THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Hedges
Hedges were grown for practical purposes, the most obvious examples being to keep livestock in the right field and marauding invaders …
Did You Know…
… Iceland is Europe’s largest producer of bananas. Solanaceae (plants from the nightshade family) are known to produce alkaloids that can be either toxic or advantageous (this depends on your view of the world, and possibly how much you’ve ingested!) Three alkaloids borne by the family are Solanine, Nicotine and Capsaicin. Capsaicin is the one that gives you the burning sensation when you eat a chilli. Several members of the nightshade family are now important crops – tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, aubergines and tobacco. Who would have thought something so tasty could be so deadly too? The Ginkgo tree is a botanical ‘living fossil’ with …
The Bee Cause
(For some background on bees start here…) The Bee Cause is a campaign run by Friends of the Earth. They have helped the Government draw up a Bee Action Plan to help stop the decline of pollinating insects. Now, on the 16th April 2014, you are invited to feedback to the Government on how to make their Bee Action Plan even better. This is your chance to speak. To attend all you need to do is register using the workshop registration form which is near the bottom of the page here. Hope you can make it! To help grow plants for bees, …
Interested in big things, and happy in small ways…
It was Edith Wharton who wrote the words that give us the title of this post, and they seem to match well to the act of gardening. Gardening has the power to make you calmer and less stressed. Jokes about the National Health Service becoming the Natural Health Service are common – when you see a Doctor and all she prescribes is ‘go out, walk more, be less stressed and lose some weight’ but there is something to it – being outside in ‘nature’ is beneficial. There is prominent data collected on the health benefits of views of nature for those recovering from surgery, that patients recovered quicker, caused …