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Growing Family

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

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Exploring Clumber Park

September 11, 2015 by Catherine 29 Comments

clumber park bridge

Visiting Clumber Park is one of those days out where the minute you arrive, you just know it’s going to be brilliant.  We’ve been meaning to visit for such a long time and we finally managed it over the bank holiday weekend. Covering over 3,800 acres of parkland, heath and woods in North Nottinghamshire, Clumber Park was once the country estate of the Dukes of Newcastle.  The original house is no longer there but there are lots of other ...

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Filed Under: Days Out Tagged With: Autumn, Children, Days out, Family, Flowers, Food, Fruit, Garden, gardening, Greenhouse, HDYGG, Nature, Outdoors, Vegetables, Wildlife

An English coastal country garden

August 21, 2015 by Catherine 16 Comments

english coastal country garden gate

This week's slice of garden loveliness comes from my mum-in-law's garden in Devon.  We visited at the start of the school holidays and while the sun shone I spent a happy hour amongst the flowers with my camera. When Penny and Mike moved to Devon 16 years ago their house had a large patch of land at the back but no garden to speak of - so they just created one from scratch.  Among the countless hours of work this involved was the scarily huge ...

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Filed Under: Garden Design Tagged With: clematis, coast, design, Flowers, Garden, gardening, HDYGG, hydrangea, Plants, pond, Summer

An unruly Summer allotment

July 16, 2015 by Catherine 22 Comments

summer allotment

It's been a while since I shared any pictures of our allotment.  This hasn't been deliberate, I just haven't got myself organised! I feel like I've been behind the whole way with the allotment this year.  Last year I had the plot rotavated in early Spring, which meant I was good to go with the planting nice and early.  This year however there's a greenhouse slap bang in the middle of the plot, a few raised beds and some permanent fruit canes, ...

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Filed Under: Grow Your Own Tagged With: Allotment, Children, Crops, Family, Flowers, Food, Fruit, gardening, Greenhouse, Harvest, HDYGG, Homegrown, July, Plants, Raised bed, Summer, Vegetables, Weeds

The oldest allotments in Britain

July 2, 2015 by Catherine 23 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 ...

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

BBC Gardeners World Live: my highlights

June 13, 2015 by Catherine 16 Comments

Gardeners World Live alliums

Last week I spent an amazing day at the BBC Gardeners World Live show at Birmingham NEC.  Such a brilliant show - I barely stopped for a break because I couldn't tear myself away from all there was to see, do and try out.  I came away with a head full of ideas and, obviously, some lovely new plants - well it would be rude not to, wouldn't it?! Here are my show highlights - so hard to narrow it down! Floral Marquee I made a beeline for the ...

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Filed Under: Days Out Tagged With: BBC Gardeners World Live, Children, Family, Flowers, Garden, gardening, HDYGG, Plants, Top Tips, Wildlife

Blossoms, blooms & seedlings

May 7, 2015 by Catherine 18 Comments

clematis montana

This week in the garden it feels like I've looked away for a day or two and everything has completely changed.  Flowers that were tight buds are in full bloom, seedlings that weren't even above the soil are suddenly inches tall, and there's blossom everywhere you look. I keep grabbing the kids and saying things like "look, last time we checked this wasn't here!".  I'm compelled to share the magic with anyone who'll lend me their ear, and so ...

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Filed Under: Grow Your Own Tagged With: Blooms, Blossom, Flowers, Garden, HDYGG, Seedlings, Seeds, Spring, Vegetables

Exploring a Spring garden

April 16, 2015 by Catherine 28 Comments

Spring cherry blossom

Over the Easter holidays we visited my sister-in-law Sarah and her family, this week's post comes from her lovely garden.  The last time we visited was back in December, it never fails to amaze me just how different the same space can feel at different times of the year.   I always get loads of inspiration from Sarah's garden - and usually a bit of the green-eyed monster too, she has so much space and takes such ...

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Blossom, Family, Flowers, Garden, Greenhouse, HDYGG, Homegrown, Seeds, Spring

Digging, Sowing, Dodging the Rain

April 2, 2015 by Catherine 22 Comments

This week the reinforcements arrived at the allotment, and I don't mean Lily with her tiny trowel - dad arrived with his big spade! Gardening and my dad have gone together for as long as I can remember.  He had an allotment when I was little and still has a vegetable plot in his immaculate garden.  I love it when he comes down to give me a hand at the allotment, I always learn loads and it’s great to spend some time gardening peacefully side ...

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Filed Under: Grow Your Own Tagged With: Allotment, Crops, Digging, Family, Greenhouse, HDYGG, Homegrown, Planting, Seeds, Spring, Vegetables

Buds!

March 19, 2015 by Catherine 19 Comments

Spring buds tree peony

At last!  My garden is coming to life! It feels like it's been so long coming this year; I don't know if it really has taken longer than usual for signs of Spring to appear, or if blogging about all things gardening has made me more impatient.  Probably the latter! Either way, a wander with the camera this week was so exciting; all that longed-for new life emerging!  It put a smile on my face and really energised me, I love how stepping ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Buds, Garden, HDYGG, Plants, Spring

Raised bed rejuvenation

March 5, 2015 by Catherine 22 Comments

Spring raised bed narcissus

I think we’ve all got a spot in our garden that niggles at us.  This week I’ve been tackling the one that’s been niggling at me for about 5 years now! We don’t have a garden at the front of our house, but there is a small raised bed which we look out onto from the lounge.  This bed was home to a very stubborn ivy which was always engulfing the gatepost, and the soil was constantly escaping through the stones onto the drive. I wanted to ...

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Garden, HDYGG, Moss, Planting, Plants, Project, Raised bed, Spring

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I’m Catherine, mum, wife, writer and fan of wellies. We love exploring, creating and growing things and my blog shares 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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