Window boxes lifting the soul

Window boxes lifting the soul

Genus founder Sue began gardening in miniature in her London flat using planters and window boxes as a route to releasing her gardening passion. There’s lots that can be done container gardening in a small space.

Window boxes are one great way to green the grey in urban and village areas, bringing colour, homes for wildlife and a sense of wellbeing right into a place.  The planting design should aim for something central and taller, with shorter plants to the side, with curtains of trailing plants all along.  The planting scheme can change through the year ringing the passing seasons.

We have just been preparing spring window boxes planting them up with favourite flowering bulbs, snowdrops and miniature daffodils and trailing ivy.  Up and running already are the late autumn boxes which have cyclamen, Senecio and winter pansies.

The art of container gardening and window box planting is said by some to have begun with the Romans, but there has been something of a resurgence in gardeners' interest for hanging baskets and window boxes more recently with the current trend for upcycling seeing all kinds of containers appearing ..... even old Wellington boots!


Wildlife in the garden - collared doves

We love collared doves. They’re often around the garden grazing under the bird feeders and the margins of the surrounding fields.  Barely known in the UK prior to the 1950s,...
Read More

Modern heroes of horticulture - Adam Kirtland

Adam Kirtland is a gardener who has surged onto the gardening scene in recent years with his informative, relatable, and often incredibly witty Instagram account that offers advice from making...
Read More

Gardeners' notes - what to do in August

Propagate clematis Many clematis will have flowered by now and you may have spotted a particularly good performer in your own or a friend’s garden.  Now is a good time...
Read More