A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

Category: Gardening

Feverfew 0

Beekeeping / Gardening

Feverfew

We weren’t sure whether or not to get rid of all the feverfew in our garden. It certainly grows like a weed here and self-seeds all over the place. On top of that it is supposed to be disliked by bees so not ideal in bee-friendly garden. It does look nice at times though and...

Poppy 0

Gardening / Photography

Poppy

Yet more garden flowers. Poppies self seed themselves all over the place, but the bees like them, they are easy to remove when they appear somewhere that we don’t want them and they certainly add some colour so we tend to leave them here and there.  

Marigold 0

Gardening / Photography

A Splash of Gold

More photos from the garden and a splash of gold thanks to the French Marigolds

Borage 0

Gardening / Photography / Weather

Garden Flowers

It’s another gorgeous day here, clear blue skies, a light breeze and currently 19ºC. Yesterday it reached 24.5ºC, which although it felt hot wasn’t the hottest day of the year so far as we hit 25.3ºC in June 3rd. It’s a shame we have to work on a day like this, but I have just...

Fresh from the garden 0

Gardening / Lifestyle / Nature

Strawberries from the garden

We’ve managed to beat the birds to some of the soft fruit from the garden at last! Anna bought a single strawberry plant a couple of years ago and it has gradually been spreading around a small area of the garden. We have had strawberries on them before but had only managed to eat one...

Our Garden 1

Gardening / Weather

Garden Battered by the Spring

I haven’t posted a garden update here for a while. After the gorgeous early spring weather with plenty of sunshine, little rain and very warm temperatures things took a turn weather-wise. Very strong winds, rain and cold temperatures saw the garden suffering a little. As usual the plants coped OK for the first few days...

Dandelion Flower 3

Gardening / Photography

Dandelions – Friend or Foe

They may be considered weeds, but… They grow better than anything else around here. The guinea pigs love to eat the leaves. We can eat them and even make dandelion flower cookies. The bright yellow flowers are lovely. The seed heads are impressive. The bees can make honey from them. I think it’s time we...

Bee on Dandelion 0

Beekeeping / Gardening

Keeping Honey Bees in the Garden

Since we’ve been planning to keep honey bees, we’ve also been trying to make the garden as bee-friendly as possible. The idea was to plant bee-friendly plants, but still keep the garden looking nice. We wanted it to be a nice place for bees and humans alike. Sounds easy really, we like flowers, bees like...

Anna 1

Family / Gardening / Lifestyle

Open Garden in Ceredigion

Llwyncelyn garden in Glandyfi was open on Sunday as part of the National Garden Scheme, so we had a little family outing to visit it. The National Garden Scheme sees provate gardens all over the country open in aid of charity and I’m sure many people go along for a nose as much as anything...

Web-like caterpillar nest 2

Gardening / Moth Trapping / Nature

Caterpillar Nest

The caterpillars are back, creating their weblike nests in the trees. This year they are in a Willow tree rather than the hawthorn at the moment, but once again I think they are the caterpillar of the Lackey Moth. Morgan discovered them this year and took this photo to show me.