Visit to Marie McGibney's garden just outside Lorgues

We were very lucky that one of our IWCP members opened her garden to us. 

Marie and her late husband bought the property quite a few years ago. It is set on the top of a hill.  The view from the garden terrace gives you the feeling that you are in depth of a forest with in the distance hills. Very secluded but in fact you are only about 3 km outside Lorgues.  The garden, when they bought the house, was already established with mature shrubs and trees but they added some of their own choices to the existing ones.

In 2019 they decided to change a part of the garden into a dry garden where minimal watering is required.  A popular subject for us gardeners. No watering is not really possible, your plants will look all dried up at the end of our hot summer, but selecting drought resistant plants is the way of the future. It so happened that one of Marie's friends, Sally Parigo, is a Garden Designer.  Together with Marie and her late husband they came up with a plan and a selection of plants, all bought from Armelette, a pepiniere in Sillans la Cascade.

 

Gardeners hard at work, in creating the dry garden, covering the soil with gravel.

We were really fortunate to be given a list of all the plants they selected, a great help to us. We now have a list of plants with photos we can consult if we want to replace some of our existing plants that are suffering in the increasing hotter summers we are experiencing. (See below and at the end of the article).

The plants and their quantities that were used.  Over the years some of the plants have been replaced

As you arrived at the front of the house there is a pond with at the moment flowering water lilies and other water loving plants, a rather pretty spot.

We were not coming to view the inside of the house but you could not  help noticing the kitchen on our way to the terrace.  A kitchen where a lot of cooking is taking place with frying pans and casseroles hanging from hooks, a display cabinet crammed with blue and white pottery, extremely cosy.  Marie happens to be a very good cook.  For our visit she made 4 different cakes to go with our tea or coffee.

We started our walk first of all by visiting the dry garden.  

The yellow flowering plants are Euphorbia myrsinites.  One of the strongest hot weather resistant plants and the blue flowering are Iris unguicularis.  This photo was taken in Spring.

So many mature plants.  There was a Nandina domestica so large I did not recognise it till Marie told me what it was.  It was in full bloom. 

Several years back Marie planted a palm, which up to that point was an indoor plant, into the garden.  It is now a beautiful specimen, Phoenix canariensis.  It did so well that Marie planted a second one.  One of our members said 'it should have a name, I think it should be called Boris". 

It was a shame that it started raining, but in fact we had done the tour of the garden. It would have been nice to have our tea on the terrace, but we all had a lovely time inside with the very tasty cakes Marie had made

Click here to download a list of plants suitable for dry gardens.

Thanks to Marie and Marie-France for sending the photos.

We had to use the above system of download to be able to see the photos and read the names of the plants as they are on the document. 

 

Visit to Sigrid Seel's garden in Flayosc - 28 April 2026

Sigrid,  a member of our Garden Group, lives in Flayosc with her husband. They have created a wonderful, productive vegetable garden planted under olive trees, just as the local Provencal people used to do.

Sigrid had offered to give a presentation on culinary and medicinal herbs. On a large table a number of herbs were displayed, we had to guess what they were:

Basil (Basilicum), Bayleaf (Lauris nobilis), Borage (Borago officials), Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium), Dill (Anethum graveolens), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), Lavender (Lavandula), Lemon verbena/Verveine  (Aloysia triphylla), Lovage (Levisticum), Lemon Grass (Cymbopogon), Marigold (Calendula), Mint (Mentha), Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), Parsley (Petroselinum crisp), Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), Sage (Salvia), Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), Thyme (Thymus),

I've put the Latin name behind the common English name.  Our foreign members can translate the Latin names into their own language.

With each herb Sigrid gave an explanation on the uses of the herbs. She had seeds of different herbs that we could take home,  I took several branches of Basil and followed her lead in sprinkling the seeds around plant pots that have already plants in them.  It works, the seedling have all come up. 

One herb that no one could recognise was Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).  It is not a very attractive plant, a bit unruly but it has culinary and medical properties. The only Artemisia that is used in cooking especially in Germany and Spain in dishes that use Eel or Carp and in stuffing for geese, duck, pork and game. Medicinally it was used to stimulate the menstrual flow.  

        

After the presentation we walked around the swimming pool and came across a Patchouli plant in a pot.  I had never seen a Patchouli plant before. It is grown commercially mainly in Indonesia and the Philippines for its essential oil made from the leaves used in the perfumery industry. It was a very popular scent during the 1970s when Patchouli oil was used as a perfume by Hippie girls.

As Sigrid has spent many years in China and is a frequent visiter to the Orient, reminders of her time spent there are everywhere.  She has a collection of Chinese orchids that she has brought back.

We continued our walk around the garden. We came across a very large Chinese pot with waterlilies:

a pond with waterlilies

 and on one side of the pool a collection of Lemon Trees in pots.

