Sometimes in life, I wonder how someone has come up with a certain combination. I wondered this when I saw that postboxes had been incorporated into trams in Sofia. I thought it again when my sister made me a meal that included salmon wrapped in ham.

But do you know what? Sometimes you have to accept that, no matter how their creator came up with them, in some cases (like the ham ‘n’ salmon fusion), these unusual combinations work. Take Toronto-based Ryan Taylor’s Babylon light fittings for example. The powder-coated aluminium light fixtures are plantable. Yes, they are plantable light fixtures.

Inspired by the ancient gardens of Babylon (which, incidentally, didn’t hang at all but were rather on a series of balcony-like levels), the fixtures are 15” wide and designed to be hung in clusters of 3 or more.

To a sceptical outsider, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Watering is going to be a logistical nightmare – partly because your planter is suspended from the ceiling, and partly because it’s a light fitting! Everybody knows that water and electricity are not a natural combination. But designer Ryan Taylor assures us that the lamps are safe; no water can come into contact with electrical wires as “it’s fully sealed and ESA Approved. You can pour or spray water into the basin which holds the plantings.”

Added to which, they look amazing – like a living UFO invading your home. If you want a unique planting solution that utilises space you never considered to be an option, and a talking point when visitors enter your room, then you’ll just have to accept that sometimes, unusual combinations work.

Another essential detail: A cluster of three Babylon lights cost Euro 911,35 and can be shipped to Europe.