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What to do in your Garden in October

October 15, 2020 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

October is usually a nice month here. The days are shorter, but mild and lovely to be outside, it clears the head and steadies the nerves. The Vegetable Garden in October: It’s nice to be planting vegetables and looking ahead to next year. Garlic is one of my favourite vegetables to grow, it’s simple to […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability, Uncategorized Tagged With: organic gardening, what to do in the garden in October

How To Grow Plenty Of Plants From Seed.

May 13, 2019 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Growing plants from seed can be an uncertain business, so let me share a simple method that guarantees plenty of plants for your garden. Sowing seeds is attractive, because it’s a cheap, easy method of growing plants. However there are many variables that easily disrupt the whole process from seed to plant. The weather here […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Plants Tagged With: growing flowers from seed, growing food from seed, GYO, organic gardening, sustainable gardening

Organic Gardening – Making Garden Bird Food

December 8, 2016 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

How’s your garden, now that we’re properly into winter? This shift in the season has made a welcome change, there’s a kind of stillness in mine as everything quietens down. Generally it’s still a work in progress, so we’ll skim over that until I have more to report back to you …. except I have […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: attracting birds in to your garden, feeding garden birds, organic gardening

How To Grow Hollyhocks

July 25, 2016 By Jill Anderson 6 Comments

Welcome to the start of another sunny week, I’m getting used to this weather and it’s motivating me to get out into the garden and water before the sun gets really hot, especially the plants in pots by the front door. Have you noticed what a good year this has been for hollyhocks? They seem […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Plants Tagged With: how to deal with hollyhock rust, how to grow hollyhocks from seed, organic gardening

Bees’ Needs Week

July 13, 2016 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Bees' Needs Week,

Did you know it’s Bees’ Needs Week? And their needs really matter these days, so there’s this a big push to get gardeners, farmers and growers to help pollinating insects to survive and thrive. These small, precious creatures are vital for producing food, carrying pollen between flowers as they feed in our own gardens, and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: Bees Needs' Week, bug hotel, organic gardening, pollinating insects

How To Make A Bug Hotel.

June 30, 2016 By Jill Anderson 2 Comments

It isn’t easy being an organic gardener, there are times when I’m really tempted to grab some glyphosate and blast the weeds. They do seem to be winning at the moment, mainly because I haven’t kept up with gardening, what with all the rain. But I don’t think chemicals have been used on our garden […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: bug hotel, green roof, how to make an insect hotel, insect habitat, organic gardening, sustainable gardening

Life in the earth

May 10, 2016 By Jill Anderson 2 Comments

Not only are the plants in the garden making lots of fresh vibrant growth, there’s a lot of wildlife activity too. I’ve seen persistent little blue tits and robins flying round the garden gathering nesting material, whittling bits of string off the tree where the bird-feeders hung in winter, and rootling around plants…. this is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: how to grow healthy plants, how to improve garden soil, organic gardening

Attracting pollinating insects into your garden

April 30, 2016 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I’m making an extra effort this year to have plants in the garden that attract pollinating insects, there are so many plants that fit the bill, so it’s pretty easy. This is my little contribution to help bees and all the other insects that are declining in numbers. Apparently the reasons for the reduction in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: flowers for pollinating insects, late flowering plants, organic gardening

Quick guide: kitchen-waste into garden compost.

January 17, 2016 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

kitchen garden

Here’s a simple thing you can do that’ll make the plants in your garden bigger and better, reduce your carbon foot-print, benefit wildlife, and give a helping hand to organic gardeners….whats more it doesn’t cost a penny. It’s all about transforming kitchen-waste into rich, sweet-smelling crumbly garden compost that will do wonders for your garden. […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: garden mulch, kitchen waste into compost, organic gardening, reduce your carbon foot-print

My allotment experience from start to finish.

December 24, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I hope you’ve had a good christmas holiday and that you’re looking forward to 2016. There’ll be a big change next year and we’re getting ready to leave the allotment, so come and have a look round before I close the gate for the last time at the end of the month. Two years ago […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: grow your own, growing fruit, organic gardening

What to do at the allotment in November

October 30, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

I like November at the allotment, it’s good to clear out all the old plants, pull up the bean-posts and restore a sense of order to what has become a bit of a jumble. The joy of weeding at this time of year is that most of them won’t re-grow, and if bare soil is […]

Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: how to make leaf mould, organic gardening, sustainable gardening, What to do at the allotment in November

Simply growing vegetables organically

July 13, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

harvested potatoes at the allotment

A good moment happened at the allotment a few days ago, I usually arrive and see lots of things that need to be done, and a to-do list appears in my head. But on this day I stood back, and looked over the area that 13 months ago was covered waist-high in nettles and bind-weed, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: how to garden organically, organic gardening

How I’m getting rid of weeds in my garden.

April 11, 2015 By Jill Anderson Leave a Comment

Bonnie in the garden

Our new garden has some good stuff in it, like the lovely old brick wall down one side, a few pretty hellebores and a magnificent magnolia tree. It’s got good bones, but there are also a few eye-sores, the cement-block wall behind the garage isn’t very pretty and there are plenty of brambles and weeds to […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: green manure, organic gardening, organic weed control, weeds

How to kill weeds in your garden without using chemicals.

June 27, 2014 By Jill Anderson

flower border, organic gardening, kill weed naturally

No doubt you’ve noticed that weeds are growing like mad during this hot, damp summer. The problem with weeds is that they compete with plants for food and water, they’re very good at it and when they get a grip can smother neighbouring plants. I don’t have a problem with them in my garden, except […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening Tagged With: kill weeds naturally, organic gardening

Simple tips for organic gardening

June 24, 2014 By Jill Anderson

organic gardening, www.growingnicely.co.uk

  Organic gardening, does it all sound a bit worthy, a bit ‘good life’ and scruffy? Do you have an image of watching helplessly as precious plants get munched by pests and not being able to do anything about it? Well no, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Plants in organic gardens grow strong and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Gardening, Growing Food Tagged With: making garden compost, organic gardening

3 tips to avoid using chemicals to kill garden weeds.

May 7, 2013 By Jill Anderson 2 Comments

  Picture a garden in summer sunshine with lots of birdsong, the gentle buzz of bumble bees and healthy, pretty plants. Apart from the lovely song, birds in the garden will eat up all sorts of pests that attack your plants and we need bees to pollinate fruit and flowers. So we need to encourage […]

Filed Under: Blog, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: organic gardening, plants, roses, weeds

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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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