Chipped cup or mug? Don’t throw it away!

I used to get really annoyed when I chipped a cup or mug, especially if it was one of my favourite Cath Kidston ones. This past few months it has been even more annoying, because of my New Year’s Resolution to fill just one bin bag every month. Every cubic centimetre inside that bin bag is precious space! So I have been turning chipped mugs into plant pots and plant pot holders for garden herbs…

1. Take your collection of chipped mugs in hand.

2. Find a little plant pot that will fit inside and fill it with compost. If you don’t have one, fill the bottom of the mug with a few centimetres of gravel or stones, and add the compost on top of that. This will help drainage.

3. Plant your seeds. This time round, I chose chervil. We don’t use chervil so much in this country, but I like it: it is like parsley, but with a slight liquorice flavour (nicer than it sounds). Use it as you would parsley. My chervil seeds, by the way, cost nothing – they came from Freecycle.

4. So it’s easy-peasy, quick and cheap – and the prettier the mug, the prettier the plant pot holder you’ll end up with. Hey presto!