THE MODERN MINT BLOG
“Compost-making doesn’t need to be hard work, costs almost nothing, and the only secret ingredient you need is patience.”
Ken Thompson, botanist and author of Compost.
Run by Garden Organic, International Compost Awareness Week aims to help people who don’t compost learn how to do it.
Join a compost group for International Compost Awareness Week.
For a really quick guide on how to compost, here it is:
Take something that can rot. Put it into a pile outside with other materials that have the ability to rot. Leave it there (as Ken Thompson said in the quote above, ‘patience is the secret ingredient!) Eventually, if you leave it long enough, you will have compost.
Not so hard to do, is it?
Why is it fantastic to make compost?
It is great for your garden. Compost is made from the plant material that you take away from the garden in the form of prunings, grass clippings, flowers and leaves.
By recycling them on a compost heap you are turning them from material you don’t want into something that a plant can make use of. It will give plants valuable nutrients to help them grow, help retain moisture and warmth in the ground and will reduce weed growth by covering bare soil, so stopping weeds germinating.
That is why compost is known as ‘black gold’ because it is so precious in the garden. The best gardener will tell you she never has enough!
Three actions you can take to reduce your impact on the world are the following:
- Compost
- Grow vegetables (for which you will need compost!)
- Plant a tree
Notice what is top of the list?
We hope you will support International Compost Awareness Week. If you have more questions about compost and how to do it, there are some fantastic resources out there. Do check out the following links…
More On How To Make Compost
Garden Organic – What Can I Compost?
Modern Mint – Compost = Place Together
Green Action Centre – Why Should I Compost?
Garden Organic – Composting Myths (highly recommended!)
Ken Thompson – Compost
Modern Mint – Seed Sowing Compost
International Compost Awareness week runs until this weekend. If you have further questions on how to compost, please contact Modern Mint and we will be happy to help.
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …
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 …