New year

Well, here we are again. A New year and a new season. Will be interesting to see how the garden here develops.

We managed to get some raised beds placed before the autumn rain and winter chill took hold.

Because the soil infrastructure to the rear of the house was ruined by the dumping of sub soil from the swimming pool by our less than adequate contractors, we have struggled with clay like you would not believe. Sets completely solidly when wet, is impossible to dig (just sticks to the shovel - when you can get the shovel in) not to mention sticking to boots and then in the heat of summer, sets like concrete. Imagine red potters clay on your feet up to your ankles and you will get some idea of what just walking over it is like. I have sworn more at this land than at anything else, ever. It is not only backbreaking but soul destroying and is fit only for agricultural development. Since we do not have a tractor, we can only manage by hand and it is taking a long, long time. Still, I am determined to have not only flowers, which I cannot live without, and a potager for our own vegetables, salads and melons, so we persevere.

We have, with the help of a farming neighbour, managed to move the 10 tonnes of topsoil from the courtyard at the front of the house to the raised beds at the back of the house. No mean feat, as the house is built on a raised platform and rises around three metres from front to back. So, not only are you carrying soil, but having to walk/climb uphill with it at the same time. Good job we eat well, as my grandma used to say "Strength goes in at the mouth" and we do try.

We heard our first cuckoo today so hope that presages an early start to Spring. I need to organise some more topsoil for the rest of the raised beds but cannot put this in place until the ground is a little drier. It will probably be an "all hell and no notion" operation to get everything done and then planted up before we get the real heat.

Hope the photos do justice to the state of the soil and the scale of our ongoing battle.

Happy new year to everyone and good gardening.

Amsterdam

This is a very belated post.

A couple of months ago, in the middle of October to be precise, I managed to wangle a long weekend in Amsterdam.

I don't know about you but I have a list of gardens, things to see and places to visit all around the world.

Having been to Amsterdam many times before, the Horticultural gardens were still on my list, having been passed over in favour of art galleries, museums etc. The weather when we arrived was not conducive to garden viewing, as it was raining heavily and a sharp wind was blowing in off the sea. Two days later it was completely different; bright, sunny and relatively warm, so off to the Hortus Botanicus we went.

Easy to reach from the town centre on foot, the garden itself is quite small, but, as they say, beautifully formed. Founded at the height of Dutch trading influence in the 1680's with seeds and plants brought back by traders, it was originally started for herbal and medicinal reasons. It has an amazing history of propagating coffee plants, from a plant still in the collection, which formed the basis of all coffee now produced in Central and Southern America. Incredible!

A 19th century curator, Hugo de Vries, lived in one of the elegant houses on the adjacent street. He was rewarded for his devotion to the garden by the creation of a private access and short cut for which he had the exclusive use (and the only key!). Dedication has its own rewards?

Todays' visitors to the garden are welcomed by a bright spacious entrance with a combined gift shop, bookshop and plantstall. Best of all, having viewed the garden and the hothouses, admired the quality and range of the plants and walked the canal boundaries, you can reward yourself with a delicious cup of coffee and, of course, the compulsory and well deserved cake.

Much recommended if you get the time, and a special ambience all its own.

Surprise

This week's blog features a remarkable photo, taken at the beginning of October, of a "wildflower meadow" and sent to me by a client. I did say I would credit Philip with this shot, so take a bow!

A remarkable photo for several reasons.

Firstly the seed was not set until July, over a month after the latest recommended sowing time, and in temperatures of over 30 degrees C.

It was sown on a mix of stones and very poor soil , which had been almost a sub-soil strata infill to raise the level of a newly completed section of hard landscaping prior to topping with good soil.

It received very little watering as the garden owners were not in residence at this time, so was reliant on the generosity and conscience of occasional visitors.

In all, for more than two months the seeds were subjected to a high degree of neglect.

The late planting was entirely my doing - since the hard landscaping had, as usual for France, taken far longer to complete than anticipated (too much rain to dig out footings, too much sun to mix cement, too hot to concrete pilings in place, non -delivery of promised building materials, etc, etc, etc .

I could not bear the thought of greeting my clients with this hideous patch of weed and stone when they arrived for their well deserved holiday that I weeded, raked and riddled most of the junk out and then manically scattered seed everywhere.

