Open Gardens: explore a forest garden in Allier

Regular readers may remember that a few years ago we featured Rudy Holierhoek, as he has been regularly welcoming people to his garden at the end of October/beginning of November. 

A Dutch immigrant, Rudy arrived in the Allier in central France as a child. His father, with a friend and a cousin, bought a rundown dairy farm and built it up again. Rudy, well integrated into his new homeland, stayed in France. He did his Bac Agricole (Baccalauréat in agriculture) and went to a horticultural college in Paris. There he studied flower cultivation – appropriate enough for someone of Dutch heritage – but then he decided that he would rather be a maraîcheur (market gardener). 

For two years he grew salad crops near Lyon but then realised that he would be happier back in the Allier. He started his own business looking after green spaces. Rudy and his wife, Pierrette, took on the old municipal abattoir – not most people’s first choice for a home, but they liked the space, the land and the dilapidated buildings.

You may wonder why we are repeating this information. It is because Rudy has been working on a new project that he is keen to share with Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts visitors. Not content with having transformed the abattoir and outbuildings and having created a sumptuous garden with a river flowing through it, Rudy bought another parcelle (plot of land) in 2016. Covering some 3.5 hectares, it was divided into two hectares of pasture for the horses and sheep and 1.5 hectares of what he calls the côte sauvage (for English speakers, it might be nice to translate that as the wild side, but it’s more accurately the wild slope). 

The incline is steep and it’s fairly rugged. Rudy makes hay from the pasture and, until 2020, that was about as far as it went. Rudy started reading about forest gardens. He watched YouTube videos and learned what a difference these gardens could make to the environment. He set out to research it thoroughly, with his horticultural, market gardening and gardening hats on.

Rudy and I talk during the fiercest of the summer heatwaves. We bemoan the lack of rain and cruel, unrelenting sun. “We are luckier here than some,” Rudy tells me. “In our valley it is a little cooler than surrounding areas, but the whole of the wild slope has dried out. It looks burnt. I don’t know what will survive. We must wait and see. I am aware that our environment is under stress. We all must make efforts to protect it and employ methods to do less harm and more good,” he says.

Rudy has long been interested in soil structure and conserving water. In his gîte he has had British visitors who have taken an inventory of all the moths in the garden. “That was their passion and they were kind enough to share it with us,” Rudy remembers. “And recently a Dutch couple came and told us of all the different birds they had seen. They loved the bright blue kingfisher darting along the river. They had an app on their phone and it would listen to the birdsong and confirm their identification.” Rudy smiles. “They listed all the bats and the moths too. The biodiversity on our land is so important. The forest garden is a way to increase that.”

Rudy tells me that forest gardens will create wildlife corridors, allowing species to re-enter the area. “Here at Hérisson we have seen no hedgehogs for years. Sadly, I used to see them flattened on the road, but not since 2018. That hot summer seemed to kill them off,” he adds ruefully. “We don’t have many mammals at the moment. A badger or two. The bird and insect life, though, is richer.”

“We are starting small and going slowly and carefully, creating the Forest Garden. I am close to the Paysans de Nature, who are allied under the Conservatoire d’espaces naturels. They have a lot of research and advice that I can tap into. Martin Crawford, an English agroforestry pioneer, wrote an important book on the subject, La Forêt-Jardin, that has been translated into French. 

“I started to increase the biomass. I planted more trees, fruit trees – mostly apples but also persimmons, peaches, walnuts, pears and wild cherries. We want to have perennial vegetables as well as some small fruits. The idea is to disturb the soil as little as possible. There’s still a lot of bindweed, nettles and grasses, which we are reducing bit by bit. In 2023, when I ceased the garden maintenance company, I created a small edible-plant nursery. We need to feed ourselves, but we also need to protect nature.”

Rudy’s gardens will be open, with guided tours of the ornamental and the forest garden, on the weekend of La Toussaint (October 31 - November 1). Morning tours will start at 10.30 and will be in the magnificent and now mature ornamental gardens. “Just because I am enthused by the forest gardens doesn’t mean I have been ignoring the ornamental garden,” Rudy laughs. 

“I continue to bulk up the plants. I’ve been adding ‘decor’,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

He really cannot ignore it – the ornamental gardens stretch over 4,000 square metres, divided into garden rooms. There are islands in the river which he tends, and woods and an old orchard. 

He has created walks which link the different gardens, planted hedges to delineate the spaces and used his considerable skills at pruning and shaping to make these truly beautiful and not just functional.

There is a Japanese garden full of ornamental grasses and heucheras as well as a potager (kitchen garden) and the gîte garden, stuffed with perennials, roses and peonies. 

And there are the trees – Rudy has planted so many magnificent trees: American red oaks, beeches, Himalayan cedars and a Magnolia grandiflora (the last two planted to mark the births of his daughters in 2000 and 2002). As the soil is somewhat acidic, there are viburnums, camellias, rhododendrons and his much-prized Azalea mollis. The autumnal shades on its leaves should be fabulous.

“I will address this long, hot summer we have had and we will discuss those plants which flourished despite the drought and the heat, and why and how we lost other plants and how we might improve things in the future. We are always learning and adapting.”

The afternoons will be given over to the Forest Garden and the reasons for it. Rudy thinks that you should allow 1–1.5 hours for the visit.

Full details on the Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts website.

Rudy has a lifetime of experience in horticulture and a wealth of knowledge to share. His generosity and openness of approach mean that everyone is welcome and no one should feel intimidated. Rudy says he likes to open the garden at this time of year as the light and the atmosphere are truly magical.

The edible-plants nursery, called Pépinière Chateloy, will also be open on the preceding Friday.