16 May 2019

Visit to a woodland remarquable in Gassin on 14th May 2019


Ten members of the garden group visited the jardin remarquable of Mme. L’Hardy-Denonain in the tiny village of Gassin behind St. Tropez and Cogolin in the Var, France.   The advance guard of three set off at 8.30am for St. Tropez market but their early start received a set-back when it was discovered that the car’s protective undercarriage was held in place by just two bolts and a piece of wire and the front piece was touching the ground (kind husband volunteered to attend during the day with more wire) and we set off in another car.

A word of warning for those who are not familiar with the road from Le Cannet-des-Maure to St. Tropez – it is not for the nervous driver, there are apparently 75 bends (the section from La Garde Freinet to the coast is wider and the bends more stretched out than the first section).   But beware the large lorries on their headlong dash to the A8 motorway, we met five in close succession!

The second hiccup was that, surprisingly for mid-May, the port car park was listed as FULL and the reason became clear when we discovered a large fairground had been set up in the Place des Lices and no sign of a market.   This prompted an immediate visit to the cake shop for consolation but luckily a call from the car repair husband miraculously prompted a passerby to explain that the market had been set up in the port car park.

Mme. L'Hardy-Denonain's garden received its jardin remarquable status in 2009 (renewed in 2016) because of its collection of botanic collection of plants - of which there will be no mention here because both our plant experts were absent!  

The garden is about 2,800 sq.m.
was bought by Mme. L’H-D’s mother-in-law in 1973 in an abandoned state and comprises four narrow steep restanques.   Unusually, the garden is not attached to a house but is close to the family village house which, if I understood correctly, Mme L’H-D’s mother-in-law renovated (she was anarchitect), removing the internal stairs and building a tower on the side of the building containing the stairs - giving access to each floor to increase the size of the small rooms.

The garden is accessed through the outside terrace of a restaurant and down steps to the cabanon built against the road’s retaining wall.   The visit began with Mme. L’H-D sitting in the doorway to the cabanon with her visitors perched on stools to listen to the story of the garden.   When the land was bought, the cabanon housed the chickens with the pigs in the side annexe; and the horse stabled under a village house opposite grazed the restanques in between the vegetable plots (allotments?) maintained by the villagers.  

On the two lower levels there are small patches of gardens bearing the name of a village child - “Jonathan’s garden”, “Mathilde’s garden” (the latter child is now 16 years old and still visits her garden and took Jonathan to task for the abandoned state of his garden, suggesting that he pass it to another child).   “Certainly not” was the reply !  - which illustrates the sentimentality and love of gardening that Mme. L'H-D has created in the generations of Gassin children.   I wonder if they will continue to be as passionate about gardening when they too reach the venerable age of 94?

Many plants were more leggy than usual because the whole garden was shaded by mature trees.   Mme. L’H-D does not feed any of the plants, watering is limited to new planting (there is a stand-pipe for water on each level) and mulching is done by Mother Nature's annual fall of autumn leaves.    Most plants are labelled but you will not find modern, type-written or bar-coded labels here, everything is handwritten.   T
his is not an immaculate garden but the passion for plants is there and it was good to hear that, although she does not have a gardener, Mme. L’H-D does have volunteers to help her.  

The plant I will now buy for my really shady area will be the Raphiolepsis indica (Indian hawthorn) just full of pink flowers and dark green leaves – considerably taller than the plant description, presumably aiming for the light.   And perhaps I ought to buy some of the tiny fish that eat mosquitos to put in my rainwater cuves which were the practical Piscean inhabitants of the small basin in company with acquatic plants.

Despite her 94 years, Mme. L’H-D continues her routine of summers spent in Gassin and winters divided between Brittany and Sark, and summers spent walking up and down the restanques with her visitors obviously keeps her fit !

We finally emerged into the sunlight and stopped off at the tiny ice cream shop for a reviving shot of sugar.

