The Genus Garden

July can be a busy month in the garden and Genus HQ is no exception.  With a week in London exhibiting at the Hampton Court Flower Show we were already...

Things have been reaching a bit of a peak in the Genus vegetable garden in recent weeks.  Last month the strawberries cropped well and are now delivering the odd bonus...

Rozanne has started to be a problem recently.  She’s a bit of a bully, is always after attention, and doesn’t let anyone else join in.  Rozanne of coure is the...

A few years ago we started a small nuttery behind the showroom at Genus HQ. The trees we planted - a selection of hazelnuts and filberts - included ‘Corabel’, ‘Halls...

Our vegetable nursery bed is needed for other things so we decided to transplant our Musselburgh leeks into their permanent home.  With the help of a hand fork we eased them...

Planted about five years ago, our hornbeam hedge that runs parallel with the farm track was looking decidedly straggly last week.  Luckily growth on the northern side is far less...

We spent some time in the  borders this week at Genus HQ removing old wallflower plants along with the spent stems of tulips that gave us such a good show...

Putting aside all the planning, head scratching, and procrastinating, it's the small unplanned surprises that often give us the most satisfaction.  It’s interesting and remarkable how an unexpected event will...

Our orchard lawn at Genus HQ is a wonderful matrix of all sorts of grasses and wildflowers including clover, dandelion, speedwell, and cowslips.  In contrast we like to keep the...

Our tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers that were moved into 2 litre pots just a few weeks ago have enjoyed the warm conditions that the greenhouse affords, putting on impressive growth...

Six or seven weeks ago we sowed our brassicas into a nursery bed - their temporary lodgings until they reached a suitable size for transplanting.  Cavalo Nero, purple sprouting, Romanesco...

Last year's wet spring followed by a mild summer led to incredibly enthusiastic growth from the plants in the garden at Genus HQ.  Many normally well behaved perennials grew above...

An early morning wander through the woodland garden at Genus HQ is joy at this time of year.  No sooner are the spring bulbs dying back than the shrubs -...

Sometimes sheer curiosity takes over and leads us down several (metaphorical) garden paths.  Several weeks ago we wrote about the cherry trees at Genus HQ and hand in hand with...

With beautiful bright conditions in the Genus garden we spent some time in the greenhouse sowing a selection of seeds.  One of them, canary creeper, is an annual climber related...

Every spring sees frenzied activity on a corner of the Genus HQ lawn.  Flying at low level are a dozen or so ashy mining bees searching for new mates and...

A corner of the Genus garden is affectionately known as Cherry Tree Corner and at this time of year it comes into its own with Prunus serrulata ‘Shirotae’, P. Serrula,...

Two weeks ago we mentioned our excitement in the spring while waiting for toads to return to our pond and make merry, where they leave their ribbons of spawn like...

We’re quick off the block in the Genus vegetable garden this year.  We planted our first-early potatoes (Epicure) in a nice deep trench and covered them with our homemade compost...

With the sun shining we decided to give the orchard lawn its first cut of the year.  We removed fallen twigs and sticks and in some areas the grass was...

Spring has sprung, birds are singing, and borders are coming back to life with early blooms of snowdrops, daffodils, and winter flowering shrubs.  But the slowly rising temperatures have initiated...