The Genus Garden

Alliums are great additions to any garden.  Taking up little space their tall slim stems can be squeezed in between most plants and their umbelliferous flower heads make a real...

Many gardens have key plants and top performers.  Location, aspect, and soil type can dictate what grows best and sometimes it is only trial and error that will pin down the lead role for...

We’re very lucky to have three Aesculus trees in the Genus garden.  One, Ausculus x carnea the red horse-chestnut is a hybrid between Aesculus hippocastanum and A. pavia and is...

We don’t need to tell you that last winter was tough on our garden plants.  We’ve had colder winters.  We’ve had wetter winters.  But a combination of factors meant that...

Everything seems to be going on in the Genus garden this week.  The lawns, bright green and lush, are growing at such a pace that if a weekly cut is missed...

We’ve experimented with various methods of planting broad beans over the years in our bid to achieve a successful crop.  An early winter sowing is often very successful.  Sown very...

Two years ago we planted several hundred Snakeshead fritillary bulbs in the Genus meadow.  Unfortunately they’ve always proved to be a disappointment.  With very few flowering we assumed that they...

We decided not to plant any tulips last autumn, waiting to see if any from previous years would put in a repeat performance.  The thing about tulips is that some...

It feels as though the plants in the Genus garden are synchronised with the Greenwich Clock.  No sooner had we adjusted our clocks for British Summer Time than the garden...

One of our annual jobs at Genus HQ is reining in the ever enthusiastic ivy that scrambles over the garage on the west side of the garden.  We originally planted...

It's always cause for celebration.  Last Wednesday we spotted half a dozen toads skulking around in the bottom of the pond; shifting plant life and occasional movement in the murky...

It might seem early in the year but this week we decided to plant out our potatoes and, upon checking our diary, we were surprised to see we had planted them on exactly the...

Several weeks ago regular readers will remember we removed our snow-battered and disfigured Lonicera hedge from outside the cottage front door.  The resulting area, approximately 5 metres by 2 metres...

Since last summer we’ve been making a concerted effort to keep the climbers on the south wall of the cottage under control.  A major trim and prune last year took...

Two years ago we planted several hundred crocus bulbs in the area of the Genus garden that we call Cherry Tree Corner.  They’ve performed well and each plant has slowly...

We were in the removal business this week at Genus HQ.  Not traipsing up and down stairs with wardrobes and mattresses, but out in the garden removing a large half...

Do you dig it? We didn’t consciously become ‘no diggers’ in the Genus vegetable garden, but it seems this practice has become extremely popular in the last decade or more...

A freezing cold day can restrict options in the garden due to frozen soil and grass prone to damage on finer lawns.  After many years' living in a cold rural...

With the mild autumn weather persisting for quite a bit longer than previous years, we were finding that many of the trees and shrubs at Genus HQ were very slow...

Adjacent to the vegetable garden at genus HQ is our fruit cage.  It’s of a good size, 5 metres by 4 metres with metal uprights supporting the black mesh.  We...

The garden at Genus HQ has been somewhat neglected in recent weeks due to holidays or inclement conditions, but a day of better weather this week enabled us to get...