Lower House Garden & Plas Bach Self-Catering

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Lower House Garden & Plas Bach Self-Catering

Plas Bach (Little Palace) at Lower House is a romantic retreat for two, set in the beautiful Box Garden of our secluded 7-acre valley.
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Chosen by Alastair Sawday in The Times, 2010, as his favourite B&B for a relaxing break, Lower House offers all the advantages of staying in Hay-on-Wye whilst enjoying complete peace, in beautiful, romantic surroundings near to the Black Mountains. Guests have all the advantages of staying in Hay, yet can enjoy complete peace, in idyllic surroundings, with the Black Mountains walkable from the door.

30/08/2024

And the clipping continues… The line of yew sentries have been completed. Made all the easier (and safer) with our trusty tripod ladder.

28/08/2024

Stair clippings. Waiting for the rain to abate so the yew clipping can recommence. It wasn’t supposed to rain today…

The steps lead up to the stack of Ming dynasty column bases, bought from a local antique shop years ago, topped by a river pebble.

30/07/2024

A rare recline under the grapevine. Mr LH taking a break from the heat. Reposing in a beautiful green wicker garden recliner which was very thoughtfully gifted to Mrs LH by a friend when she was poorly, so that she could sit and enjoy her beloved garden 💚

The grapes that line the ceiling of the conservatory are almost ready, soon to be gobbled and trailing sticky messes by curious grandchildren.

16/07/2024

A glimmer of sunshine, finally.

15/07/2024

Fallen tree. Mr LH has spent today cutting up this 60ft alder, which fell last week. The roots are still in the ground. The trunk snapped, and it wasn’t stormy, so it must’ve been rotten.

Miraculously it missed the stone in the middle of the mown crop circle (which annoyingly Mr LH had cut that afternoon, and is now flattened), where Gran is sprinkled… See second photo. She must’ve been looking down that day. The stone has been there for over 30 years, rolled down from the woods by Mr LH.

Also, thankfully, it wasn’t the alder a few trees up, as that one has 60ft of Kiftsgate rose climbing up it, and would’ve been very upsetting if it had fallen. Not to mention a real headache to clean up.

14/07/2024

The completed wall in all its completed glory 💚

13/07/2024

Cosmos in the vegetable garden.

Mrs Lower House was the plantswoman of our garden, covering every windowsill, conservatory ledge and poly tunnel bed with endless pots and seedlings, nurturing them until ready to transplant to the ground outside.

Since she died 8 years ago, the garden has continued to grow, evolve and adapt to just one pair of hands lovingly tending it, keeping it all going. There is only so much that one pair of hands can keep on top of in a 7 acre garden. Some things have had to be let go of, and growing flowers from seed was one of them. So it is very lovely to see cosmos back in the veg garden again this summer, providing beautiful bright blooms to welcome the guests in our self catering cabin, Plas Bach, for months to come.

🌸🌸🌸

12/07/2024

Mr Lower House’s latest long-time project, the retaining dry-stone wall below the yew hedge, is now complete.

19/06/2024

Looking down on the round of rounds. The abundance of box in the garden is due to be clipped soon. Photo precariously taken from atop Mr LH’s latest project, repairing the dry stone wall beneath the yew hedge outside the conservatory.

17/06/2024

The magnificent Kiftsgate rambling rose in full bloom, alive with pollen feeding insects.

21/05/2024

*Hay Festival Availability* The perfect spot for a glass of wine on the verandah between talks, looking out over the garden in the evening sun, accompanied by birdsong and the sound of water flowing in the stream below.

Private parking. A mile just outside Hay. Either a 20 minute walk into town along the or a short drive down Cusop Di**le.

Friday 31 May to Monday 3 June (3 nights) available. Email [email protected] or DM via Instagram/Facebook for details.

12/05/2024

Looking through the flowering rosemary to the veranda of Plas Bach, in the haze of sunshine.

16/04/2024

May’s edition of features our garden! A photo of Mr and Daughter LH even makes an appearance, eek. Thank you so much for the wonderful words .sian and beautiful photography 💚💚💚

If you’d like to come visit us and stay in Plas Bach, our garden retreat, drop us a DM 🌿

01/04/2024

The fritillaries are in bloom at Lower House. A mixed time of emotions for the family. The joy of their abundance and delicate beauty, signifying spring’s arrival. They were one of Mrs LH’s favourite spring flowers, and were carpeting the banks of our drive when she died, at home in her beloved home and garden, so their arrival is also tinged with a sadness 💜

Lower House is on the , so you’re welcome to walk up our drive from Cusop Di**le and through to the footpath to see them 💜

30/03/2024

Finally, the long awaited sunshine.

Checking out Granny’s stone cairn, mark ll, built by Mrs LH using stones from the stream below for a garden design project inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. Mark l was originally closer to the stream, and was washed away in a flood.

So good to feel sun on our faces today.

05/03/2024

This is still not a fire.

The fiery red branches of the row of Salix Alba Btizensis beyond the vegetable garden, pollarded every two years to keep the branches ablaze with colour during winter.

04/03/2024

Lines and curves.

28/02/2024

A garden full of buxom buxus.

