THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Unusual Vegetable Garden
Yesterday Modern Mint were sent these photos of an unusual vegetable garden, from a reader of the blog in Oxford. We wanted to share these pictures with you as we think the idea is absolutely wonderful…!
This is what she had to say…
“We harvested the first courgettes last week and the first tomatoes can be seen on the vine! First handful of beans were harvested yesterday! This is so so great – and we got everything for free, scavenging in skips and on the roadside!
Hope your well and keep up the great site and the super blog. Really enjoy reading it!”
Great yes? An unused car parking space in the city becomes a productive garden… it almost has a touch of guerrilla gardening about it…
We hope you are growing vegetables and able to harvest your own produce. We always love to see photos of what you can do so please do contact us if you have any unusual vegetable garden ideas to share!
For seeds you should be growing – visit Real Seeds – they, along with Joy Larkcom (mentioned below) are the best resource for all things ‘vegetable garden’. Each year, every one of our clients gets given seeds from us that we have got from Real Seeds. Why? Because they do the most unusual vegetable garden seeds and are completely open about how they operate.
Last of all, for advice on growing your own look no further than these books by Joy Larkcom, the Queen of Vegetable Growers…
How did she become the Queen of the Vegetable Garden? Her memoir will tell you…
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 …
Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December
An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …