Starting A Lego Garden

Luscious Lego

I have always loved greenery in the house. We didn’t have much foliage growing up and our enormous garden was filled with anything that grew on their own, whether we wanted it to or not. But there is something refreshing and relaxing about greenery. Since moving in with my, now, husband we have tried all sorts. We started small with a few succulents, then onto snake plants and aloe vera and slowly and surely, every died. Yes, succulents died. We were told by everyone we knew, “you can’t kill a succulent, they are the easiest things to grow”. Well I guess we are very talented in that area then! For years we tried before simply giving up and buying fake plastic stuff to pretend we weren’t the foliage killers we really were. But then we discovered Lego! And with Lego, seemed to come a Lego garden.

In 2021 it seemed Lego heard our call. We had always enjoyed Lego growing up and even as adults had had fun putting together the odd set with nephews and nieces. But just before Christmas 2021 I saw it. The new Botanical collection. This was the first collection I had seen that felt like it was aimed purely at adults. Don’t get me wrong, I love a Infinity Gauntlet as much as the next geek but their previous 18+ sets were predominantly building of vehicle based and so never had any personal appeal. However, there was something about this new set that felt more elegant, more universal. And so with a present for my husband, to add a little greenery to his home office, our Lego garden began.

In Order To Bloom You Must Build

Currently there are seven available pieces in the collection haha has dramatically grown since the original two only two years ago. I would start with the Bonsai Tree. This has a few different elements that make it appealing as a starter set. First of all, it’s small. It has that perfect fit for a book shelf or windowsill that won’t take up too much of your precious space but will add a lot of character and colour to the room. It’s on the higher end when it comes to pieces, coming with 878 bricks. However there are a few reasons for that. One, it comes with a pot filled with individual pieces to imitate small stones. Two, it has a wood-like stand to place it on. And finally and most appealingly, it has two different modes of display. You can either decorate with luscious green foliage or you can dress it with pink cherry blossoms. I love this idea. It means that it doesn’t get put on a shelf and left for years to gather dust. Instead it encourages you to change it up every few months to add a different colour and vibe to the room. It is also one of the cheapest sets and so win win!

As a next step I would divert your eyes to the set of succulents. I have always loved succulents. Small but full of interesting shapes and textures, they make a shelf far more interesting. So you can imagine my disappointment when I was gifted the touch of death. This new set adds nine individual plants each with their own square pot that can be clicked together in any shape you want. The variety of design is gorgeous, offering different colours and heights. What I really enjoyed about this particular collection was that you can space out the building easier. I could build one little pot each time I fancied a little meditation giving nine separate builds or I could have sat and done the lot in one go. Much like the Bonsai I like the fact that you can change around this set to make a space feel different. You could put them in a line across a windowsill or have them climbed together on your desk. You could also separate them and place around the home. With only 771 pieces it is one of the smaller sets but you get a lot for brick count. It also means it is on the cheaper side and so much more accessible than some of the bigger pieces.

The final of the smaller sets is the dried flower centrepiece. This offers a more autumnal feel to your Lego garden. The browns and beiges don’t quite catch the the eye like the others and the lack of greenery does take you out of the botanical fantasy that the collection strives to provide. At 812 pieces it falls comfortably into the middle with regards to complexity and I am sure would offer a wonderful seasonal decoration but the lack of ‘freshness’ leaves (excuse the pun) me a little cold.