Growing Family

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

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1. How Does Your Garden Grow?

December 5, 2014 by Catherine 9 Comments

Not the most exciting week on the calendar garden-wise to be honest!  The light has been pretty poor here and I’ve had to make do with a bit of a murky outing with the camera; it was still lovely to have a reason to step outside though.

bird feeders eaten

The homemade fat cake bird feeders we hung up just over a week ago have been a huge hit, out of four only two are left.  We’re seeing far more feathered visitors to the garden and now have a regular robin who is stubbornly avoiding the camera…

winter container

The pansies are refusing to produce more flowers in my Winter container at the front door but the cyclamen are starting to put on a show.  I’ve layered bulbs under the bedding plants and the warm weather has obviously coaxed the iris to shoot for the sky!

Winter allotment

The allotment is looking so bare; a few celeriac and parsnips, a row of Spring greens and not much else.  We bought the greenhouse quite late in the season and haven’t had time to make the most of it over Winter, next year will be different!  Lily sowed some sweet peas last week though and they are keeping the onion sets company.

sweet pea planting

For the last few years I’ve had grand plans of forcing some Spring bulbs in pretty pots to give as Christmas gifts.  Every year I’ve left it too late, until this year.  Back in September I sowed miniature irises, tucked them away in the dark shed and crossed my fingers.  I brought them out this week and they’re looking very promising!  So I’ve been busy with the Christmas ribbon and will be handing them out to family when we visit this weekend.  I planted up a spare just in case one failed, but they all grew so we get to keep it – I can’t wait to see if I’ve timed it right for Christmas flowering, watch this space!

Christmas iris pots

I’m joining in with Annie’s #HDYGG series at Mammasaurus.

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Allotment, Birds, bulbs, Christmas, Containers, Garden, Gifts, Greenhouse, HDYGG, Seeds, Vegetables, Wildlife, Winter

« A family allotment adventure
2. How Does Your Garden Grow? »

Comments

  1. Mammasaurus says

    December 5, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    Ah thank you for joining in!

    Can you believe I’ve never made fat balls for the birds? I’ve bookmarked that post to try it out with the kids over Christmas as we have a lot of birds around and about, maybe because we don’t have many cats residing locally.

    It’s lovely seeing children getting involved in the garden, never fails to make me smile!

    Thanks for sharing and joining in – and finger crossed for the iris flowering!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 8, 2014 at 9:43 pm

      Ooh let me know how you get on – I thought it would be much trickier (and messier!) than it was but it really was quick and easy and the kids were enthralled. We’re down to one in the garden now, I’ve noticed them being visited much more since the weather turned colder. Time to buy some more lard!

      Reply
  2. doris says

    December 8, 2014 at 4:11 pm

    oh my! the cyclamen are just gorgeous!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 8, 2014 at 9:24 pm

      I can’t imagine a Winter garden without them, they just shine out, particularly on a grey day. I love the way they emerge from the corms too, my kids think they look like little snails!

      Reply
  3. Rosie @Eco-Gites of Lenault says

    December 10, 2014 at 7:41 pm

    Your little pots of irises look so pretty and make a great home-made gift. I may have to pinch this idea for next year. #HDYGG

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm

      I will definitely be doing them again, they were really well-received. I’m glad I made myself a calendar reminder to check on them in the shed though, I would have completely forgotten about them otherwise!

      Reply
  4. Stephanie says

    December 11, 2014 at 8:17 am

    I keep meaning to sow some sweet peas but never quite make it…. I will though. Hope your bulbs get their timing right 🙂 #hdygg

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 11, 2014 at 2:39 pm

      Thanks, they haven’t really grown this week but still a couple of weeks to go so fingers crossed!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 138. Bramshaw - Mammasaurus says:
    August 19, 2017 at 10:45 pm

    […] joined in last week, some faves include: Woodland by night lights, stinky but pretty paperwhites, a new joiner inner with a family garden, Autumnal reds, a December gardening list that shames my half-arsed thoughts about planting […]

    Reply

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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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