A is for apps With National Trust and RHS gardens shut, download the app Candide instead. It offers audio tours of famous gardens, hosted by the company’s head gardener, so you can wander around Hestercombe or West Dean, from the comfort of your armchair. B is for bread-making Now is the time to nurture a sourdough starter. Brick House, the award-winning London bakery, is sharing a sourdough masterclass on Instagram. It guides you through the whole process, from starting a sourdough mother to ready-to-eat baked loaf. C is for clay For a child-friendly, kitchen-table project, make your own air-dry clay from corn flour, water and bicarbonate of soda. In a pan, combine two cups of bicarbonate of soda with one cup of cornflour and 1.5 cups of cold water. Mix until smooth, then heat gently for five minutes until it has formed a ball. Transfer to a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and allow to cool completely before you start to shape the clay. Your shape or sculpture will take up to 48 hours to dry fully, then it can be painted. D is for dandelions Edible, beautiful, useful – why banish dandelions when bees love the blooms and the seeds are manna to goldfinches? Give the weedkiller a rest and let your grass glow with yellow. … and deep decluttering Now is the perfect time for a satisfying declutter. This can be hard to do on your own, so if you are isolating with others, get them to hold up your broken tools/unworn shoes/old school books and ask: “Do you need this?” If you don’t touch the object, you are more likely to get rid of it. Work in categories (books, toys, clothes, knick-knacks) and set aside things to be recycled or donated later. E is for envelopes Catch up on letters. Find the addresses of everyone you know who lives in a different part of the world/country and write letters or postcards. Get kids involved: decorate a set of blank postcards with pressed flowers – even nicer for the person who receives your letter. F is for food Turn your garden, balcony or windowsill into a productive patch. Self-sufficiency takes time and space you probably don’t have, so focus on growing fresh, flavour-packed leaves: think tasty garnishes rather than a substitute for the supermarket. If you have a sunny windowsill, try sowing coriander and fenugreek seeds in a shallow indoor tray of compost, and harvest once the seedlings are around 3cm tall. Buy a three-tier sprouter from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (£29.99) to expand your options. Pea shoots are another super-easy windowsill crop that is big enough for small fingers to sow. Buy a box of dried peas, soak in warm water for a few hours, then sow into a tray of damp compost and cover with another 2cm of compost. Once the shoots reach 5-10cm long, snip above the lowest set of leaves and the plant will regrow for multiple harvests. For more tips, check out #isolationgardening on social media. … and filing Now is an ideal time to sort out household bills (Money Supermarket has a user-friendly guide). Anything over two years old can be shredded and discarded (tax-related paperwork such as payslips, P45s and P60s must be kept for at least 22 months from the end of the tax year to which they relate). Keep your new system slimline by opting for paperless billing. G is for garden centres All the spring plant shows – a major selling outlet for nurseries – are cancelled, which means there is stock that needs to be sold. Many garden centres, houseplant shops and nurseries are offering home delivery or click-and-collect services. Find and support your local nursery here. … and gallery walls Inexplicably, it can take years to hang pictures. Start – or finish – hanging a gallery wall by digging out posters, prints, postcards, photos, children’s drawings, or any memorabilia that makes you happy. Pinterest has heaps of gallery wall layout ideas, and there are online framers such as Easy Frame. H is for free houseplants Take an avocado stone, wrap it in damp kitchen roll and place in a clear plastic bag in a warm dark place – leave a small opening in the bag for air circulation. Check every few days, keeping the paper damp, and once the stone has cracked open and sprouted, pot in some damp houseplant compost, the top just proud of the surface. You will end up with a pretty foliage plant. … and homemade cleaning products Order a giant bottle of castile soap and make multipurpose surface spray cleaner, scented with your favourite essential oils. “Kids love getting involved in this,” says blogger Hannah Bullivant, who has been making her own cleaning products for nearly a decade. “It’s like making potions.” I