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.