THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Recycle Your Plant Pots
How many plant pots do you have in the shed?
It is normally quite a few, once you dust off the spider webs and take a really good look!
Some estimates in the media equate the figure to be 5 million redundant plant pots sat in homes across the UK.
That is a lot of plastic that has no use, and cannot be recycled. Until now, that is…
At Modern Mint we sell a few eco-friendly products that re-use these plastic plant pots. Have you seen our stylish clocks?
We also do a brilliantly helpful set of plant labels, both printed and clear… what vegetable gardener doesn’t need these?
Think that is all? Think again. We make your old plastic plant pots into a bird feeder too… this is WILDLY popular!
Gosh, we even make them into house signs!
No longer should those pots of yours be left, useless and gathering cobwebs, at the bottom of the garden. Now they can be truly recycled.
To find your nearest garden centre, who will take your pots from you free of charge, click here.
Don’t have a garden centre near you who can collect them?
Print out this leaflet and give it to the garden centre manager so they have all the information they need to make plant pot recycling happen at theirs!
Another way to save plastic plant pots ending up in landfill, is to grow your plants from seed. Worth a try?

Modern Mint – helping recycle plant pots, instead of sending them to landfill.
Monty Don British Gardens Episode 4
I hadn’t seen the new Monty Don series ‘Monty Don’s British Gardens’ but I was sent a message one evening to say stick it on – episode 4 especially! On the episode were three gardens I make and clip the topiary in… the photo above is my quizzical boxwood emu… which looks ridiculous out of context of the wider topiary garden it sits in… but hey! Showcases what you can do with boxwood, when given enough time to let it grow! But also on the episode were Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens and a place I teach topiary …
Topiary Art In Hong Kong, The Henderson
Here are a couple of photos of the topiary work I have been doing in Hong Kong for the Art Garden at the bottom of the brand new skyscraper, The Henderson. The building has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and this November 2024 the garden at the base of the structure will be planted up, with lots of topiary originally designed by Gillespies Landscape Architects, grown by Tarzan Nursery in China, and then clipped and refined into shape by…. me. Will update with photos from The Henderson Art Garden when all is completed and the garden is opened, but …
EBTS Boxwood Growers Forum
Through the European Boxwood and Topiary Society I worked with Chris Poole and Sue Mesher, members of the EBTS board, and we set up a Boxwood Growers Forum. This was to discuss how to make sure this wonderful topiary plant stays in the public conscioussness – we know many growers, suppliers and distributors have stopped selling it as the cost of replacing boxwood that has blight, or is nibbled by the boxwood caterpillar, makes it unviable to offer to clients and gardeners. But Boxwood is a phoenix plant, and there are ways to deal with the problems associated with Buxus. …