THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Nov02

Modern Mint at 300

 

Modern Mint Reaches 300 Blog Posts!

Less than 3 years since we started blogging at Modern Mint, we have reached our 300th blog post today, with this one! 300!

It has been a monumental effort by a few different people (Darren, quite a lot, Chloe, a fair bit, then some other fantastic garden writers too…)

There have been some amazing and incredibly useful posts along the way. Some awful ones too (hands up again Darren!) But it goes without saying that you need to throw yourself out there and do it, in order to find your voice.

And after 300 blog posts we think Modern Mint really has got its voice.

The First Blog at Modern Mint was a short little number. We started our days as a garden design outfit here in Chelmsford, Essex and that is reflected in the blog. The website was 5 pages wide. These pages consisted of:

  1. homepage
  2. about page
  3. contact page
  4. blog
  5. portfolio

The Modern Mint green was a lighter shade, rather than the little olive number we have now. Even the logo had a different tag line…

logo_02

The second stage of the Modern Mint blog was a call to arms for gardeners. We wrote extensively about best gardening practise and interviewed lots of wonderful people in the horticultural industry, who spoke passionately and with great clarity on their specialist subjects.

For example, we wondered where the herbicide loving gardeners had gone? John Walker told us about earth friendly gardening. Flower grower Carole Patilla shared her thoughts on growing flowers. And we met a cycling gardener from Liverpool who inspired us immensely with his new business.

Our most popular blog of this time, one still linked to often and helping people get out and garden is this one…

9 Ideas for a Cut Flower Business

We also ran several projects at the Chelsea Fringe, one year curating an ebook of 100 word essays on gardening, by gardeners. You can read ‘Contemporary Green’ here, for FREE.

The third stage of the Modern Mint blog is when we really came into our own. We updated the website, taking out the portfolio and turning it into a full-time shop – because that is what you wanted from us!

We kept being asked what we thought the best tools were for use in the garden, or the best garden furniture or if this product could really be of use…. or did we have anything to give a difficult family member at Christmas, as a gift?

We knew from the queries that we were curating some remarkable products that people would appreciate. Rooting them in the garden, or the natural world, or giving them an air of the earth friendly (check out this brilliant book, for example!) helped us forge our identity as an online shop with a grand following.

“Thank you for sending me my lovely Nunki a few weeks ago. I loved the kind and simple way it was packed – with bits of wool. I have recommended your site to another friend who will be buying a Nunki from you very soon.”

A satisfied customer, recently… who then bought our last Nunki weeder. We hope to have some back in stock soon…! Keep checking back!

The Modern Mint blog now tells you about why we have certain products on here. Why we use them. How you can get the best from them.

That really is where we are at – Modern Mint at 300 – an online (and Christmas Fairs) shop with a love of the natural.

Do check out the rest of the blog – we have been 300 posts in getting here!

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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Oct29

Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026

With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …

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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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