is for ikebana The Japanese art of flower arranging might be just the kind of mindful, minimalist, creative activity you need right now. Check out @ikebanabyjunko on Instagram for inspiration. … and investment cooking This is the title of a chapter in Anna Jones’s book A Modern Way to Cook: try her easy recipes for delicious things to eat. “You don’t have to do this every week,” says Jones, “but this kind of cooking can soothe your soul and help you put quick suppers together during the week.” See languorous recipes for nut butters, vats of soup and slow-cooked pulses. J is for junk Be inventive and upcycle or make your own plant pots: raid the kitchen and use washing up bowls for salad sowings, plastic bins for potatoes and old bits of china for indoor plants. Remember to poke or drill holes in the base for drainage. Buy a paper potter (£10.98 from the Plastic Free Shop) to make biodegradable pots for seeds. K is for kitchen cupboards Frugality and making food go further are key just now. The Art Of The Larder, by chef and author Claire Thomson, is all about maintaining a methodical and economical kitchen cupboard. Follow @5oclockapron and watch her rustle up recipes such as “leftover porridge bread” with her three girls. L is for light Maximise the amount of light available to seedlings by making sure the glass in your windows, coldframes and greenhouses is clean. A mini reflector – a piece of card covered in aluminium foil and set behind a tray of seedlings – will help to bounce existing light in their direction. M is for mud kitchen For many parents, long weeks of full-time childcare stretch ahead: if you have a garden, balcony, back step or patio, a mud kitchen can eat up hours for younger children. An old table, a washing-up bowl and a few utensils are all you need for a bit of sensory play; but for something fancier, check out Mud Kitchens. N is for notes If you have a garden, some areas are bound to lack spring cheer; could you brighten them up for next year with crocuses, add early tulips and daffodils, enliven bare tables with pots of grape hyacinths and irises? Yes, but will you remember come bulb-planting time? Make notes and take snaps of the relevant spots as an aide-memoire, and spring 2021 will be stunning. O is for onion skins Save from the compost bin and use to dye an old T-shirt or tote bag. Ros Humphries, founder of the Natural Dyeworks, says: “Onion skins are rich in tannins, so a good project for beginners. Wash your chosen fabric with a pH-neutral soap. Fill a large pan with water and add two large handfuls of onion skins. Simmer for an hour, then strain through a muslin cloth or tea towel. Wet your fabric, then immerse in the dye. Bring to just below simmer and ‘cook’ for up to an hour. Leave to cool overnight for the strongest shades. Expect warm yellows from brown onions and peachy pinks from red onions.” P is for perennial vegetables Seedlings take up loads of room: perennial vegetables bypass the sowing stage and are low maintenance, too. Some sound exotic and aren’t so easy to get hold of, such as Egyptian walking onions and sea beet; there is also the more familiar horseradish, Jerusalem artichoke and rhubarb. Some common garden perennials that are considered ornamental are also edible, including the young shoots of Centranthus ruber (red valerian) or of Hosta sieboldii, and the buds and flowers of day lilies (Hemerocallis). Remember, there are plenty of poisonous plants, too, so check the Plants For A Future website for more unexpected garden edibles; or Martin Crawford’s bible on the subject, How To Grow Perennial Vegetables. Q is for quince The quince tree, Cydonia oblonga, is a must for foodie gardeners. The fruit is brilliant for pies, jellies and the Spanish quince paste membrillo – or eat them baked with a dollop of cream. The dwarf cultivars ‘Leskovac’ or Sibley’s Patio Quince will both grow in a large pot on the patio and can be bought now. … and quilting Recycle your old clothes by stitching them into a patchwork quilt. Old T-shirts, unused ties, faded denim, favourite scarves – they will all work. Check out the website ArrangeWhateverPiecesComeYourWay.com for inspiration. R is for roses If your roses put on a poor show last summer, give them a boost with a top dressing of fertiliser such as Vitax Organic Rose Food sprinkled on to the soil around the plant, then hoed in. Top that off with a mulch of homemade compost, making sure not to pile it up around the stems. S is for subscriptions We need things to look forward to now more than ever, and a plant subscription offers a leafy surprise to open every few weeks. Lazy Flora