THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Jan15

What Is Happening At Modern Mint January 2015?

Happy New Year from Darren and Chloe at Modern Mint!

Modern Mint will be turning 1 next month and what a busy year it has been…

… we have designed gardens, sown meadows, written nearly 200 blog posts, took part in the Chelsea Fringe, performed a new garden show called ‘What Do You Do With This Space?’ and started an online shop to showcase the best in artisan talent – furniture makers, tool makers, soap makers – we are seeking them out and sharing them with you!

Excited?

Absolutely.

Garden Design

With 5 designs on the go at the moment, and 2 meadows taking shape, we have a busy spring this year. And already the phone has been going for more work! So do get in quick if you need help and ideas with your garden this year.

Here are our major projects currently on the go:

A large garden in Upminster, Essex.

A small, private garden in North London.

A large garden in Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.

Phase two of a large, private garden in Gidea Park, Essex.

Phase two of a meadow in Gidea Park, Essex.

Phase two of a meadow in Grove Park, London.

Organic Topiary

We also have our new shears coming this weekend, to help us with our Organic Topiary work in 2015 – we have been asked to sculpt a number of hedges and trees to give them a more dynamic look.

Cloud pruning 1

If you want to know more about this new form of topiary, check out these blog posts:

The Art of Creative Pruning

Creative Pruning

Or better yet, send us a message. We’d love to tell you why Organic Topiary has such cutting edge style (hehehe…)

Shop

Terrarium

Our shop is a platform for us to share with you the products we love – products that are sustainably sourced, hand-made, beautifully crafted, and support the idiosyncratic voices of the artisans who make them.

They are products for the home and the garden, and our list of suppliers is growing all the time.

If you know someone who is, shall we say, a little different…? Please tell them about us! We want to hear from them. And you, of course – if you want a particualr product, of a high quality, and you just can’t find it on the High Street – let us know and we will seek it out for you.

See our shop to discover what we have already found in our first 3 months since opening…

Blog

Top 5 posts from 2014:

1) Contemporary Garden Design

2) Interview with Rosy Bee – Plants for Bees

3) 9 Ideas for a Cut Flower Business

4) Let Them Run Wild!

5) Dan Pearson’s Must-Have Plants

Chelsea Fringe

We are curating a book of manifestos answering the question – why do you cultivate your garden? Each manifesto is no more than 100 words. This is a call for authors and garden enthusiasts to share their ideas with us – come on, 100 words – you have that in you, right?

Find out more here Chelsea Fringe 2015 Modern Mint.

Do follow us on Twitter to find out more – and have a great 2015 everyone – from Darren and Chloe at Modern Mint!

Nov06

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 …

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Nov06

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 …

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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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