THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Grown-up Gardening
The comic below is called Grown-ups. We share it with you because it tells us something important about being a Modern Gardener – more important by far than learning Latin plant names (though they are important) and saving water (that is necessary too!)
This comic shows us that as a gardener, a Modern Gardener, we have a responsibility to the space we call our home. We get to decide how to use it, what we put in it, the way we interact with the flora and fauna that we share it with.
As a Modern Gardener, as a grown-up, we decide how we treat the earth. This comic reminds us it is attitude and imagination that matters, that makes life exciting, that makes our homes and our gardens a wonderful place to be – far more than learning to ‘get something right and garden properly’ will ever do.
Don’t be childish. Be a grown-up.
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 …
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 …
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, …