Love your garden all winter

Don’t shut the door on your outside space once the flowers stop blooming and cold weather sets in. Get out in the fresh air and show it some love with these ideas and projects

Create a so-cosy outdoor snug

Invest in a fire pit and you’ve got winter outdoor living nailed (you’ll find this one at thefarthing.co.uk). Just add tactile cushions, soft throws and glowing lanterns to make your deck or patio a place for family pow-wows and parties all year round.

Rake up leaves to make garden mulch

Stored damp in plastic sacks (with a few holes punctured in them), leaves will take a couple of years to rot down into leaf mould, creating a free supply of food for your soil.

Build a bug hotel

Stack up shelves using wood offcuts and old bricks (not too high or they might topple!). Fill the fort with logs with drilled holes, old guttering pipes filled with bamboo tubes and pieces of corrugated cardboard. Stuff the gaps with straw and leaves, and wait for the insects and frogs to move in.

Turn old tins into garden lanterns

Soak the labels off baked bean tins, fill with water and freeze. Then, use a hammer and nail to tap out a design (it’s safer and easier to do this with a filling of ice, as it makes the tin weighty and solid). Leave the ice to melt, then pop in a tealight.

Plant up a crate of cabbages

Ornamental cabbages are hardy enough to survive frosts, so they’re ideal for winter pots, containers and even hanging baskets to add some bold colour to your plot.