Rhug

Ornamental, edible, native

Rhug is a holiday cottage and family retreat, surrounded by a couple of acres of woodland grounds, gloriously situated overlooking the River Teifi near Poppit Sands.

I have worked extensively on the areas around the house mostly with perennial edibles, native wild flowers and some ornamental plants.

Timber clad gable end of house with rose climbing — *The approach to Rhug is up a track, greeted by rose 'Blush Noisette' on the timber clad gable end*

There are three rose cultivars from David Austen: ‘Blush Noisette’ for the gable end, ‘Generous Gardener’ for the rose arch over the entrance and ‘James Galway’ for the corner of the patio wall.

Valley in distance, viewed along timber clad end of house and past glorious rose — *View of the valley and close-up of 'Blush Noisette'*

Pale pink double rose on rustic wooden rose arch — *'Generous Gardener' on the rose arch*

Hoverfly on open pale rose — *'James Galway' providing nectar and pollen on the patio wall*

The woodland beds are to the west of the house, and contain Blueberry shrubs, Rhubarb ‘Timperley Early’ and native wild flowers.

Small woodland garden with stone steps — *The small woodland beds and stone steps to the west of the house*

Original design

The original design was for curved herb and wild flower beds, providing shelter and screening for a hot tub, barbeque and green roof seating area. A water bowl and semicircular beds on the the balustrade provided additional planting and intimacy to the space.

CAD garden design — *Detail on hot tub, barbecue and seating area*

Unfortunately, the builder pulled out of construction. The remaining beds are by the front door, the patio wall and the gable end.

Water bowl on a stump in a garden bed — *Steel water bowl, focus of a circular bed*

There is no water bowl alas, but I have taken the opportunity to plant up the available beds with a mixture of wild flowers and forest garden plants. These include Everlasting Pea, Field Scabious, Self Heal, Hyssop and Creeping Thyme by the house.

Pink Everlasting Pea flowers — *UK native Everlasting Pea (Lathyrus latifolia), perennial climber*

In the gable end bed, there’s a beautiful ‘James Galway’ climbing rose, above Iberian Comfrey, Solomon’s Seal, Hosta sieboldiana and a smörgåsbord of other native and ornamental flowers.

At the foot of the patio wall, there is a curved bed by the track. There are three adjacent climbers leading from the sun into the shade: a Wisteria ‘Issai Perfect’, a nativar honeysuckle ‘Belgica’, and another nativar, Ivy ‘Buttercup’.

Front wall bed, mulched with bark — *Beds at the foot of the patio wall*

The flowers in the bed include Beach Strawberry ground cover, Chives, Yarrow, white Foxglove, Ice Plant sedum and Hedge Woundwort.

Close-up of purple flower spike against dark background — *Hedge Woundwort, an understated UK native, fantastic pollinator plant, flowers July-August*

A low-maintenance mixture of wild flower, ornamental and edibles for a Welsh holiday cottage

For a future stage of landscaping, I designed a low-maintenance forest garden for the back of the house.

CAD forest garden design — *Forest garden design for the sloping rear garden*