
Now that significant storms are named it is much easier to assign blame; e.g. “That horrible Bert did so and so” is much more descriptive than “the storm of November 2024 did so and so”. The trouble is, at the current rate they’ll run out of names before the end of the season. We actually started before any names, when on October 16th, the stream burst over the road as the culverts… Read More
This little fella decided to sunbathe next to us while we were having lunch on the patio today.
Gardens and nature in the landscape of the Grwyne Fawr This day out centres on the picturesque and peaceful upper Grwyne Fawr valley which is deep in the heart of the Black Mountains, running parallel to the Llanthony valley but often over-looked. A hidden gem. This itinerary suggests 3 options for the morning followed by a visit to Nant-y-bedd Garden in the afternoon. The options allow for weather, levels of fitness and seasonal interest. This… Read More
Why did you choose to garden here? Well, it wasn’t quite like that. Sue came here with her late husband (also called Ian) when he was posted here by the Forestry Commission. In those days the house came with the job and most forestry workers lived where they worked. 1200 feet up a Welsh mountain isn’t probably the obvious choice for developing a garden! How long have you been here? Sue came… Read More
Continuing our series of short videos so that you can see a little bit of what you might have seen if we were able to open. After we purchased the woodland and riverbank, we cleared years of fallen branches, matted with groves of bramble, all along the bank. Without any planting, we now have a few rapidly growing patches of bluebells, establishing themselves with glee in the shade of the hazels. The… Read More
Continuing our current video posts (or should that be vlogs?), here’s a little snippet of one part of our river, before and after Storm Dennis. We’ll be continuing to vlog this and other aspects of the garden over the next months, so you can see the best of the garden from your armchair. For example, just along the bank from here will be carpeted in bluebells in May, and we wouldn’t want… Read More
The hot weather at the start of the summer has definitely had a big effect on many of our crops. Without going into the usual veggies, spuds onions beans, beans, beans …. we have had maybe our best ever returns from a number of different sources. Let’s start with the less well known. The Sichuan Peppercorn tree has yielded six spice jars worth of dried peppercorns, three times more than the… Read More
We were very lucky last week to have a wonderful documentary film-maker staying with us. By some sort of serendipity she phoned us looking for somewhere to stay in the area whilst she did some film editing and looked at a property she was interested in. So we offered her the use of the garden room in return for making a short video for us. Sophie Windsor Clive, for that is her… Read More
No, that’s not a spelling mistake in the title. We’re talking here about beech trees in the dingle, not lovely sandy stretches in the Bahamas. The big snow of just before Christmas, knocked quite a few branches off trees, particularly some of the conifers in the garden, but nothing too catastrophic. It was only when I went up to clear the pond pipe and check the hydro intake, that I saw it…. Read More