THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Unusual Vegetable Garden
Yesterday Modern Mint were sent these photos of an unusual vegetable garden, from a reader of the blog in Oxford. We …
Scything
We at Modern Mint had a lesson in scything the other day when visiting Waltham Place. Here are 9 things we learnt… 1) It is normal to scythe without your shoes on (it is near impossible to cut your own foot, though very easy to cut your hand when cleaning or sharpening the blade…!) 2) English scythes have curves, Austrian scythes less so, and Eastern European scythes are straight. There are also lightweight scythes from the USA made of aluminium. These seemed to divide opinion between love and hate. 3) You know you are scything well when you hear a swuuushh… …
Pesticide Free City
What do Paris, Seattle, Tokyo, Toronto and Portland all have in common? They are pesticide free cities. This is an amazing idea, one supported by River of Flowers in the UK. Basically, it wants people to stop deliberately putting poisons and toxins into our environment. To see what happens when you stop using pesticides, take a look at the Opera House roof in Paris where Jean Paucton, a prop man now in his 70’s, began keeping bees. In the pesticide free city of Paris he received twice the yield of honey than he did from his hives in the countryside. Perhaps it …
Cut Flowers Essex
Now we live and work in Essex we are looking for interesting people who grow cut flowers. Why? Because we love fresh, local flowers. And when you grow your own, or someone you know nearby is growing cut flowers, you will normally be able to get a more exciting variety. It was only when we started growing our own flowers for the vase that we realised how much better they are than the ones you get in the supermarket. Call us a snob (you’re a snob!) but now, when we see men taking out of season roses home on Valentine’s …