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Easy Elderflower Cordial.

June 20, 2017 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Elderflower cordial is one of those things that’s deeply  satisfying to make. This is an easy recipe & has a lovely, fresh flavour & tastes so much better than any that I’ve ever bought. I’ve always been shocked at the amount of sugar that’s required, & experimented with reducing the amount in an effort to make […]

Filed Under: Blog, Recipes Tagged With: elderflower cordial, elderflower cordial recipe

Lemon Polenta Cake

April 28, 2017 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

This weekend has been designated a gardening weekend, there’s loads to do out there, but we will find time to sit & have a cup of tea & a slice of cake in our new, little summerhouse. Lemon polenta is a perfect bake for a busy weekend when time is short. Firstly it tastes deliciously […]

Filed Under: Blog, Recipes Tagged With: lemon polenta cake

Elderflower & Gooseberry Cake

June 24, 2016 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

As a last hurrah for elderflowers and because together with gooseberries they are a match made in heaven,  I’ve made a cake that combines both of these lovely summer flavours. For the sponge, you’ll need: 250g self raising flour 250g softened butter 225g caters sugar 4 large eggs, mixed together in a bowl the filling […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recipes Tagged With: elderflower & gooseberry sponge cake, recipe for elderflower & gooseberry cake

Flowers and cake for a special wedding.

May 16, 2016 By Jill Anderson 2 Comments

May is a fabulous month, suddenly the wisteria has appeared everywhere in full bloom and the road-sides are billowing with cow parsley, and from now onwards it’ll also be the month to remember as the anniversary of my daughters wedding, Family and friends helped get everything ready on Saturday, kitting out the marquee in a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Plants, Recipes Tagged With: edible flowers, wedding cake, wedding flowers

Currently making wild garlic pesto

April 25, 2016 By Jill Anderson 4 Comments

I love this time of year with so much fresh, green growth everywhere, there’s a chill in the air, but the days are longer and there’s a fair bit of sunshine around. I hope you had a good weekend, did you have any sunshine? I seem to start a lot of my posts talking about the […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Plants, Recipes Tagged With: edible flowers, wild garlic, wild garlic pesto

Rhubarb-almond cake & growing rhubarb

March 28, 2016 By Jill Anderson 6 Comments

rhubarb & almond cake

How is your Easter weekend, have you had a good time and did you remember about the clocks changing? Isn’t it nice to have more light in the evenings now. It’s been busy here, the kitchen is finally being re-fitted after a leakage of water nearly 5 months ago and Clive was in hospital 4 […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recipes, Recycling & Sustainability

GYO fruity cake icing

December 21, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I’ve just discovered another way of using home-grown berries, and it involves cake, a perfect combination as far as I’m concerned. I’m all for using berries from the allotment in crumbles, but I realised a few days ago that they can be used to make cake-icing, instead of using synthetic food-colouring, and it was a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recipes Tagged With: fruit cake-icing, Jostaberries

Recipe for an easy & delicious apple cake

October 14, 2015 By Jill Anderson 4 Comments

apples for the apple cake

I’m looking for inventive ways to preserve the buckets and buckets of apples that our two trees at the allotment have produced. The truth is that they’re not very tasty eaters and in the past I’ve simply partially cooked and frozen them, and whilst it’s lovely to have a supply of fruit for crumbles [favourite […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recipes Tagged With: allotment apples, apple cake recipe

Mint tea anyone?

June 12, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

mint growing in a plant pot

Mint is such a wonderful herb, it’s useful for sweet and savoury recipes and has lots of health benefits too; it’s free of caffeine, choc full of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals, helps digestion and is a quick cure for indegestion and nausea. It’s also easy to grow, as long as those ambitious roots are contained. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Recipes Tagged With: growing mint for tea, how to make peppermint tea

Growing rhubarb & making rhubarb cake

February 21, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

rhubarb & almond cake, how to grow rhubarb

A home baked cake is always a lovely thing, it’s as fresh as you like and you know exactly what’s in it. In this case it’s rhubarb from the allotment that’s been stashed away in the freezer since last year. Planting fruit makes sense for sustainable growing, once it’s in the ground it carries on […]

Filed Under: Blog, Recipes, Recycling & Sustainability, Uncategorized Tagged With: growing rhubarb, rhubarb & almond cake, sustainability, sustainable growing

Preserving fruit and vegetables.

