01
Plants and shrubs
Bedding, perennials, shrubs, fruit trees and hedging, most of it grown or hardened off here, with what it wants written on the label.
Bedding from £3.50 a tray, perennials from £5.50, shrubs from £9.
Closed. We open today at 9am.
If it sulks on Pant Road, it does not go on the bench.
A family garden centre on the hill above Bedwas since 1984. Plants hardened off outside, compost without the peat, and soup in the glass lean-to.
This month in the garden: November
All November’s jobs and plants- Job 1Plant bare-root trees, hedging and roses now that they are dormant.
- Job 2Clean and oil your tools, and put the mower away clean.
- Job 3Wrap tender pots in fleece or hessian.
- Job 4Check stored apples, and remove any going soft.
On the hill
Six things, one hill.
02
Compost and bark
Peat-free compost, soil improver, topsoil, ericaceous and bark, by the 50 litre bag or the 800 litre bulk bag, with a calculator to work out how much.
Peat-free compost £6.50 for 50 litres, four for £22.
03
Pots and planters
Frost-proof terracotta from Italy, glazed pots from a Vietnamese pottery we have used for twenty years, and larch planters built to your measurements in our shed.
Terracotta from £4, glazed from £14, made-to-measure larch planters from £85.
04
The Lean-to Café
A small café in the glass lean-to: soup from the kitchen garden, Welsh rarebit, home-baked cakes and tea in a pot. Dogs are welcome at the outside tables.
Soup and bread £6.50, rarebit £7.50, tea and a slice of cake £5.50.
05
Christmas trees
Welsh-grown Nordmann and Fraser firs, cut in the last week of November, freshly sawn at the base, netted and put in the car for you. Wreaths, stands and delivery too.
Nordmann from £32 at four feet to £95 at eight.
06
Delivery
Our own van, Tuesday to Saturday: plants, bags and bulk bags around Bedwas, Caerphilly, Machen, Ystrad Mynach and up the Rhymney valley.
Free over £75 within five miles.
Compost
Stop buying compost twice.
Most people run out at three-quarters of a planter and come back on a Sunday. Measure it once, and the calculator gives you the litres with ten per cent for settling, the bags, the bulk bag and which one is cheaper.
Our compost has been peat-free since 2021: bark, coir and green waste, blended to our recipe in Herefordshire.
- A 50 litre bag is £6.50, four for £22
- An 800 litre bulk bag is £75, delivered free within five miles
- Topsoil and bark by the same bag or bulk bag
How we do it
Four things true of the place.
Hardy means hardy here
We stand plants outside on a north-facing hill above the Rhymney valley before we sell them. If it sulks on Pant Road, it does not go on the bench.
Prices on the label
Every pot has a label with the name, the height it gets to, where it likes to live and the price. No asking at the till.
Ask Eirlys
Bring a leaf in a sandwich bag, or a photograph of the bed. We have been asked about most things in forty years, and we will say when the answer is to dig it out.
We carry it for you
Trolleys, a hand to the car, and a van for anything too big. A tree does not have to go home folded in a hatchback.
- 1984the year the first glasshouse went up on Pant Road
- 3 acresof yard, glass and growing beds
- 12months of garden jobs on this site, one page each
- 50 litresin a bag of our peat-free compost, or 800 in a bulk bag
The Lean-to
Soup, bara brith, and a seat in the glass.
Twenty-four seats in the lean-to, sixteen on the terrace, soup from the kitchen garden and cake baked here every morning. Plenty of people come for the café and leave with a fern.
The menu and today’s soupCustomers
What people say at the till.
Took a dying camellia leaf in a sandwich bag to Eirlys. She looked at it for ten seconds, asked what compost I had used, and sold me a £6.50 bag of ericaceous rather than the new plant I had gone in for. It flowered this March.
Measured two raised beds, put the numbers in on my phone in the car park, and it said a bulk bag was £16 cheaper than the bags. Gethin delivered it on the Thursday and it filled both with a barrow left over.
We go for the leek and potato soup and come home with another fern. The bara brith is the proper kind. The dog is fussed over more than I am.
Questions we get at the till
Is everything peat-free?
All our compost has been since 2021. A very few bought-in plants arrive grown in a peat mix, mainly specialist acid lovers, and the label says so.
What should I be doing in the garden this month?
The garden jobs page lists what needs doing this month, and which plants we have in stock to go with it. It changes on the first of the month by itself.
How much compost do I need for my planter?
Measure the length, width and depth, then use the soil calculator. It gives you the litres, the number of bags, and whether a bulk bag is cheaper.
Do you deliver?
Yes, Tuesday to Saturday in our own van. It is £8 within five miles, free over £75, and £15 up to twelve miles. Bulk bags go on hard standing by tail-lift.
What if a shrub dies?
Hardy shrubs and trees have a one-year promise. Bring back the label (and the plant if you can), and we will replace it or refund it. We ask only that it was watered in its first summer.
Can I bring the dog?
On a lead, yes, in the yard and on the terrace. Assistance dogs are welcome everywhere.
Open every day but three, on the hill above Bedwas.
Bring a photograph of the bed or a leaf in a sandwich bag. Free parking for sixty cars, soup in the lean-to and a van for anything that will not fit in yours.