THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Planting Trees In The UK
This June, we have been talking about planting trees in the UK.
Update March 2020: We now have a Grove Of Trees You Can Add To – Visit Here To Plant a Tree
Why Plant Trees In The UK?
Our recent Chelsea Fringe project was about using your garden to capture carbon.
One way of doing that was to plant trees. Trees take carbon from the air and turn in into…. themselves. Trees and woodlands are not actually the largest stores of carbon on the planet – that accolade goes to our oceans, followed up by our soils – but planting trees are a great way to capture some CO2 and keep it locked up, so that it does not contribute to warming our climate to a ridiculous (that means inhospitable) level.
We decided that in June, for every sale we had online we would plant trees here in the UK. It helps our landscape become a place full of woodlands, encouraging birds and bees and other insects to find home, improve their food chain and generally make the UK a more beautiful place to live.
Who wants to live in a denuded, harsh landscape?
Not us.
How To Plant A Tree In The UK
We don’t currently have the space here at Modern Mint to plant a tree for every sale from our online shop, but there are places who can make it happen for you – and they are fantastic organisations to support.
The first, and the one we will be using for this tree planting project, is Village Farm.
We love Village Farm and what they are doing. We have written about them before and they were an inspiration for our capture carbon project. Do check them out.
The other place we suggest you look at is the Trees For Life project, who are restoring the Caledonian Forest and rewilding the landscape in the Scottish Highlands. It is quite something.
So far we will be planting 15 trees here in the UK, from sales online in June.
If you want to make that number bigger, either go visit our shop and make an order – it can be the cheapest thing, it really does not matter. We will still plant a tree. Or visit either Village Farm or the Trees for Life project and ‘start a grove’ of your own.
Planting trees in the UK is a great thing to do. Go make it happen – for Queen, for country… and for your future, most importantly!
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …
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 …