Readers question: MARGARET from Spennymoor is wondering if there are any garden plants she can use to bulk up her Christmas decorations in the house this year.

She always buys a cheap wreath from the market and adds to it, but would like to try something different. She also wants alternative ideas for dried flower displays within the house, as she has relatives visiting from America and would like to impress them.

BY delaying some of the cutting down of spent flowers in the borders, you can harvest a plethora of material suitable for creating exciting, yet different (and free) Christmas decorations. Most of these are plants that have finished flowering, have set their seed and have dried out in situ.

Nigella (love-in-the-mist) is a fine example. This pretty annual follows its jewel-like summer blossoming with big fat pods surrounded by fine spider-web feathering. By this time of year, these seedpods have dried out and can be cut and used indoors for cheering up the house in dried flower displays. You can add a bit of festive zing by spraying them gold or covering them with a glitter paint. They would certainly brighten up a wreath. Similar paperydelicate heads can be found on the physalis family (cape gooseberry), and the shoo-fly (Nicandra).

Teasels (dipsacus) are another fabulously versatile festive plant. The seed heads of this semi-wild thistle are 6in long and 2in wide, but immensely prickly. A quick splash of Christmas colour and they shine out.

Other artistic seed heads include fennel with its tall delicate and open structure, crocosmia with its bobbly, knobbly swathes and stinking iris with its opened-throated tongues peppered with bright orange seeds.

Don’t forget the grasses. Any of the miscanthus family can be included in a floral creation, with their ethereal feather-like heads, and of course, the brute of them all, the pampas grass, can add height and fluffy bulk to any arrangement.

One of my all-time favourites has to be the tall (up to 10ft high) flower spikes that are periodically sent up by the New Zealand flax (phormium).

They are a striking, rich, deep black (some would argue a very dark brown/purple), topped with pods filled to bursting point with jet black seeds.

They have a faint and yet intoxicating vanilla scent which prompts tropical thoughts.

So, save some energy in the garden now and leave all those dead seed heads where they stand, so that you can harvest them as you need them for interior decorations throughout the winter period.

Jobs this week

■ Don’t sweep up and tidy all of the leaves that have landed in your garden. Allow some of them to gather under hedges and in corners.

This creates winter hiding places for wildlife such as hedgehogs.

■ Net holly bushes that have berries on, as the filed fares and blackbirds will probably make a meal of them between now and Christmas. In return, pop some raisins on the bird table.

Brigid presents the BBC Tees Gardening show on Sundays from 1pm to 2pm. Questions can be answered on the day by emailing brigidpress@bbc.co.uk anytime during the week, or texting 07786-200995 and phoning 01642-225511 during the show.