WHERE TO BUY  Raphiolepsis indica delcourii
(different varieties:  Springtime, Pink Cloud, Kerdalo, Coates Crimson)
Pot sizes vary, 3-litre up to 8-litre, Jardiland (Frejus and La Garde) will not deliver.
None of these websites have any stock except for Promesse des Fleurs (inspiring small brochure)

https://www.truffaut.com/produit/raphiolepis-x-delacourii-springtime-conteneur-7-5-litres/178836/25223
https://www.jardiland.com/raphiolepide-de-l-inde-springtime-9004274.html    8 litre pot or €11.43 / 3 litre pot
https://www.jardiland.com/raphiolepide-de-l-inde-pink-cloud-9030379.html
https://www.promessedefleurs.com/arbustes/arbustes-de-a-a-z/rhaphiolepis-spring-time-raphiolepis-delacour.html   3 litre pot  IN STOCK
http://www.pepiniere-bretagne.fr/detail-article.php?ID_ARTICLE=9187    R. x delacourii). pot size unknown, no price, out of stock

Good websites for info (and for all plant info too): 
https://jardinage.lemonde.fr/dossier-2022-rhaphiolepide.html
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/62762/Rhaphiolepis-x-delacourii-Coates-Crimson/Details?returnurl=%2Fplants%2Fsearch-results%3Fcontext%3Db%25253D253460%252526hf%25253D10%252526l%25253Den%252526s%25253Ddesc%25252528plant_merged%25252529%252526sl%25253Dplants%26s%3Ddesc(plant_merged)%26form-mode%3Dtrue%26page%3D25350%26aliaspath%3D%252fplants%252fsearch-results


 
PHOTOS:







Written by Sue Spence, photos by Francoise Geeraert
 

13 May 2019

Our April visit to La Serre du Plan in La Garde, 16 April 2019


On the Carces Plant Fair in May 2018 we met Mr. Ferry Vlaar with his collection of herbs.  We were so impressed by the variety and quality of the herbs that we said to each other 'it would be a good venue for our garden group to visit his serre'. After a bit of research by Sue we found out his address and were able to contact him to plan our visit.



The two people who started La Serre du Plan are:

Ferry Vlaar, originally from The Netherlands, whilst studying for his mechanical engineering degree, to earn some extra money, worked for a tulip grower.  One day the owner asked him if he would be interested joining him in a venture 'growing tulips in the south of France'.  He accepted the offer and arrived in Carqueiranne in 1993.  The collaboration did not work out in the end but Ferry Vlaar stayed on in France continuing to produce tulips and other cut flowers.



Alexandra Stihl Vlaar, originally from Germany, comes from a family of horticulturists and more or less grew up in a greenhouse so to speak.  After her horticultural diploma, to gain more experience she worked in the production of ornamental flowers with all that entails. In 1993 she as well decided to move to the south of France and initially worked for a company that produced plugs, young plants.



In 1995 the two met and started working and living together.  In 1997 they married and up to 2009 they grew flowers and foliage for cut flower industry. For commercial reasons they stopped and started what they are doing today.

They moved to La Garde and opened 'La Serre de Plan', Alexandra in charge of growing herbs and Ferry grows strawberries, forever searching for the tastiest and largest varieties.





Strawberry variety 'Charlotte', Ferry Vlaar's new selection, sweet, juicy and large


To make growing herbs from seed easier, circular disks with inbedded seeds are available for the industry. The disks and pots are of an exact fit.



Basil from seedlings to plants:





Purple Basil

Alexandra grows 8 different varieties of chillies with varying degrees of hotness. Below is the Scale of Scoville that measures the pungency of the chillies.


A new variety this year, 7 on the Scoville Scale


Another interesting herb is Vietnamese Coriander.  It tastes quite a lot like Coriander although it belongs to a total different family. Its Latin name is Persicaria odorata


After our visit which was very successful as well for La Serre du Plan as for us (everyone of us bought several plants), Alexandra served coffee and Sue had brought along her delicious carrot cake and shortbread biscuits equally nice.



Ferry Vlaar will be at the following foires in 2019:



Photos:  Gillian Philips, Mavis McQuade and La Serre du Plan

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...