Introducing another multi-faceted mother of myriad talents this week, the florist, gardener, author, artist, world record teasel grower, and once-upon-a-time actress and archivist, Milli Proust. 

Milli lives deep in the Sussex countryside with her husband Ted and toddler Rex. Like the Beyonces of this world, I suspect her of having a secret extra hour or two in her days, as I just cannot fathom, how she does all that she does with apparent grace and ease! As sweet as she is successful, it's been wonderful to watch her ascent over the past few years, and her wildly romantic garden is a constant source of inspiration.

Read her thoughts on gardening with kids, lessons from her mother, and what she is teaching in turn, plus ten gifts she would love to receive for Mother's Day...

What sort of child were you, and can you see the seeds of the gardener you would become?

I was a quiet and quite intense child, happiest outside and usually a little muddy. I think I fostered romantic notions of the landscape quite early on, but I grew up in inner-city London! I went to a great state school called Sulivan Primary and they had a little garden which had a raised bed. I have a very strong memory of being pulled away from it back into class. My school holidays were spent in my grandmother GJ’s garden which was outside of London, where I was given free rein of her beds and borders. She used to allow me to pick little things and find moss and rocks to make miniature gardens with. She introduced plants as if they were old friends, and I think that’s where it began for me, that sense that plants are companions to live and love and tend, not just decorations.

What is the best piece of advice your mother gave you, or what did she teach you?

My mother is very good on colour. She was my art teacher for my last year of primary school! She would always say to me 'look again', when drawing or colouring. From my grandmother, I learnt reverence. She loved plants deeply and respected them. Watching her tend her garden into her nineties made growing feel doable and lifelong. She also taught me that flowers can soften life’s hardest moments. That they really matter and beauty is not frivolous, but rather a sustaining, life enhancing thing.

The pram in the hall - how has becoming a mother impacted your creative life and work?

The main impact has been on time. I would often work from dawn to dusk and beyond, but now there's a much harder finish. I love to work and there are never enough hours in the day, so I often return to work in the evening. But there's always a stop in the day now to be with my son. One of my creative projects, Windowsill Wednesday, making a seasonal arrangement with what I've grown every week of the year, for the last 10 years, has usually about 5 minutes to do now, rather than the pre-mothering luxurious hour I would give it. It has taught me that showing up and carrying on allowing myself 5 minutes for creativity, even if it's imperfect, is more important than not showing up and depriving myself of those minutes. 

It has also sharpened my sense of why. Why am I growing this? Why am I saying yes to that? I have become braver about protecting my time and choosing projects that feel aligned. Limitation has always sparked creativity for me, and motherhood is the most profound limitation and expansion at once. And then there is the simple joy of seeing Rex notice things. The first seedling, the first sunflower taller than him. It feels like watching wonder being formed in real time. Wonder feels like something precious to be around for creativity.

What were you taught as a child about gratitude and giving, and are you mirroring this, or doing things differently as a parent yourself?

I was taught gratitude through attention, not necessarily in big gestures, but in noticing. And now I use that all the time to see me through the year- the first bluebell, the first frost, the first of the roses blooming.

My family are big makers and crafters, and still now, home-made gifts are the most likely gifts we'll share with each other.  I hope to bring that in for Rex.

Firstly, I want him to notice all the little gifts that the world gives through the seasons, to understand where things come from, that food, flowers, seeds all require care and patience. And on top of that I want him to feel that giving something you have grown or made, even something small, is powerful and beautiful.

Rex is often toddling beside you in the garden; how can we encourage our children to get outside, and what sort of jobs or projects can they enjoy doing?

Rex loves to dig, and he loves water. So it has been very easy to get him outside with me while I work. He doesn't need complicated projects, but he does need ownership and small successes. I always ask him to hep with my work too, he likes to feel useful- I give him a watering can sized for small hands, or jobs like collecting seeds in paper envelopes, or harvesting peas (straight into his mouth).vLast summer I gave him his own little patch of soil that was his. He grew a great whopper of a sunflower from seed.