THE MODERN MINT BLOG
I love working with Trees For Life , a charity in Scotland who plants trees.
So far Modern Mint has planted 195 trees – including pines, rowans and oaks – to do as much as we can to make the business as green as possible. You can help too – just visit the Modern Mint Grove at Trees For Life and for £6 per tree you can get some planted.
I’m writing this today because of a report I saw on the BBC this morning about Tottenham being top of the sustainability table. Spurs top of the table huh? Something for their fans to enjoy….!
Points were awarded to each Premiership club for things like:
- Clean energy
- Transport links
- Water efficiency
- Plant-based food options
- Removal of single use plastics
- Waste management
It is a great way of making a statement about what you are doing to make your club carbon zero. I know that, due to the pandemic, I have significantly reduced the travel I do to give talks around the country. Talks by Zoom means my mileage is now 20% of what it was in 2019.
Long may that continue…
At home we have used the green energy supplier Bulb for the last few years. You can get a quote from them here – Green Energy For You!
Tree Planting Golden Rules
The BBC also did this report debunking myths over tree planting. Their golden rules include:
- Protect existing forests (old forests soak up carbon best… well, if you want to nit-pick the ocean and the soil hold the most carbon, so make sure you treat the ground you grow your plants in well. But trees are beautiful and provide food and habitat for so much wildlife that not to plant them seems ridiculous. Surely life is better with a grove of trees in the landscape? Or a leafy boulevard?)
- Select the right tree species (a eucalyptus that soaks up all the groundwater is no good for a site that needs to grow food. It will take more than it gives! But a tree that provides leaf fodder for animals, as well as timber as material for housing, or soft shade for growing a wider range of plants, or a tree that has roots that can break up the ground and improve drainage… native species are probably most suitable, but the right tree in the right place is what we are after…)
- Learn by doing (get your hands dirty before you go big, to make sure the trees will be right for the location.)
Plant A Tree Today
How green are you? Your business?
These questions are worth trying to answer. They are simple to start doing as well – you can visit Bulb right now and get a quote for green energy to use at home, or for a few quid you can plant a tree today.
Visit the Modern Mint Grove now to make a difference.
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 …