Your homemade Christmas

Make the most of your garden's bounty by creating beautiful festive wreaths and other decorations for your home. Designer Shilpa Reddy shows you how

- Shilpa Reddy

Making a wreath is a great way to mark the start of the festive season. Decorations feel especially poignant this year as many of us were unable to celebrate last Christmas with our loved ones. All the decorations on the following pages are made from plants widely grown in gardens or available in garden centres and florists. See p51 for my step-by-step wreath guide and the QR code to watch my how-to video.

A warm welcome

This autumn-hued wreath features crab apples, beech and chestnut leaves, and wild carrot flowers, along with sprigs of eucalyptus to give off a wonderful scent. The foliage has been kept long and loose to give the wreath a natural, foraged look.

YOU WILL NEED

• Double wire wreath ring - 30cm or 35cm diameter is best for a standard front door

• Scissors

• Florists' wire - both straight wire and wire on a reel

• Eucalyptus or other evergreen foliage

• Tree sprigs with autumn foliage, such as beech or sweet chestnut

• Moss from the garden

• Decorations such as ivy berries, wild carrot flowers, crab apples

Shilpa Reddy left a career in medicine to start a floral design company in 2015. Her mobile school runs flower arranging, terrarium making and Christmas wreath making workshops. Follow her at @shilpareddyflowers

Setting the style

It's easy to make these elegant place settings for festive meals. Choose twigs with different textures and gather together with a piece of ribbon, then arrange on napkins to welcome your guests to the table.

Here, the downy pussy willow contrasts well with the spiky conifer, while the veined ivy leaves make lovely sculptural shapes. But if you don't have these plants, then be creative with whatever appeals to you, either in your garden or bought in local shops.

YOU WILL NEED