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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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The best flowers for bees, and easy ways to make your garden bee friendly

July 25, 2020 by Catherine 11 Comments

Is your garden popular with bees? If not, here are some easy ways to transform it into a bee friendly garden that these vital insects will love to visit. Why bees are important If you’re interested in gardening and nature, you’re probably aware that bees are in trouble, with numbers and species in quite dramatic decline.  What you might not be aware of is just how important bees are to us, and the planet in general. Native bees ...

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Bee hotel, Bees, Flowering plants, Flowers, Garden, gardening, Minibeasts, Nature, sustainable gardening, Top Tips, Wildflowers, Wildlife, Wildlife gardening

The best bee jokes and bee puns

July 2, 2020 by Catherine Leave a Comment

If you're looking for a light-hearted giggle, make a beeline for these bee jokes and bee puns! I've rounded up my favourite bee jokes and bee puns to make you smile. They're great for school projects, greetings card messages, photo captions, or just a bit of fun! Bee jokes Here are some of my favourite funny bee jokes; you can find lots more over at Upjoke and Jokes4Us. Why do bees hum? Because they can’t remember the ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: bee jokes, bee puns, Bees, funny, Garden, humour, Insects, jokes, Minibeasts, puns

Growing sunflowers in pots: easy step-by-step guide

May 12, 2020 by Catherine 5 Comments

If you're looking for easy seeds to grow with children, it's hard to beat growing sunflowers in pots. If you're not gardening with children sunflowers are still fantastic plants to grow, and they make wonderful cut flowers too. This step-by-step guide shows you how to grow sunflowers in pots, covering which seeds to choose, planting and care instructions, and fun sunflower activities for kids. Growing sunflowers in pots As well as ...

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Filed Under: Gardening with Children Tagged With: Activity, Birds, Children, Family, Flowering plants, Flowers, Garden, Garden tips, Garden tools, gardening, gardening equipment, Gardening with children, growing from seed, Minibeasts, Nature, Outdoors, Planting, Plants, Seedlings, Seeds, Spring, Sunflower, Sunflowers, Top Tips, Wildlife

Taking the RSPB Wild Challenge: spotting signs of spring and sowing sunflowers

March 26, 2019 by Catherine Leave a Comment

RSPB signs of spring

Last year we had a great time partnering with RSPB on family-friendly activities that would help to give nature a home in our garden.  You might remember that we planted wildflower seeds, grew flowers for butterflies, made a frog and toad abode, grew plants for moths, and made a bird bath.  It was a busy year! We’re thrilled to be working with RSPB again on some fun new projects.  Over the next few months we’ll be bringing you more ...

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

Helping Britain’s bees with the Hozelock #PlantAPot campaign

March 28, 2018 by Catherine 2 Comments

Hozelock Plant A Pot campaign

You’re probably already aware that bees are in trouble, with numbers and species in quite dramatic decline.  Bees play a crucial role in the pollination of plants - and not just our pretty garden plants, but also food crops.  About a third of the food that we eat relies on bees for pollination, so the fact that they’re struggling is a really serious issue. The good news is that we can all help bees thrive in our gardens and outdoor spaces, by ...

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Filed Under: Exploring Nature Tagged With: Bees, Children, Containers, Family, Flowers, Garden, gardening, Hozelock, Minibeasts, Nature, Outdoors, Planting, Plants, Seeds, Wildlife

11. The 10 minute gardener: winter wildlife gardening

January 23, 2018 by Catherine 5 Comments

wildlife gardening frosty seedheads

Welcome to a special wildlife gardening edition in the 10 minute gardener series.  This time I’m looking at quick gardening jobs you can fit into a busy schedule that will help your local wildlife during winter. Winter is a tough season for garden wildlife; the cold weather demands high-energy food, but natural food sources are hard to find.  Because we don’t spend as much time outdoors in winter, it’s easy to forget that our local wildlife is ...

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Filed Under: Garden jobs this month Tagged With: Birds, Compost, Garden, gardening, Minibeasts, Nature, Top Tips, Wildlife, Wildlife gardening, Winter

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

How to create an eco-friendly garden

April 28, 2016 by Catherine Leave a Comment

make your garden eco friendly with these easy tips from ecoscape composite decking

When it comes to your garden, do you try to be as eco-friendly as possible? Minimising our impact on the planet is by no means a new trend, and we're all very familiar with ways to be more environmentally-friendly around the home; recycling packaging, choosing low-energy light bulbs, and insulating our houses well are all pretty much the norm these days.  But what about extending this way of living to our gardens? I bet when it comes to the ...

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Filed Under: Garden Tips Tagged With: Compost, Eco-friendly, Garden, gardening, Homegrown, Minibeasts, Nature, Outdoors, Plants, Top Tips, Vegetables, 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

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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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