There will be gardens open in many parts of France in June as part of the Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts scheme which encourages gardeners of all nationalities to open up their gardens, big and small to the public, to raise funds for charity.
Visitors buy a €10 membership card which gives them access to any of the gardens for one year or pay €5 for a Day Pass which allows access to any of the gardens on the day of purchase. There is also the Anniversary card, which costs €35 and gives access to privately owned gardens as well as a growing list of prestigious French gardens, which usually charge an entrance fee but are offering Open Garden members free entry with the card.
This is the association’s sixth year. It began when four British gardeners in the Creuse decided to open their gardens to see if they could raise money for charity, and the idea quickly caught on. President Mick Moat is thrilled that 40% of gardens are French owned, meaning it does not remain a purely British initiative, In 2018, Open Gardens aims to have 200 gardens in 33 departments. Last year they were able to hand over €23,500 to eleven chosen French charities.
www.opengardens.eu
Le Jardin de June, Rouge, Mirepoix, Ariège; Owner June Williamson
Le Jardin de June, with magnificent views of the Pyrénées is built on a slope with heavy clay soil but over the twenty years June Williamson has been working on it she has found ways to get the best out of her garden and to keep it as environmentally friendly as possible.
There is now a profusion of trees, shrubs, roses, grasses and hardy plants. However, when she started there was no garden except for a few trees and it was a holiday home she visited only for about six weeks a year. This inspired her to create a dry garden as plants had to survive for a long time without any attention.
Mrs Williamson says it is not a true Mediterranean garden as most dry gardens are, because there are severe frosts and more rainfall, so that it has been a long journey of discovery and experimentation. The clay soil, though heavy to work does have the advantage that it is full of nutrients and retains moisture at depth during the very hot weather.
Mrs Williamson says she has now found the perennial plants which thrive: “Some of them are so happy that they self-seed which means that thousands of seedlings need weeding out! I do not water the garden except for the pots or the odd plant which I have planted too late in the season. I believe that we should all be gardening in tandem with the environment and nature.”
She says her garden is not 100% organic but close: “I spray annually against processionary caterpillars and I use one small handheld bottle of Roundup per season for the constant fight against dandelions and Convolvulus. I mulch every spring with the dry grasses I cut up with a shredder and also use grass cuttings.”
To encourage bees she aims for a long flowering season from January until the end of November but she says she notices that despite her efforts she has observed that the bee population seems to be declining, which she says is very worrying. The lower hillside is left as a wild area for wild flowers and there are six species of orchid.
She has recently added raised beds for vegetables and her challenge is to water them minimally by using heavy mulching with either straw or grass cuttings.
Open June 2 and 3 14-18.00
Les Hirondelles, Moussac, Gard; Owners: Jackie and Len Deakin
There is lots to see in this garden which owner Jackie Deakin says is very English in character. “Half is a perennial meadow with mown footpaths, there is an enormous pond with water lilies which should be in flower, a big herbaceous border with rose arch, an orchard, potager and fledgling woodland and alpine gardens.
“It is very wildlife friendly with visiting roe deer and masses of dragonflies over the pond. We have a family of kingfishers and last year watched the adults teaching the young to feed. There is about an hour’s visit.” Mrs Deakin is also a botanic illustrator and some of her works will be on sale, a percentage going to Open Gardens
Open June 17 14-21.00
Treichazeix, Saint-Michel-de-Veisse, Creuse; Owners: Margaret and Tony Grainger
Margaret Grainger loves painting and has designed her garden to provide inspiration for her art and there are plenty of seats and shaded areas from which visitors are invited to paint, if they so wish.
She says it is a cottage garden with plants “so close together they can talk to each other”, and that it is “all very colourful.” Her pride and joy is the Crambe Grandiflora or Flowering Sea Kale, which she brought with her from the UK when they moved 13 years ago. “It is quite amazing”, she says. “It has cabbage-like leaves but out of this grows a long stem up to 1.8m high with frondy white flowers which have a vanilla scent which perfumes the whole garden.”
It should be in flower end of May, beginning of June. There will be light refreshments, a book and a cuttings stall with all proceeds to Open Gardens.
Open June 17 10-17.30
Also open in June
Château de Queille, Saint-Quentin-la-Tour, Ariège; Owner: Rachel Lethbridge
The château is hidden in the woods above Mirepoix on a rocky outcrop. Owner Rachel Lethbridge says the very high walls of the château are a feature as they are covered in climbing and rambling roses which should be in bloom when the gardens are open. The English style terraces are full of perennials, shrubs, grasses and bulbs and these lead down to a meadow and woodland walk by the river Touyre.
Open June 2 and 3 14-18.00
