from Ann Perkowski of Lady Clippers, who are topiary and pruning specialists in New York (Ann is a brilliant pruning teacher too, who teaches at New York Botanical Garden… check out her work and Lady Clippers website.) Hi Darren, I had to write you how much I love reading your Modern Topiary. I’m not sure I’ll ever be quite done with it because I’m …