September 2023
Hello Everyone
Again I started writing about the history of our garden Frensham but decided to tell you about our garden in France as we are here now. Many of you will know that we bought a house in Normandy nine years ago and apart from two years when we couldn't travel because of Covid restrictions, we have enjoyed three months here each year.
When we bought the house I considered the existing garden and knew that it was a suitable size to maintain, knowing that we wouldn’t be here for much of the year. I thought that the maintenance would be simple, with some light pruning, but there was a small lawn which would need mowing. The garden wasn’t a huge consideration when we bought as I thought it wouldn’t be so important; my concentration being more on other aspects of life in France. The house ticked all of the boxes and more, and so the purchase was made.
One of the things that I didn't know was that we would be having at least three heatwaves each summer, with temperatures going as high as 43°. We live in Normandy, a region in the north which has traditionally had a climate similar to England’s; lots of rain and moderate temperatures. I also realised that when the property was actually mine, I couldn’t leave the garden as it was. I had to love the plants as I do at home in Christchurch.
During our first summer here, I took a closer look at the garden. A few roses, azaleas and rhododendrons were struggling in what turned out to be very poor, barren, stony soil. Each time I dug up some soil, with its fine powdered texture would come large pieces of some sort of stone. I’ve kept quite a few pieces as many of them are attractive. Plants were given to friends who could grow them much better in their gardens, shrubs that I thought could be lightly trimmed each year were actually a mass of dead wood underneath, and the lawn would have to go as it wasn’t practical to have someone keeping it watered in the hot times, and having it mown regularly.
Why didn’t I think of these things when we bought the house? Because I was so excited about buying the house and living in France. It’s been a very long-held dream of mine and became even more apparent when I was leading tours to various regions here. The best part of those tours was creating itineraries for the lovely people who travelled with me.
I happened to go to an excellent symposium in England five years ago. The Beth Chatto Symposium was attended by five hundred people and guest speakers were from around the world: designers, plantspeople, gardeners and academics. Here I learnt so much more about our changing climate and what we can do in our gardens to work with the new conditions. You can read about the information shared on www.hardy-plant.org.uk Beth Chatto Symposium 2018.
The things that I learnt influenced what I would do with the garden here. We are surrounded by two and a half metre high stone walls on two sides, and there are lower stone walls within the garden, which contribute to increasing the temperature.
I had almost everything cleared in the garden so that I was starting with a clean palette. The main area has been covered in a layer of small stones which are a mixture of cream, light tan and dark tan colours, which blend well with the house. The house has cream stone walls and dark brown doors and shutters.
Into this area plants which will cope with no watering after the initial planting, and which cope with poor soils, include perovskia, (the Russian sage), rosemary, a tall white gaura, Aster frikartii ‘Monch’, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Forster’ and another lower growing grass which I will identify soon.
Photo 1: This is how it looked when we arrived. Not too bad on the surface, but as I’ve mentioned, changes needed to be made. We live on a corner section and one of the exterior stone walls can be seen here, and one of the lower interior walls.
Photo 2: Another view when we arrived.
Photo 3: Looking back towards the house. The lovely old cherry tree has since succumbed to life. Young children loved climbing and playing in it.
Photo 4: Clearing the scene for new beginnings.
Photo 5: A planting that I created in a stone trough. When we’ve been here in late spring I also plant some salad vegetables in the stone rills; photo 6. Tough work competing with snails and stone of all sorts. This is gradually changing.
As we’re still here next month I’ll continue with the development of the garden. I see that at home in New Zealand we are going to have a very hot summer. Thinking caps must be on!
Best wishes,
Margaret
