THE MODERN MINT BLOG
We are constantly encouraged to do a guide on ‘what to do in the garden in this month’ and, though valuable, you can find a list of jobs in just about any garden magazine or website you care to look at. They all say the same thing too, pretty much, so here at Modern Mint we wonder why we should bother adding to the vast sea of same old same old advice.
The baying for us to do a guide to jobs for the month continues to grow though, so we have bitten the bullet and decided to do it – our way…
Welcome then, to the Alternative Guide to Things to do in the Garden this Month:
1) Deadhead nothing.
Your new and shiny secateurs can wait a little longer for an outing, if you refuse to deadhead daffodils. It is a nice job, we admit, but ‘nice’ is the best way to describe it. It is ‘nice’ – not a WONDERFUL job.
2) Forget about putting plant supports in the borders.
This job can be tedious and is easily done badly. Let the plants go and do their thing! You might find your peonies prefer it… (our note: probably not though.)
3) Don’t mow your lawn.
Leave the mower in the shed, dusty and covered in cobwebs, and allow the grass to do what it really wants to do – grow up up up and flower! You never know, you might like the effect – or at least appreciate you don’t have to put so much work into the garden…
4) Release a lynx to stop deer eating your plants.
These deer eating cats will help reduce the population of ungulates that nibble on your garden plants. And what a romantic course of action to take, bringing something that wild back to the UK – just think how it will feel as you walk through the woods, knowing out there somewhere is an animal that can remind you humans are a part of the food chain too.
5) Sow a well-spaced row of seeds in your vegetable patch, to save thinning later on.
These alternative jobs do seem to be about reducing work, don’t they? Still, tally-ho! Perhaps it is because we once heard a Lithuanian theatre director say to his nervous young assistant – ‘Take it easy…. But take it all.’ Not sure what affect it had on the assistant but maybe it has influenced the way we garden more than we could ever have imagined…
6) Use an organic fertiliser to help your plants.
Leave the tubs you get from the garden centre alone, and try a liquid seaweed – it smells amazing (you can imagine it right?) and it gives a wonderful boost to plants, lawns and crops. We couldn’t live without it these days…
7) Have a cup of coffee in the warm, spring morning sunshine.
A pearler of an alternative, don’t you agree?
Hope these little nuggets of information from our alternative guide will help you in the garden this month.
Ciao for now!
Modern Topiary, the Book, at Garden Media Guild
My book about topiary, Modern Topiary, has been mentioned on the Garden Media Guild newsletter…. As the screenshot says, the book can be read for free online here. At the bottom of the screenshot, it looks like another Garden Media Guild member has a book out called ‘A Year In A Cottage Garden’…. so if that is where your garden heart lies, check that out too! And at the top of the screenshot, it looks like I was listening to Pelleas et Melisande, by Debussy. What a classy chap I am, listening to classical music as I reply to emails. …
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Delivery After Dark – From the Makers of The Amelia Project
Last week I spent most nights stood in cold water streams on the moors of North Yorkshire, helping to film a new project called Delivery After Dark from the makers of the Amelia Project. I worked on the Amelia Project back at the end of 2024, lending my terrible vocal talents to a small part in the episode Didius Julianus. But this project is something new – and exciting! – and thankfully only needed me to be filmed, rather than to actually say anything. But not only did I have to stand in cold moving water at midnight, I also …