offers indoor and outdoor packages from £15 a month. … and sewing Now is a good time to do all those mending jobs you put off: darning holes, sewing on buttons, fixing ripped seams. Go to modernmending.com – “a magical mending supply shop” – for inspiration. T is for tablescaping Stylist Twig Hutchinson says: “Go to town this year with an Easter dinner. Whether it’s a meal for one or a family of six, lay the table to the max.” She suggests dusting off the best china and glasses, making calligraphy place names and menu cards, and arranging individual flower stems in bud jars down the table in little groups. “If you can’t get flowers, herbs in pots will do the job nicely. Make iced biscuits and use them as part of the place setting.” U is for umbellifers If you see a plant with umbrella-like clusters of tiny flowers that look like a landing pad, it’s probably a member of the umbellifer family, which includes cow parsley and wild carrot. Parasitoid wasps love feeding on the flowers, and these are important predators who keep down common pests such as aphids and caterpillars. Bellifers often have lacy foliage that provides spots for insects to cool off and shelter, too. Sow herb umbellifers such as coriander, dill, parsley and fennel among vegetables to help keep crops healthy. … and upcycling Paint-stripping, sanding down, priming and repainting: changing the colour of wooden furniture or fittings is the perfect job for isolation. But before you paint an old chair blue or brighten the inside of your kitchen cupboards with glossy yellow, check out the design website Remodelista’s advice on painting furniture (which suggests you start by downloading an audio book). If you feel experimental, they also have ideas for achieving finishes such as crackle glazes and feign patinas. V is for vertical If every flat surface in your home is taken up with plants, it’s time to move up. If you don’t want to drill holes in the ceiling to hang them, repurposed hat stands, freestanding clothes racks and even drinks trolleys will make flexible, space-saving digs for your plant. … and vinegar Mix equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and clean your windows inside and out. Talking of windows, wash the curtains, too, and any other removable fabric covers (pillow, mattress, cushion) that have evaded the laundry pile of late. W is for wildflower hour If you can’t go outside to smell the flowers, check out @wildflower_hour on Twitter: every Sunday night from 8-9pm is a bonanza of native plant pictures and chat. … and WFH If the novelty of working from home is wearing off, check your desk is positioned in front of a window: natural light and views will soothe, as will a plant and a jug of water (you might forget to rehydrate at home). For more advice on staying connected and motivated, visit the Wellcome Trust. X is for xerophyte Houseleeks, or sempervivums, are the tough customers of the succulent world, hardy in British winters and just as beautiful as their tender relatives, the echeverias. Plant a few houseleek rosettes in a shallow dish of gritty compost or in a south-facing windowbox to enjoy all year round. … and xylography Xylography is the art of carving shapes on wood for printing. Whether you carve a design into wood, lino or a potato, block printing is a soothing activity to do alone or with children. Textile designer Molly Mahon suggests: “Start with a simple pattern, such as a star, to get you going. Another good idea, if you can get out into nature, is to draw round a leaf – this shape makes a great printing pattern.” Y is for yellow leaves Lavishing all your spare time on caring for houseplants is no bad thing, but don’t overdo it with the watering can. Waterlogged roots may not be visible, but yellowing leaves are an early warning sign that all is not well below the surface. Counterintuitively, wilting can also be a sign of overwatering. Take the plant out of its pot, cut away any slimy roots and repot into fresh houseplant potting mix, making sure there are plenty of drainage holes. For plants with leathery leaves such as monstera (Swiss cheese plant) and philodendrons, take a damp cloth and gently wipe the surface of each leaf: furry leaves such as African violets and spiny cacti can be cleaned gently with a dry, clean, soft makeup brush or paintbrush. Z is for zinnias If you would love to see really vibrant colour in the garden this summer, zinnias will lift your spirits. Native to Mexico, they come in many glorious hues and are easy to grow here. They also make stunning cut flowers. Chiltern Seeds has a great range of seeds, or buy them as plug plants from Suttons.