THE MODERN MINT BLOG
We come back to James Van Sweden a lot on this blog – and the start of this interview sums up …
Gentle Heart
3 ideas for becoming a better gardener – have clear eyes, a quiet mind and a gentle heart. These pictures are from a trip to the west of Ireland last October. It was easy to sit on the beach here, to let go of worries and any stresses and just… allow the time to pass. It really was a place to cultivate the eyes, the mind and the heart. Your garden is a place to do this too. Enjoy it, work on and with it, and allow it to change you in its soft and understated way. Use your garden to …
Midori Shintani, Gardener
In Gardens Illustrated magazine a few issues back, they had an interview with Midori Shintani, the Head Gardener of Tokachi Millenium Forest. (You can find photos of the work done by designer Dan Pearson in the Millenium Forest here, at his website.) She told the story of how she came to be there with great eloquence. She had learned the tea ceremony, ikebana and calligraphy before studying horticulture – “I enjoyed the course, but I still did not know what I should become… for 11 years I struggled to choose my path.” This is the case with a lot of …
50 Shades of Sustainability
When we started the Modern Mint Shop we wanted to focus on products that held sustainability as a high value – we imagined they would be created from recycled materials, or from natural sources that, managed correctly, would save or improve an eco-system. It would be easy to meet the supplier, check they were doing what they said, and feel good about doing our bit. Nice and simple! But… … we had little idea the depth the word ‘sustainability’ has – significantly, products that may appear ‘green’ may prove themselves to create other problems somewhere along the way. A good example …