THE MODERN MINT BLOG
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 Alternative to Mowing
Over the weekend we saw an advert for Artificial Lawn that claimed it was the ‘only alternative to mowing!’ Let us be serious – that is no more than marketing hype, and a lie. The first alternative to mowing that springs to our mind is… don’t mow. Really, keep it that simple, and don’t mow. Let the grass grow longer, flower and set seed… and see how the garden looks. You might be surprised by what grows when a lawnmower is not cutting the heads off a plant every week through the growing season – orchids have even been known to …
Lauriston Farm, A Biodynamic Farm in Essex
A few weeks ago Modern Mint took a trip to Goldhanger in Essex, to see Spencer Christie who farms Lauriston Farm. Lauriston Farm is run biodynamically – which in simple terms (in incredibly simple terms!) means the gardener or farmer takes account of an intricate web of relationships that can influence life on earth and tries to work with or guide it in a beneficial way. Beneficial for the soil, the animals, the plants and ourselves. We have come across biodynamic growers before, most notably Beatrice Krehl the head gardener at Waltham Place, began to tend the vegetable garden biodynamically for Strilli …
A Busman’s Holiday
Two years ago on Gardeners World we saw the work of Brian and Denise Herrick, who farm and manage the 85 acre estate Barcroft Hall. They had decided to create a wildflower meadow on poor land, to create “a little piece of heaven.” A few of us went down to see it and our director Darren Lerigo was interviewed by a local paper. You can read in the link what he had to say about ‘his busman’s holiday.’ Our memories of this still stand strong – especially the buzzing of bees that thrived on the nectar rich flowers, densely sown to cover as …