A visit to an inspiring RHS partner garden in France
7 take away ideas from Les Jardins du Prieuré Notre-Dame d’Orsan
My visit to this enchanting garden in the centre of France lead to a bumper crop of photos. There was so much to see in this complex garden that it warrants a post of its own, so here are some of my highlights together with 7 take away ideas. I have repeated some of the information about the garden from yesterday’s post so all the information is one place.
Les Jardins du Prieuré Notre-Dame d’Orsan date back to the 12th century, when the site was a monastery but since then it has gone through many ups and downs. Finally in 1991, the derelict farm buildings and land were bought by architects Sonia Lesot and Patrice Taravella who wanted to restore the site to its former glory. They created a medieval garden for reflection and meditation with 14 small rooms partitioned by hedges and frames. Here there was space to grow food, grapes, medicines and ornamentals typical of the Middle Ages. By 2004, the gardens had been recognised as ‘Jardins Remarquable’. Then in 2017, the gardens were bought by Gareth Casey and Cyril Pearson who have maintained the gardens and also introduced more ecological approaches to its management, such as permaculture and mulching with wood chip.
The garden is divided into a series of interconnected rooms, each bounded by a hedge or fence. There are woven structures everywhere, mostly created from chestnut, which could easily be replicated in the smallest of urban gardens. The planting is dense and much use is made of the vertical space, plus the colour palette is dominated by green and white, creating a peaceful atmosphere.
So here are 7 take-away ideas from my wander around the garden:
Spiral-trained gooseberry. There are two plants here in a large pot, trained on a spiral support as you can see in the video