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…

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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Oct29

Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026

With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …

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Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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