September 18, 2014 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Jams & preserves Workshop Wilsey, www.growingnicely.co.uk

The great thing about growing your own, herbs, fruit and vegetables, is that you get lots of lovely, fresh food, but no matter how hard you try, there’s always a glut. The answer to this happy problem is to preserve fruit and vegetables and squirrel them away for another day, it’s so nice to have […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recipes Tagged With: Jams & Preserves Workshop Wilsey, making jam, preserving fruit, preserving fruit and vegetables, RHS Wisley Gardens

Easy elderflower cordial – freezing a bit of summer for later in the year.

June 21, 2013 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Hedgerows are full of flowering elder trees at the moment, the creamy flowerheads look so pretty. For longer than I really like to admit I have intended to pick the flowers and make elderflower cordial.  The flowering season is short and they have to be picked at just the right time … and my timing […]

Filed Under: Blog, Inspiration, Plants, Recipes, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: elderflower cordial, elderflowers

Roses, cake and jubilee celebrations.

May 28, 2012 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine here in England, it’s a lovely time of year… the roses are starting to bloom and gardens still have that fresh, green look. We’re all hoping the sunshine will last through to next weekend, when most of us have an extra day off work to celebrate the Queens diamond jubilee. You […]

Filed Under: Blog, Garden Design, Inspiration, Recipes Tagged With: jubilee roses, jubilee weekend, Queens jubilee, rose petals, rose-water & pistachio cake, roses

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Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
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The healing, calming power of nature in one photo. The healing, calming power of nature in one photo.
These wonderful autumn colours won’t be around for much longer. But that’s ok, because now is what matters, & their fleeting beauty makes them even more precious.
It’s easy to see how being among trees & nature is so beneficial for our health & wellbeing. 
Have a great Sunday.
Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it lo Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it look spectacular with this bold front door.
Today has been hard work, after a lovely time last week in Norfolk. The north coast there is spectacular. Realising these last few months, that there are so many beautiful places here. 
Have a nice evening.
Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Vis Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Visiting to see the Anish Kapoor sculptures, which are amazing, but unprepared for the beauty of the grounds & garden. 
Such a treat, worth coming to Norfolk for this alone!
Hope you’re keeping well, & managing to smile some of the time. x
P.S. more of Houghton Hall & Anish Kapoor on my stories
We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberrie We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberries, after coffee & cake, sitting in the churchyard - the cafe was full, & the churchyard is a quiet, peaceful spot..... as you’d expect.
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One little advantage of lockdown is walking so much more, rather than using the car. Though it shouldn’t have taken something as momentous as this, for me to change bad habits 🙁
Hope you’re weekend is going well.
My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from a random clump of hazel on the garden. Now looking much better covered in winter squash plants, so you can’t see just how ramshackle it is. I like to think it has a certain home-spun charm .

Great for small space gardening, imagine how much room you need to grow these without vertical supports.

I’ve got 2 Uchiki kuri, lovely nutty flavour.
1 Turks turban, for its flamboyant shape & colours, though it also tastes good.
One unknown, grown by my grandsons in their homeschooled science lesson.
Close-ups of the squash over on my stories.
Stay cool my friends x
I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium reg I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium regale) which is flowering right outside our bedroom window. 
It gets sun for about 4 hours only, you can order the bulbs now for planting in September. It’ll reappear every year & waft delicious scent around your garden, or through your windows.
Have a very happy Monday x
It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be said for fabulous seasonal flowers that haven’t travelled thousands of miles ...... & are wonderful for biodiversity
A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-s A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-summer!) & it’s, mostly, all growing nicely.

Spinach, courgettes & garlic in shot here. 
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x
Hope is a decision I’ve thought long & hard abou Hope is a decision
I’ve thought long & hard about how to view the tumult in the world we’re living in now. 
The only thing that works for me, is to choose hope.

It’s a tall order, but avoiding mainstream news & speculation helps avoid the anxiety, that’s often waiting in the wings.

One day soon there’ll be grandchildren clambering over this again.
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