Onwards an area with fruit trees and there was her husband dividing up Lemon Grass plants for us to take home. I think we all took some home.

Afterwards we had a cool drink on the terrace.  Sigrid had made some tarts with fruit toppings and a very refreshing drink in a Carafe filled with a combination of Lemon Verbena, Lemon Juice and Lemon Grass.

Her recipes for the drinks are as follows:

Lemongrass or Citronella (a bunch of herbs similar in size to what you find in the market for sale), add to that a few twigs of Lemon Verbena, slices of Lemon, ginger and honey optional, depending on taste. If you happen to have the root of Lemongrass or Citronella you can put that in as well. Pour 500 ml of hot water, just of the boil, on the herbs, let it steep for 5 minutes, even after 15 minutes if you happen to forget it, it is still very nice to drink. You can either have it hot, warm or as a cold drink with ice cubes. 

Altogether a lovely visit. 

After our visit we had lunch together at Restaurant 'Les Cigales' in Villecroze.

Thanks to Marie-Framce and Sigrid for the photos. 

 Urtica - Nettle - Ortie - Brennesse

The nettle is a fibrous plant and was used in cloth manufacture from the Bronze Age to the early 20th century.  Already in Ancient Greece it was used medicinally, Hippocrates (often called the father of medicine) used it as a diuretic (increased passing of urine).  The Romans used it against hair loss.

During WWII with no fresh vegetables available in early spring it was a welcome source of Vitamin C and for more practical reasons hundreds of tons were gathered annually in the UK for the extraction of chlorophyll and to make dyes for camouflage nets.

Nettles are found in damp, shady environments in hedgerows, woodlands and around settlements. The stem and underside of the leaves are covered in hollow hairs. The hairs contain an acid (formic acid), histamine and other chemicals that causes the stinging sensation.

Medicinal properties
In Europe we have a few different varieties of Nettle, all three have medicinal properties: 

• Urtica dioica (Common Nettle), a perennial, female and male flowers on separate plants, 1.5m. The hanging female flowers are in dense racemes, upright male flowers have interrupted racemes.
• Urtica urens (Annual Nettle), male and female flowers on the same plants, flowers look similar to the ones of the Common Nettle.
• Urtica pilulifera (Roman Nettle) male and female flowers on the same plant, found in S. Europe, with interrupted racemes of male flowers and globose female flowers.

Nettles are rich in vitamins notably A, C, B2, K and Pantothenic acid (B5) and minerals such as Potassium, Calcium and Silicium and trace elements like Magnesium, Manganese, Copper, Sulphur and Iron. The available Vitamin C helps with the absorption of the iron.

It is an astringent herb (causing contraction of skin cells and other tissues i.e. stops bleeding), a diuretic (causing increased passing of urine) and a tonic herb (controls bleeding, clears toxins and slightly reduces blood pressure and blood sugar levels).

Nettles increase the passing of urine. They expel uric acid from the joints as well as the body tissues.  Uric acid can form sharp crystals in the joints (gout, a form of joint arthritis) and can also build up in the kidneys forming kidney stones. 

Inside the Nettle is a plant hormone called Secretin. One of the functions of Secretin is the regulation of the gastric acids which in turn improves the digestion.  It stimulates the digestive system to expel digestion enzymes into the duodenum, the first section of the small intestines. 

In Folk Medicine, in spring the young leaves were gathered as a tonic for the body to restore itself after the winter when the available nutrients were limited and people used to eat heavier food. The period to use the nettle was from 15 March to 15 April.

Other uses
Hair:  Nettle tea is a tonic for the scalp in the form of a last rinse as it helps against dandruff, but only for dark hair as the high chlorophyll content colours fair and grey hair.

Spring Tonic:  Only fresh new leaves should be used for culinary purposes. The plant should be no more than 20-30 cm high to gather the leaves (don’t forget to used gloves!).   Make a tea with 30 grams of fresh nettle leaves to one litre of boiling water, let it seep for 3 minutes, drink 3 cups a day from March to April for one month.   If making a cup of spring tonic use a tbsp of fresh or 1tsp of dried nettle.

Culinary purposes
The most common way to use Nettles is to either add to a vegetable soup just 5 mins before it is ready and then puree the soup or in quiches, any baked recipe that uses vegetables.  On its own it has a rather bland taste.

Nettles are also used in Cheese-making – it makes a firm cheese.   Apparently it is supposed to be nice to add to Fromage Blanc but I have not tried is myself.  

If you are wondering where the knowledge of herbs comes from, 29 years ago I trained as a herbalist in Belgium, where Lance and I were living at the time.  It was a two-year course followed by a one-year course on how to grow herbs commercially, and another year on how to prepare herbal remedies.   A long time ago and although it changed my life I did not go further into it, but the interest remained.