And as they say here - Voilà!

One of the biggest surprises ever - not least of which because the illustration on the sack of seed bears very little resemblance to the plants which appeared!

I cannot look at this photo without smiling at the cheerful display these little flowers have made. And what does it say for the instructions of when, and when not, to plant.

So, maybe the mot du jour should be - just go out and do it?

One for garden and art lovers

This weekend I took some clients out to see the garden created by Renate and Lutz Hillen-Degenharat at Thermes Magnoac. I was keen for my clients to see some of the outdoor pieces created by Renate and Lutz which were on view around the garden when I last visited at the beginning of summer.

We were only able to see the area around the workshop and shop (which are open all year round) as the owners are creating a lake over the autumn/winter period and the garden will not re-open to the public until May 2010. They did however very kindly spare the time to chat to us and show us a photo of the house and land as it was when they moved in 1991.

Such a transformation - from a lonely looking house standing in isolation, with no surrounding trees or plants, to the interesting and unique place it is today.

We were told that to date over 1000 trees have been planted over the 3 hectare site, a mammoth undertaking even over the 18 year span that Renate and Lutz have been in residence.
Even my husband was impressed by the dedication and work ethic which had obviously gone into creating this garden.

The sculptures I had wanted my clients to see were on view, which added another option to the ideas they have for their own garden. Much better to see items like this in the flesh, especially when it is such a major purchase and feature in a garden. "A sculpture is for life and not just for Christmas!"

Shame they were not able to see the rest of the garden - which is inspirational. This is far and away the best garden I have visited this year.

I recommend anyone who is able, to visit this garden for themselves, to see what I am raving about. Put May 2010 in your diary! And they have a tearoom! Whether you can get or not, look at the website and enjoy.

http://www.poterie.fr/

Plans and ideas

Well, famous last words (about needing more water) as we had a terrific storm which lasted over the whole of the weekend I was aiming to visit Chateau Bouscasse. Lots of local flooding and certainly not ideal conditions in which to go garden visiting. So, sadly, have missed the opportunity until later. Will check and see if the gardens are open again before 2010 and trust the sculptures are still in situ. Don't know where the time goes, as we are already at the beginning of October and still not got to half the gardens on my list. Do I sense a New Year's resolution coming up?

Our delicious plums are now finished and a friend to whom I sent some returned a jar of plum and lavender jelly - yum yum. Quite like this sort of exchange system. Our charentais melons are still producing but the slugs and snails are also fans of this fruit and it is a constant challenge to see who gets there first. I choose not to use slug/snail pellets unless I absolutely have to and so can blame no-one else for the slightly nibbled produce! Really surprised they have avoided the spring onions though!

Going tree and plant shopping with a client shortly and will take the opportunity to look for winter vegetables and violas. Have already bought a selection of bulbs to put in (when I get the time!). This winter I am wanting to extend my container display and so am using all sorts of odd bits - an empty duck tin, egg basket, old bird cage, enamelled milkjug and bucket, etc some of which I bought from various local vide greniers - the French equivalent of car boot sales - and some of which are now past their best. Conventional containers serve gardeners well but sometimes it is good to break out of the mould and use something different which may otherwise be thrown out. Plus it's good fun and more of a challenge to make use of an object intended for another purpose.

Will post photos when planted up but in the meantime, here is one of my little helper.

Later.........at the chateau

Chateau Viella

Well, here we are again after a break of more than two months, during which time we have managed to host hundreds of friends and family (not really - just seems that way!) visit the Marciac jazz festival and take in a couple of garden visits too. All play is quite hard work sometimes and apart from a couple of thoroughly enjoyable visits to clients I have simply enjoyed the summer. Very decadent!

Our garden now though is looking in desperate need of water as the grass, and a few of the exposed plants, have been scorched by the sun to a delightful shade of brown. I have never before grown crispy roses. Still, I resist watering, as although this is not necessarily a pretty sight everything comes back after some rain.

The spring onions too still need more water to fill out the bulbs but no doubt that will happen shortly. At least we have not had to mow and the plums, melons, tomatoes, chillies and aubergines have all gone mad. I have arranged to swop our over-production with a neighbour for grapes and figs, so for me, this is a good arrangement, as we have neither on site.

