THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Nov17

Bird Feeder

Bird Feeder

 

Heartened and cheered to discover the British public love to help the birds!

We discovered these bird feeders recently and thought – you know what, we need to give these a go. They are remanufactured from black plastic plant pots, the ones you get in every single damn nursery, shop, hardware store and garden centre going… the same ones that cannot be recycled.

You only have two options with where to get rid of them when you have removed your plant from the pot – either reuse the pot until it breaks, or send it to be crushed up for landfill.

Which is why these bird feeders are so amazing – they take these pots that would normally go to landfill and turn them into something useful!

And because they are plastic they are robust enough to cope with a British winter. And they look great. What more do you need?

As we said, we thought – let’s give these a go and see if anyone else thinks they are brilliant. The feedback we have received has been magnificent – we sold out in the second week!

We now have a few more in stock but they are going fast so please please please you wonderful British public who are so keen to help wildlife – get your recycled bird feeders right now, or you may miss out.

The picture we have shows the birds eating an apple – we prefer raspberries threaded onto the metal spike, and we think the birds probably do as well…

If you need more ideas about what to feed the birds, we also have this fabulous bird cake kit to show you…

Bird cake kit

Basically, you get this bird feeder (the picture shows you the blue one, but we also offer a red bird feeder) that is also recycled – from yoghurt pots!

Then with it comes the bird cake ingredients and the recipe instructions, plus a few more hints and tips about what to feed the birds in your garden. Educating you, getting hands on making a cake for birds (Mary Berry style?) and then doing something to encourage wildlife into your garden and keep it coming back for more… what a fantastic product.

All of that PLUS what we mentioned at the start – it keep plastic out of landfill – right on!

bird cake kit red

Do you bit for wildlife and get a bird feeder or bird cake kit this Autumn, or as a present for someone this Christmas – with these, we can all enjoy doing our bit…

Nov06

Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue

With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …

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Nov06

Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December

An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …

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Oct29

The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus

Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …

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