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.

A gardening bucket-list: 6 garden must-sees and must-haves

The Genus new edition gardening trousers come in three beautiful new colours. This is something that we have always wanted, and something that our customers have been asking us for....
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Gardening leave and preserving fruit liquer

The last few weeks have been such a very busy time for Genus, the big push for our trade stand at Hampton Court show, then running our Summer Sale as...
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Genus at Hampton Court Flower Show

Well what an unusual month June has been this year. In many parts of the country gardeners have been dealing with wet and cold and un-summer like conditions. June 2016...
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Developing clothes for gardeners

Well it looks like 2016 is going to be a great year for Genus. There are lots of exciting developments on the horizon. This week we have been busy visiting the ISPO...
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Summer gardening is here!

Summer is definitely here.  Even though this year has felt a little cooler than average (perhaps because of the weak El Niño we are experiencing at the moment) the temperature in...
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Hori hori knife

One of our customers from the United States told us that she regularly uses a hori hori knife.  I don't know anyone here in the UK who uses one, but...
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Gardeners' Christmas pleasure: Christmas wreaths from "garden waste"

It was such a lovely weekend here in the Cotswolds.  Bright and crisply cold.  The Genus garden received a little bit of tidying up attention.  Whilst raking up the leaves I had...
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The clocks are changing: Short day plants carry on

I’ve just received a reminder about the clocks changing back to GMT.  That will be the end of summer then!  Not that you would know it.  This year the Genus garden...
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Garden chickens for gardeners' wellbeing

The last few days, it’s been raining a bit too much for there to be much gardening.  However, the newly arrived chickens at the bottom of the Genus garden provide...
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Birds a gardeners's friend - unless it's a partridge in the kitchen!

It was such a beautiful gardening weekend.  The Genus garden is now really coming into life.  After all the planting, weeding, hoeing, feeding and mulching it's sure to look good. Whilst we...
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Growing your own

It’s been a weekend of seed sowing, potting-on, and mulching in my fruit and vegetable garden.  Getting all this sorted, and listening to the Gardeners Question Time team at the Edible...
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Parsnip soup

We’ve finally managed to harvest the parsnips. You need to wait until the leaves die down before lifting them, but that was in the middle of Christmas. When we finally had...
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John Harrison's old gardening trousers

John Harrison bought a pair of Genus gardening trousers and took this photo of his old ones before throwing them away.  He says: "I tend to kneel down when I'm...
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Yellow rattle

It was interesting that Monty Don opened today's programme on the Great British Garden Revival with an explanation of how yellow rattle helps wildflower meadows to grow.  It was only...
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November means leaves

For some people, November means moustaches, but for us gardeners November means leaves. There are more than fifty trees in the Genus garden at Field Cottage.  We have a spinney...
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Defensive gardening

Gardening is an enjoyable activity that yields beautiful results, but did you know that gardening can also help secure your home? Here are some ideas for keeping your home safe...
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