The Genus Garden

Witty and acutely observant accounts of what is going on in the Genus Garden week by week - written by Joff Elphick our Head Gardener.

Your May gardening to-do list

Spring has sprung at last and there’s plenty to do in the garden. Here are our top 10 jobs for you to do now. Prune your penstemon now - provided there...
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Book review - The Essential Garden Design Workbook

Lockdown is a great time to read and skill up, and for anyone wanting to learn more about garden design, this bestselling classic gives you a thorough grounding in the...
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Blue is the colour

Visitors who come to Genus HQ pass by a small border that looks especially good at this time of year.  Early primroses in February set the theme and are followed...
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The Woodland Garden

Located to the side of a small copse our woodland garden is a great success at this time of year.  Recently carpeted with narcissi and snowdrops and containing a range...
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On a High

We’ve left some of our pruning of the apple and pears rather late this year so it was a case of ‘out with the tripod ladder’ and ‘get up high’...
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Fanned Scent

A small bed against  the north wall of Genus HQ is planted with a nice mix of  geranium, hellebores, saroccoca, and bulbs.  Several years ago a favourite philadelphus was threatening...
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Why do you garden?

There are so many different reasons that people garden.  Here is a selection of thoughts from our customers. I love being outside in different seasons working with the soil and...
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A Day in the Sun

Wonderful weather this week has allowed us to make some progress in the garden.  An area in the woodland garden has a number of Betula jacquemontii underplanted with a variety of...
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Signs of Spring get gardeners going

So the Spring equinox has arrived, the time when the day and night are equally long, and we know we are moving towards the longer days of summer.  Here in the Genus...
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Jobs a'plenty

We spent some valuable time walking around the garden this week looking at jobs to do and making decisions on some shrubs that needed moving. Three philadelphus have been struggling...
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Digging up the stumps

In the film Out of Africa Meryl Streep may have had a coffee farm 'at the foot of the Ngong Hills’ but at Genus HQ we are very proud of...
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Simple Division

With the recent wind and rain we’ve been holding back a few tasks that we could do if things got just too tempestuous to carry on working outside.  Thursday was...
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Help is at hand for overstretched gardeners

How many times have you moaned about not having enough time to do all the jobs in the garden?  You have a few hours, but you still can’t manage to...
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Net Result

This week we started to  replace the netting on our much loved and productive fruit cage.  Stage one was carried out several weeks ago when a mistake was rectified and...
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Your February gardening to-do list

The snowdrops are in full bloom and we can just see the tips of the narcissus tete-a-tete, a sign that spring is just around the corner.  Here are our top 10 jobs...
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Tea and no cake!

With the air crisp and the grass frozen we kept off the lawns last week and spent some time spreading compost on the vegetable beds and turning the heaps.  Our...
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Outdoor clothing at ISPO Munich 2020

We’ve just come back from a couple of days at the Sports and Outdoor Trade Fair. This is held twice a year, in summer and winter, and is the premier...
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Scented treats

Visitors to Genus HQ have been met in recent days by an incredible scent.  Along the path and next to the front door are some mature specimens of Sarcococca that...
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Silk in the borders

This week our Garrya eliptica seemed to suddenly turn a corner.  Almost overnight its long silvery catkins started to lengthen and our eyes were suddenly drawn to the back of...
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Fascinating fasciation

Our lovely woodland garden at Genus HQ is planted with a range of spring flowering bulbs, shrubs, and perennials.  Each year one of the Helleborus foetidus plants puts out curious...
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Your January gardening to-do list

It’s mid winter, but there are plenty of jobs to get on with in the garden. Here’s our top 10: Cut down tatty stems of perennials such as sedum and...
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