Green up your month

Bring your outdoors, indoors

If you have trees or plants outside to prune, save a cut off branch and bring it inside. Set in water to add life to any corner instead of letting it go to waste.

Time to shed the winter layers

A still life full of life

Trimmed parts can easily get a second life in a glass of water. Combine and gather them to create a mini garden. Set on a lazy Susan, you can tailor both look and light.

Rearrange your green furniture

Like seating, tables and shelves, plants are part of your furniture. Adding to or rearranging them – extra easy with wheeled plant pots – can mean just as much for a room, not least to add a
refreshing sense of greenery.

Plant pots aplenty

Growing plants means changing pots over time. If you have an old terracotta one that’s broken or unneeded, crush it and blend it with potting soil to improve drainage (and help plants grow even bigger).

The great mismatch

Mixing and matching is fine – but a good mismatch can be even better. Grouping materials, shapes and colours has a way of creating a unique expression.

Grow a garden from scratch

Naturally, plants aren’t just something to behold. Make it an activity with a few paper cups and some potting soil, and nurture a new generation from the seed up.

Give the newcomers a window seat

Once you have seeds sprouting, there will likely be visible progress for months to come. Also, it’s a drama that everyone in the family can take part in.

Nature is art

Even withered leaves (or simply failed gardening) can get a new lease on life – as models. Let an artist in the family have a go at reproducing it, and chances are it will come out as good as new.

Hang your evergreens on the wall

While gardening may not be for everyone, even the sense of a plant – or, in this case, its image – can be enough to raise the mood (follow link to read more).