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.

Holiday perils

One of us had a week off recently.  It coincided with the start of the lovely weather and was the perfect time to unwind by the sea.  Unfortunately the garden...
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Euphorbia euphoria

We don’t have a huge collection of euphorbias here at Genus HQ but those we do have are cherished for their contribution to the beds and borders.  In spring visitors...
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Candles in the wind

In the Genus garden Malus, cherry, Sorbus, and Amelanchier are trees with exceptional blossom but a favourite on a totally different scale are the Aesculus trees - the horse chestnuts. ...
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Working around

This week was particularly busy with an upcoming photoshoot looming and everything working around the unpredictable weather.  With heavy rain from the start we spent time in the greenhouse potting...
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Under pressure

We’re under more pressure than usual to get the garden looking nice due to an upcoming photoshoot at the end of the month.  Looking at pictures from this time last...
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Sowing and mowing

More sowing and more mowing were on our list of jobs to get done this week.  Cool mild weather has kept the grass growing and with one large orchard lawn...
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Potting on

Our attention was focussed in and around the Genus greenhouse this week with our seedlings getting either potted on or hardened off.  The sunflowers ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Buttercream’ have...
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Net results

We’ve had quite a full week with lots of jobs needing to be done and only a limited amount of time to carry them out.  Firstly we tackled a leaky...
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Mind the gap

‘Mind the gap’ is a familiar term with those of us who've been on the London Underground, but it's also become a common phrase here at Genus HQ in recent years. ...
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Lawn time

With our grass now growing well, lawns were the focus for us this week.  After edging they all received a pass from the mower and produced a surprising amount of...
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Sowing

The beautiful weather of the last few days has propelled us into seed sowing mode.  The majority of our seeds are for annuals; gap fillers and punctuation points to be...
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Cutting back grasses

We've been cutting down our deciduous grasses this week.  In summer one corner of our border is a beautiful tangle of tall perennials such as rudbeckia, helenium, helianthus, and dahlias. ...
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New planting

The recent addition of French doors at genus HQ has opened up a whole new vista for us to observe while eating our breakfast.  Unfortunately the planting in this area...
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Full of the joys

We’ve been wanting to enlarge one of our flower beds for some time and with beautiful weather still on the cards we decided to start work.  The rather rotten wooden...
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Broad beans

With a week of high pressure giving us glorious sunny days we decided to get into the vegetable garden and sow some broad beans.  Very hardy, and very tasty, broad...
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Your March gardening to-do list

It’s March tomorrow and it's getting busy out there in the garden. As you can see, Joff has been pruning the roses in the Genus garden.  Here are our top 10...
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After the freeze

The milder weather we’ve been having over the last few days has enabled us to get on with the work that was postponed by the previous week's deep freeze.  With...
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Deep freeze

What a week!  Freezing cold temperatures, ground frozen, and scatterings of snow.  Plans that were previously made to sow seeds suddenly seemed laughable and a quick mental pivot was required...
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Mulching mad

Mulching.  We’re at it again! It was only just before Christmas that we were talking about spreading compost on the flower borders.  It’s something we’re passionate about.  A decade of...
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Lockdown hair

When we first moved into the cottage at Genus HQ it had a functional but extremely ugly concrete garage.  It’s the first thing we see on our return home and...
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Looking to the future

Gardeners are an optimistic bunch, never put off by failures, always trying again, and always looking to the future.  Small but barely noticeable signs at Genus HQ have made us...
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