Growing Family

UK home and garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for busy family life, written by Catherine Hughes

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Giving Nature a Home in our Garden: RSPB Big Wild Sleepout & Food for Moths

July 5, 2016 by Catherine 7 Comments

hummingbird hawk moth - one of the many nocturnal wildlife species you can spot during the rspb big wild sleepout

If you’ve been reading the blog lately, you’ll know that we’re teaming up with the RSPB this year to support their ‘Give nature a home in your garden’ campaign. The campaign aims to address the decline of the UK’s wildlife species by encouraging us all to take small, achievable steps to help nature in our own gardens and green spaces. So far we’ve made our garden more wildlife-friendly by sowing wildflower seeds to attract pollinating insects, ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Activity, Camping, Children, Family, Flowers, Garden, gardening, Minibeasts, Moths, Nature, Outdoors, Planting, Plants, RSPB, Wildlife

Giving nature a home in our garden: growing flowers for butterflies

May 24, 2016 by Catherine 13 Comments

echinacea is a great plant for attracting butterflies to the garden

Welcome to my latest post supporting the RSPB ‘Give nature a home in your garden’ campaign. 60% of the UK’s wildlife species have seen a decline over the last fifty years, and the RSPB campaign aims to encourage us all to take small, achievable steps to help nature in our own green spaces. We’ve already started to make our garden more wildlife-friendly by sowing wildflower seeds to attract pollinating insects and provide shelter for small ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Activity, Butterflies, Children, Family, Flowers, Garden, gardening, Minibeasts, Nature, Outdoors, Planting, Plants, RSPB, Wildlife

Giving nature a home in your garden with RSPB

March 8, 2016 by Catherine Leave a Comment

rspb giving nature a home in your garden campaign

We’re probably all seen lots of news stories in recent years about the decline in our native wildlife. Falling bee populations, tidier gardens, and disappearing meadow land have all hit the headlines, and with 60% of the UK’s wildlife species seeing decline over the last fifty years, it’s pretty obvious that nature needs our help. While this decline is going on, at the same time we’re losing touch with nature. RSPB research has revealed that ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Birds, Children, Family, Flowers, Garden, gardening, Minibeasts, Nature, Outdoors, Plants, RSPB, Wildlife

Top picks for feeding wild birds in Winter

December 15, 2015 by Catherine Leave a Comment

wild birds cup feeders

Winter is a tough season for wild birds; natural food sources such as insects and berries are scarce, and they need lots of energy-rich food to maintain their fat reserves which are called-upon most when temperatures drop.  Providing a Winter food source for wild birds is not only a great way to help your local wildlife, encouraging birds to visit your garden will supply you with plenty of interest during the Winter months.  My kids love ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Birds, Children, Garden, Nature, Outdoors, Reviews, Top Tips, Wildlife, Winter

Wild About Gardens Week: supporting our native wildlife

October 25, 2015 by Catherine 1 Comment

If you enjoy spending time outdoors and in your garden, you’re most likely aware of the fact that our native wildlife is in decline.  You’ve probably seen news stories about rapid declines in bee populations, vanishing meadow land and over-tidy gardens discouraging wildlife visitors.  A recent research study by 25 wildlife organisations found that in the past 50 years, two thirds of our plant and animal species have seen declines - quite a bleak ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Birds, Children, Community, Flowers, Garden, hedgehogs, Insects, Minibeasts, Pollinators, Ponds, Wildlife

Imaginative outdoor play with Stick-lets

September 9, 2015 by Catherine 2 Comments

stick-lets outdoor play

During the Summer holidays we've been trying out Stick-lets, a clever little product designed to take playing with sticks to a whole new level. Stick-lets are a very simple idea: they're silicone joints in a variety of sizes and shapes and you use them to lash sticks or wooden canes together.  The idea is that they allow you to create more stable and imaginative structures than you would be able to manage without some sort of joint to hold ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Activity, Children, discount, Family, Nature, Outdoors, Reviews

Wildflower wanderings

August 6, 2015 by Catherine 22 Comments

wildflower field

Have you ever had the chance to roam through fields of wildflowers?  It’s the stuff of romantic novels and Hollywood movies isn’t it, and certainly not something I expected to be able to do locally - but that’s exactly what we spent an afternoon doing at Naturescape wildlflower farm in Langar, Nottinghamshire. Naturescape is a 90 acre wildflower farm, producing native species of wildflowers and grasses primarily for the wholesale wildflower ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Children, Days out, Family, Flowers, Garden, Minibeasts, Nature, Plants, Summer, Wildflowers, Wildlife, Woodland

The oldest allotments in Britain

July 2, 2015 by Catherine 24 Comments

st anns allotments

I bet the word ‘allotment’ conjures up an image in your mind something like this: a small-ish site, plots laid out in rectangles, each one completely visible, lots of sheds, greenhouses and compost bins.  St Anns Allotments are nothing like this. St Anns allotments are the oldest detached town gardens in Britain, possibly the world; it’s history goes back over 600 years.  The Grade 2 listed site is huge - 75 acres with 700 plots.  550 plots ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Allotment, Community, Food, Garden, gardening, Greenhouse, HDYGG, history, Homegrown, Wildlife

What wildlife will you find in your garden?

May 21, 2015 by Catherine Leave a Comment

wildlife hunt exploring

Do you know what types of wildlife have made a home in your garden?  You can probably name a handful without really thinking about it - the first ones that come to my mind are spiders, woodlice, ants and the pesky slugs who eat my lettuces - but you’d probably be amazed at just how many other species there are. The typical British back garden has an abundance of animal life that is every bit as fascinating as anything you'd find anywhere else on ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Activity, Birds, Children, Family, Garden, Minibeasts, Wildlife

Silent Sunday: 12 April 2015

April 12, 2015 by Catherine 19 Comments

Spring cherry blossom

  ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature

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Hi, I’m Catherine. Welcome to Growing Family, a top UK home & garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
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Catherine Hughes is a home & garden blogger sharing ideas, inspiration & tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
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