27/02/2024

The Box Garden from the lawn outside Plas Bach, looking up past the clipped yew ‘onions’ to the . The Offas D**e runs along the top of the bank you can see beyond the garden, and up to the Forest Road leading up to Hay Bluff.

There is a footpath offshoot that runs down our drive, to our little stone bridge over the Dulas Brook, which is the border between Wales (our side) and England (The Other Side), and onto Cusop Di**le, taking you left into Hay, or right up to a dead end and Cusop Hill.

The footpath along the bank once went right through our garden, not just down our drive. As the kitchen sits in the hillside, you’d be sitting eating breakfast and a walker would amble by peering down at you. Although we love showing off the garden, it was a little disconcerting. Especially when fairly frequently we’d find walkers picnicking in our garden. It took many years, but we eventually got the path officially diverted along the top bank, giving us a little more privacy whilst we eat our cornflakes.

26/02/2024

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In box ball form. Many of our box topiary have names. This is a particularly shapely row.

Without any of the billowy ornamental grasses, which have been cut back, you can really appreciate all the beautiful voluptuous shapes of the box topiary.

16/01/2024

Miscanthus sentries.

15/01/2024

This is not a fire.

13/01/2024

The simplicity of form in a bare winter garden.

06/12/2023

The frosty garden was just too tempting to capture… The Stipa gigantea contrasting against the dark of the undulating clipped yew hedge around the veg garden.

(Shame about the blue pipe on the new and very useful outdoor tap. Must ask Mr LH to disguise it. He won’t.)

03/12/2023

All roads lead to… Lower House.

The winter sun doesn’t quite make it over the trees to many parts of the garden at this time of year, sending the garden into hibernation, but it does catch the house and tallest trees, glowing like a beacon in the frost yesterday.

02/12/2023

Low winter sun through the frost encrusted Salix alba britzensis.

02/12/2023

Beautiful frosty day, the winter sun peeping through the trees, catching the Stipa gigantea ❄️🌿

24/11/2023

Excited for ’s talk with at the Winter Weekend today, especially as it’s about her new book ‘The Winter Garden’, which features a few photos of a frosty Lower House garden! 🤍🌿

Thank you to ._hedges for selecting our photos to go in the book.

01/11/2023

An eerie light. The calm before the storm…

25/10/2023

A little late to post about this, as the magazine came out last month, but what an amazing feature on Lower House in . Thank you for the words and photos 💚🌿

Address

Hay-on-Wye
Hereford
HR35RQ

Website

http://www.lowerhousegardenhay.co.uk/

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Videos

The next generation. Child #3. Grandchild #6. Grandchild #1.

Mr Lower House’s latest project, a new dry stone wall leading to a newly created gap in the hedge, so you can more easily access the top field. All of the stone is from Lower House, in the stream, dug up, repurposed. He loves a project, as if he hasn’t enough to do… #lowerhousegardenhay #hayonwye #autumngarden #gardensofwales #welshgarden #drystonewall #stonewall #drystone #gardenlife #stonesteps #clippedyew #clippedhedges #lookingthrough #breconbeaconsnationalpark #sundial #glasshouse #gardenpool #autumnsun #gardenproject #medlar

A sliver of house and garden through the hornbeam hedge around the vegetable garden. Another scorching day. Yet more clipping undertaken. With plenty of heat rest stops. #hornbeamhedge #hornbeam #gardenhedge #lookingthrough #lowerhousegardenhay #hayonwye #welshfarmhouse #gardenpath #hotgarden #pleaseletitrain #veggarden #gardensofwales #stipagigantea #leekflowers #gardeninspo #welshgarden

Leeks, squawks and evening sun. The leek flower heads are beautifully contrasted against the golden glow of the Stipa gigantea in the background. Mr Lower House has had a busy day of mowing. Rather him than me in this heat… 😬☀️#eveningsun #lowerhousegardenhay #leekflower #allium #insectheaven #augustgarden #britishgardens #gardensofwales #hayonwye #leeks #wales #stipagigantea #gardensphere #welshfarmhouse

An abundance of Oxeye daisy (so hard to capture in their abundance) and the Rosa Moyesii in bloom, which was here when we moved here in 1985. This area is left to go wild. First come the fritillary, then the cowslips and primrose, and now the oxeye daisy and grasses. Mr Lower House used to mow a path through to the shed (he loves a mowed path), but this is one job that has had to be let go as Mr LH can’t do it all… #oxeyedaisy #rosamoyesii #redrose #growingwild #selfseeded #blackshed #blackcladding #weatherboard #wildmeadow #lowerhousegardenhay #hayonwye

A prosperity of pink pelargonium. #pelargonium #conservatory #glasshouse #lowerhousegardenhay #hayonwye #grapevine #pelargoniumcollection #conservatoryofflowers #windowsillflowers #allthepinks #paintitpink

The breeze is up. Is the storm coming... #plasbachhay #lowerhousegardenhay #hayonwye #specialplacestostay #gardenretreat #ecocabin #needrain #blowinginthewind #breeze #summerbreeze #welshgarden

So nice to hear running water back in the ornamental ponds beside the house. The pump broke well over a year ago and it’s taken us this long to fix it #runningwater #watersounds #calming #pond #ornamentalpond #water #lowerhousegardenhay #welshgarden #wales