Next year we shall aim to plan our summer produce together to co-ordinate our output and widen our varieties. Less effort and more veg? Gets my vote.

One of the gardens I managed to visit with friends was Chateau Viella, the idea being they could wine taste whilst I went walkabout.

The lovely leaflet, reproduced above, was designed by Josselyne Blanchard,with photos by Alain Alquier and printed by BCR and looked like my sort of place - productive land with various interesting spaces; like the kind of area I am struggling to create here.

I have no idea of the date this leaflet was produced but sadly the reality now did not live up to the promise of this lovely imagery. There were many instances of lack of tlc and maintenance and the overall impression was that once created the features and planting had been left to get on with it. The biggest disappointment of all was the tiny "Jardin des senteurs" (the perfumed garden) which was in such a sorry state I could not bring myself to take a photograph. Bizarrely too was the omission of the most obvious plant in the region - lavender - and whilst my garden also was suffering from lack of water this one had huge gaps in the planting, and shrubs which were clearly dead. So sad.

The potager belonging to the concierge, however, was everything the garden wasn't - full of joie de vivre, colour and productivity and clearly thriving and there is a shot of this!

I am told however that the wine was excellent.

Next year I intend to re-visit all these gardens to see how they are performing but later this month I hope to get to Chateau Bouscasse for the showcasing of the current resident artist and maybe another garden too.

Check out http://www.brumont.fr/ for more information.

Plums and roses

The gite patio area and plum tree

Again this week we have had heavy rain - thunderstorms in the morning and soaring temperatures in the afternoon - and as you can see our visitors won't have to move far to pick the plums for desert.

Maybe I should trim the branch back just a little?

The grass in front of the gite is sprouting, but sadly so are the weeds and the rest of the vegetation. There has to be a reason why the stuff you don't want always takes off better and quicker than whatever you have planted. Maybe that's why gardeners like a challenge. Will have to try and tiptoe around the grasslings to strim the weeds before the poor little seeds get overpowered. A variation on "Tiptoe through the tulips", maybe?

Don't think the idea of planting in the greenhouse was a good idea. The only things left in there are the tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and aubergine. Have had to move everything else as the heat in there was unbelievable. Sadly the melon turned its toes up in the border so has been replaced by two new plants (so we can have lots and lots of charentaise melons - delicious!) but the spring onions are looking good. Really strange that the locally sold spring onion varieties are the size of golf balls and do not have that lovely bite that we so enjoy. So, as needs must, if you can't find the right variety in seed locally, buy online from the UK.

The Thunbergia regrettably is no longer with us, but I have left it in its pot until I decide if anything else will take this late in the season, or until I see a plant I just can't resist!

However, lots of flowers on the really hot chilli plants which is great. Monitoring their progress with the hope of having some to put in a welcome curry when our friends arrive in July.

The rose garden

When I went to see the rose garden last week to offer some advice/ideas to the new owners as to how they could realise their thoughts, the majority of the roses had finished flowering, so to show the scale of the planting, at its best, I have reproduced a photograph, taken by Philippe Perdereau and copied from the Francoise Dubarry and Catherine Marset book Jardins Secrets de Gascogne. The garden relies heavily on the "room" theme and is really a showcase for the huge number of rose varieties planted there, although there are some herbaceous perennials and shrubs. Unfortunately the garden layout makes one of the new owners feel very claustrophobic and given the wonderful potential for a wildflower meadow on the rest of the land and possibly a maze, there needs to be some visual continuity, a metaphorical and literal window through which not only the meadow but the wonderful scenery beyond can be viewed. Having made some suggestions it will be interesting to see how this garden develops in the hands of its two new owners, as it should, both of whom have different needs and opinions.

Well, back to the drawing board as they say. Summer stepping up its pace and lots of bees and other not so welcomed winged things increasing. Watch out for any bites and apply your usual remedy - in our house vinegar (wine, of course) is a quick, easy and cheap solution.

Discovered we have a fruiting apricot tree to the north side of the house. Will need to wear wellies and protective clothing to try and rescue some of the fruit from the rampant weed and nettle which stands more than 2 metres high. This tree is at the bottom of a very steep slope and has not been taken in hand this year due to other more pressing work. Can see them from the sitting room window and they definitely have my name on them.

Anybody need any courgettes?