THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Awhile back the internet and its web of click throughs led us to discover a relatively new farm right on the tip of the South Devon coast. We read a little about it, bookmarked the website to revisit, then promptly forgot it.
Then this interview with the farmer, Rebecca Hosking, appeared on the BBC – Wild Farming.
A brilliant 20 minutes of radio where Rebecca explains why they farm the way they do and what they hope to achieve, namely turning a neglected piece of land that would fail to inspire if farmed conventionally into a wildlife rich, productive habitat that sequesters carbon in the soil and provides nourishing, healthy food.
We have spent the evening reading the Village Farm blog. We hope you will do the same…
Read the Village Farm Blog now.
Wild farming at Village Farm – could this be the future of more farms?
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, …
Waltham Place Topiary Workshop 2026
With the European Boxwood and Topiary Society, I run two workshops each year at Waltham Place, one of my favourite gardens. The next topiary workshop there will be on Friday September 4th 2026. Details and how to book yet to be announced, but get in touch with them now to get on the waiting list, as last year we had double the amount of people wanting a place than we had space for. The Waltham Place website is here – topiary workshop 2026. See the teaching page for how else I can help you with the topiary in your garden …
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …