Winter is a great time of year for us to tackle many of the climbing plants that clothe the walls of Genus HQ. It’s always a surprise how much growth...
Gardeners with smartphones will probably know that they entertain us with random photographs on the home screen every day - a picture more often than not we’ve totally forgotten taking. ...
With the first day of December just gone, it would be traditional to say “a pinch and punch, first day of the month” to any friend we might have encountered in...
Last week we talked about cutting back the borders and planting them up for a much needed injection of spring colour. Wallfowers, foxgloves, and tulips were planted and now mulching...
There’s much controversy these days about the merits of cutting back garden borders in the autumn. We do cut back and there's a number of reasons that we do it...
We don’t grow a lot of grasses in the Genus garden but those we have play an important role, acting as a foil for the Dahlias, Rudbeckias, and perennial sunflowers...
While storm Ciarán ploughed its way along the south coast wrecking homes and gardens, Genus HQ remained relatively unscathed, just catching the tail end of the spiralling pressure system. We...
With little prospect of our tomatoes ripening any further we decided to clear all the vines in the greenhouses and turn the fruits into chutney and sauces. Stripey ‘Tigerella’, good...
While most of the garden has been slowly winding down, other areas have been seeing some intriguing activity. Fungi! From puffballs in the meadow, to shaggy ink caps on the...
In recent years we’ve been quite organised with our late summer or autumn sown seeds. Biennials such as wallflowers are often sown as early as August, and our foxgloves too. Many...
Regular readers of this blog will know that we’ve become great fans of foxgloves. Easy to grow, happy in shade or sun, and flowering in early summer they’re a great...
With October fast approaching, early mornings in the Genus garden have been turning noticeably colder, the garden often shrouded in mist that has rolled in from the surrounding fields. Whatever...
We must have been late with the sowing of our Morning Glory seeds because they appear to be rather late developers and are only now coming into flower. They’ve used...
Cosmos are often recommended as the go-to annual flower for filling space and giving late season colour in the borders. Coming in a range of heights, colours, and with differing...
We love our orchard here at Genus HQ. With 21 trees it’s a great source of fruit. Apples, pear, cherries, and plums, all behave differently cropping variably from year to...
Despite the lack of sun and recent hints of autumn we manage to keep colour the top of our list when it comes to the late summer border at Genus HQ. Dahlias that...
With the skies now empty of swifts, their screaming mobs careering around the garden in the evening light now long gone, it seems autumn, if not already upon us, is...
Hidden beneath the surface of the Genus garden is a network of hoses that supply water to various parts of the garden. Stemming from a central station the flow is...
This week at Genus HQ, as the sun shone and the day grew warmer, we spotted some activity in the rockery on the western side of the cottage. Closer inspection...
A good year for aphids will probably be considered an oxymoron by some, but 2023 really has seen more than its fair share of these tiny insects. Weather conditions in...
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The Genus Garden - Musings From Joff, Our Head Gardener
