The Genus Garden - Musings From Joff, Our Head Gardener

Broad beans

We’ve experimented with various methods of planting broad beans over the years in our bid to achieve a successful crop.  An early winter sowing is often very successful.  Sown very...
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Snake in the grass

Two years ago we planted several hundred Snakeshead fritillary bulbs in the Genus meadow.  Unfortunately they’ve always proved to be a disappointment.  With very few flowering we assumed that they...
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Repeat performance

We decided not to plant any tulips last autumn, waiting to see if any from previous years would put in a repeat performance.  The thing about tulips is that some...
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Bursting With Life

It feels as though the plants in the Genus garden are synchronised with the Greenwich Clock.  No sooner had we adjusted our clocks for British Summer Time than the garden...
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Versatile Ivy

One of our annual jobs at Genus HQ is reining in the ever enthusiastic ivy that scrambles over the garage on the west side of the garden.  We originally planted...
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Morse Toad

It's always cause for celebration.  Last Wednesday we spotted half a dozen toads skulking around in the bottom of the pond; shifting plant life and occasional movement in the murky...
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Potato Planting

It might seem early in the year but this week we decided to plant out our potatoes and, upon checking our diary, we were surprised to see we had planted them on exactly the...
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Several weeks ago regular readers will remember we removed our snow-battered and disfigured Lonicera hedge from outside the cottage front door.  The resulting area, approximately 5 metres by 2 metres...
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Gooseberry

Since last summer we’ve been making a concerted effort to keep the climbers on the south wall of the cottage under control.  A major trim and prune last year took...
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Gold rush

Two years ago we planted several hundred crocus bulbs in the area of the Genus garden that we call Cherry Tree Corner.  They’ve performed well and each plant has slowly...
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Removal business

We were in the removal business this week at Genus HQ.  Not traipsing up and down stairs with wardrobes and mattresses, but out in the garden removing a large half...
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Do you dig it?

Do you dig it? We didn’t consciously become ‘no diggers’ in the Genus vegetable garden, but it seems this practice has become extremely popular in the last decade or more...
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Winter pruning

A freezing cold day can restrict options in the garden due to frozen soil and grass prone to damage on finer lawns.  After many years' living in a cold rural...
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House trained

With the mild autumn weather persisting for quite a bit longer than previous years, we were finding that many of the trees and shrubs at Genus HQ were very slow...
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Currant affairs

Adjacent to the vegetable garden at genus HQ is our fruit cage.  It’s of a good size, 5 metres by 4 metres with metal uprights supporting the black mesh.  We...
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The end of mulching

The garden at Genus HQ has been somewhat neglected in recent weeks due to holidays or inclement conditions, but a day of better weather this week enabled us to get...
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Annual problem

Every year we all have that annual problem.  No, not vine weevil in our geums but the problem of Christmas tree disposal - what to do when the decorations are back...
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Ticking the list

With some unexpected guests here at Genus HQ over Christmas we had a busy time laughing, entertaining, playing games, and of course cooking.  On the catering side we’re lucky that...
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Cold work

It’s not often that work in the Genus garden grinds to a halt but the recent cold snap and deep snow did just that.  With a few mulching projects and...
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Winter scent

We had several beautiful, bright cold days at Genus HQ last week.  The sun shone through the eastern copse like torchlight, its beams accentuated by the rising early morning mist...
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Mulching - again!

It's been dry enough recently for us to finish off tidying the borders in the flower garden and, with the remaining perennials cut back, we were able to see what...
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