Shrubs and trees with autumn and winter colour, October 2025

 

 

 

 A provencale vineyard in autumn colours

 

At the October meeting of the IWCP Garden Group in Provence, France, Saskia Newlands talked us through the glorious autumn colours of shrubs and trees found in the Var and brought samples of their foliage.

  

 

 

Name:      Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Wilmottianum
Foliage:    Deciduous
Height:     70-100cm
Spread     60cm
NOTES:   Striking blue flowers, reddish leaves in autumn.  A light prune
                after flowering will promote repeat flowering.

 

   

 

 

 

Name:     Euonymus europaeus (Spindle Tree)
Foliage:   Deciduous (but Euonymus Japonica is evergreen)
Height:    Tree, 3 – 6m
Spread:            
NOTES:   A native to Provence - uninteresting flowers in 
                spring, but lovely pink segmented small fruit that 
                open up to reveal orange berries.

              

 

 

 

Name:      Ligustrum lucidum (Chinese Privet)
Foliage:    Evergreen
Height:     10m
Spread:
NOTES:    White panicles of flowers in summer followed by black 
                  berries, quite drought resistant.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Name:        Lagerstroema indica (Indian Lilac or Crepe Myrtle)
Foiiage::     Deciduous
Height:       Up to 8m
Spread:
NOTES:     Origin China, flowers from summer to autumn. The flowers 
                  come in various colours - white, pink, lilac and deep red.  
                  The autumn leaves are an attractive orange/red colour. 
                  Does need watering in summer.  

  

 

 

Name:        Cotoneaster lacteus
Foiiage::     Evergreen 
Height:       4m
Spread:      4m
NOTES:     All cotoneasters produce red berris in autumn.   My 
                  favourite is a large shrub with red berries all winter  
                  long.   It can be specimen plant with arching branches. 
                    

                                                            

 

  

 

 

 

Name:       Eriobotrya japonica (Japanese Loquat)
Foliage:     Evergreen
Height:       8m
Spread:      8m
NOTES:     Evergreen tree with scented clusters of white flowers in
                  autumn, followed by prune sized orange edible fruit.         . 
                    

 

 

 

 

 

Name:       Cornus sanguinea (Common Dogwood)
Foliage:     Deciduous
Height:       3m
Spread:      2.5m
NOTES:     A native shrub - white flowers in spring in clusters, the 
                  leaves turn a reddish/ purple in autumn, tends to send 
                  out suckers, but can be shaped quite nicely to keep it 
                  under control. Height 3m and spread 2.5m.        . 
                    

 

 

 

 

Name:       Arbutus undo (Strawberry Tree)  
Foliage:     Evergreen
Height:       4.5m
Spread:
NOTES:     Fruit and flowers at appear at the same time late autumn.

 

 

   

 

 

 

Name:         Abelia grandiflora
Foliage:       Evergreen
Height:         3m
Spread:        4m
NOTES:       Flowers till frost, leaves turn slightly red.   Drought 
                    resistant.     . 
                    

       

 

 

 

 

Name:        Continus coggygria (Smoke Bush)
Foliage:      Deciduous
Height:       5m
Spread:      5m
NOTES:     The leaves come in different colours - chocolate, 
                   reddish purple, green with red veins and the local
                   one grown in the hills has bright green leaves.  All 
                   the leaves turn red and reddish/orange in autumn.  One 
                   of the large shrubs that can cope with Provence’s
                   increasingly hot climate.  I guess it is my favourite as it
                   requires hardly any water in summer.

 

 

  

Name:       Pyracantha (Firethorn)        
Foliage:     Evergreen
Height:      3m
Spread:     3m
NOTES:    Clusters of white flowers in spring with orange or                      red berries in autumn carried on long arching                          green foliage.   Long thorns make it an excellent                      burglar-proof hedge.    . 
                    

 

 

 

 

Name:       Pistachio terebinthus (Terpentine tree)   
Foliage:     Deciduous
Height:      6m             
Spread:
NOTES:    A tree local to Provence, very drought resistant with 
                 greenish/red flowers in spring followed by panicles of
                 bright red fruits.   Properly pruned it can make an attractive-
                 shaped tree.
                    

 

 

Name:       Amelanchier lamarckii (Snowy mespulus)  Foliage:     Deciduous
Height:       8m
Spread:
NOTES:     Originally found in Canada and North America                      but naturalised in Europe. In late spring copper-                    bronze foliage appears followed almost                                  immediately by a mass of pure white flowers.

With apologies from Sue Spence for some formatting irregularities but the communication between draft post and published version has a mind of its own.  I have gone off the idea of photos to accompany a piece . . . . .