THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Oct26

Manifesto for the Modern Gardener

Why Write A Manifesto For The Modern Gardener?

A manifesto? For the gardener or garden owner working today?

The modern world looks the way it does for a reason – it is shaped by humans for the resources they need, to provide us with the lives we have.

To get people discovering how the materials they wear, the foods they eat and the furniture they sit on all comes via the landscape is so important that I suggest gardening must be compulsory for everyone at school.

Absolutely everyone.

gardening manifesto

Planting the seeds of passion for gardening and plants, upscaling the knowledge of the inexperienced and firing the imaginations of those already in love with the land will help us liberate the world from consuming so many finite resources.

A realisation that we are all connected, that what we do one day will have consequences the next and the capability of gardening to teach us this truth may also help people learn to value thoughtfulness and empathy above aggression and domination.

This new attitude may even lead to thoughts of equality right across the board.

This is revolution talk, and so we were inspired to write a Manifesto for the Modern Gardener.

Manifesto for the Modern Gardener

Do you know what amazing act happened right after we published this? That we got a number of replies from people who wanted to capture their own thoughts on what it is to be a Modern Gaardener, who wanted to share a manifesto for how we treat the world.

Amazing.

Introducing More Manifestos For The Modern Gardener

Here is the flower grower and florist Carole Patilla’s manifesto for the Modern Gardener:

Manifesto Tuckshop Flowers

And Here Is Another Manifesto (Or Four!)

Before John Walker, the earth-friendly gardener, followed up his first thoughts with this…

It was fascinating to hear all these voices speak up about gardening, about what modern gardening could  and should be.

Would Your Manifesto For The Modern Gardener Be Organic Focussed?

The joy for us is in the fact they are so organic-centric – their is a strong message here about gardening, that organic is best practise and the cultural norm for 2015. (It was the cultural norm not that long ago either, before 1940, to be fair…)

We are so pleased about the response we received to our manifesto – it shows the community of gardeners out there in the UK who are using their wits and smarts and voices to let people know about the world and how gardening relates so very heavily to it – our gardens and landscapes are, after all, the places we get the materials we are wearing, the food on our plates and the furniture in our homes.

Do you have a manifesto on Modern Gardening for me?

Or are you more a modern topiary maker?

Or do you just like to plant trees?

Aug04

Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones

I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …

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Apr14

Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson

The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …

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