Blogger Spotlight: Catherine Hughes, Growing Family

Catherine is a mum, wife, writer and a fan of wellies. She loves exploring, growing things, and uses her blog as a platform to share ideas, like what to plant in May, useful tools to use like grass trimmers, and cage plant protectors. However, Catherine’s blog isn’t just about gardening as she often shares tips for making the most of busy family life. In this spotlight, Catherine, who’s blog Growing Family appears on our gardening blog ranking chats to us about why she finds gardening relaxing, why she enjoys working with PRs and collaborating with brands. 

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your blog? I’m Catherine, mum, wife, writer, gardening geek and fan of wellies. I live in Nottingham with my husband, our two children aged 10 and 5, and our grumpy cat. I love growing things, and when I’m not pottering about in the garden I’m probably planning my next gardening session. Growing Family is my home and garden blog which shares ideas, inspiration and tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.

Why did you start the blog? Before having kids I worked in brand marketing but gave up the full-on career to be a full-time mum. I started blogging as a creative outlet while the kids were small and quickly realised it was a flexible way to combine my love of writing with my passion for gardening, being outdoors and spending time with my family. Now it has become my day job, which is pretty amazing.

What is gardening to you (how important is it you to have a garden in your home)? I literally cannot imagine not gardening. I grew up grubbing around on my dad’s allotment, and the urge to coax things into life and develop my own patch of land has been an obsession ever since. I find gardening so relentlessly positive; I think that’s down to the fact that you’re growing things, connecting with nature and just being in the great outdoors, as much as it is about surrounding yourself with beautiful plants. Gardening is how I relax; it never fails to calm my mind and give me perspective. My kids love getting stuck in with gardening too, so it also plays a big part in how we spend time together as a family.

What type(s) of plants do you grow? I’m not very fussy, but I try to avoid anything too high maintenance as I don’t have endless time to tend to my plants. The recent succulents trend has suited me perfectly for this reason! I have a real soft spot for white flowers so there are lots of those in my garden – my favourite is a beautiful white tree peony that produces enormous blooms every spring – and I love clematis. I’m a huge fan of getting kids involved in gardening, so we always grow their favourites too – cosmos, salad, sweet peas and of course, sunflowers. We also have an allotment, so we grow a lot of our own fruit and veg as well.

Did you anticipate for your blog to become this popular and successful? I’ve worked really hard on my blog and I’m very proud of it, but no I didn’t expect it. I’ve always thought of it as covering quite a niche topic, but gardening is a hugely popular hobby so I suppose it’s obvious that people are interested in reading blogs about it! When people get in touch to tell me it has inspired or helped them that’s just brilliant.

What is your major challenge as a gardener? Time – I never have enough. With young kids, work and the hectic pace of family life, it’s hard to fit it in. I’ve learned to garden in shorter bursts, whenever I can, rather than waiting for lots of spare time which inevitably never arrives.  I think lots of people find themselves in this situation, so I’ve shared my tips in my ’10 minute gardener’ series in the hope that it helps readers keep up their hobby.

What advice do you have for others wanting to start their own gardening blog? If you’re passionate about it, go for it. I decided to write about what I love doing, and for me that has made blogging so much more fun and rewarding. I would also say it’s well worth engaging with other bloggers, there are lots of forums on social media for doing this and it’s a brilliant way to find advice and support.

How do you like to work with PRs? I really enjoy collaborating with PRs and regularly work on ambassadorships, sponsored content, reviews, giveaways, guest writing and social media promotion. My readers expect and enjoy unique content, so that’s always my aim when working with brands.

How can PRs improve their blogger outreach? A bit of research on the blog really pays off in terms of finding a truly good fit with the brand. In my experience, it has always been those kinds of partnerships that have generated the most authentic, relevant content for my audience, and as a natural consequence delivered better engagement. I also think a detailed brief is so important; as well as being a professional way to work, it helps avoid misunderstandings and saves lots of time.

What do you see in the future for your blog? I love collaborating with brands and I’d like to build on this work with more partnerships. I also want to continue the focus on getting kids into gardening, I think there are so many benefits to doing so and I really want to help spread the word. At the moment, I’m working on ideas for some new gardening tips series, so watch this space!