THE MODERN MINT BLOG
James Van Sweden
This video is of Monty Don talking to the late garden designer James Van Sweden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpn08JoNFFQ He was known, in …
Family Garden Ideas
Here are more family garden ideas for those with children who want to know how they can improve their garden. This is a follow-up to a post we wrote a few days ago (and which opened up a lot of discussion) on Child Friendly Gardens. The most important design idea is to have a place where you can relax and they can play. This could be a good-sized terrace to sit on with a comfy chair, while they have a space specifically for them within eyesight and easy reach. Think about what garden furniture you get too – not too …
Child Friendly Garden Ideas
Want a child friendly garden? Don’t know where to start? As many of our friends are now having children, we began wondering how to create a garden that places more emphasis on what they need, rather than us adults. We visited a community orchard at the weekend and the boys and girls (aged between 6 and 10) were playing ‘it’ around the trees and through the long grass and wildflowers… it was incredibly funny watching them, because they ran around with all the energy in the world while the butterflies (and there were many) swooped along beside them as if joining in! We …
Low Maintenance Garden Ideas
Here are some low maintenance garden ideas for busy people… 1) Design well. For example, don’t do this… Or this… You will spend an age having to drag the mower around awkward corners (straining your back and shoulders while you do so) and then having to strim against walls where the mower blades don’t reach… or worse yet, you leave the grassy tufts, just like in the picture above (and we often see this when we go and meet a client.) Cutting the grass is the most time-consuming and labour intensive job of the summer. Remove all that grief and get yourself …