Villandry, France

Château de Villandry is rumoured to feature the most remarkable gardens of any castle in the Loire Valley, and based on what I’ve visited in the region, I have to agree. I was impressed by the large formal gardens because they manage to achieve that elusive balance between history and originality. The gardens are a 20th century interpretation of 16th century renaissance garden ideas, and manage to remain true to the site -defined by the castle and the wider landscape where old church towers and farmed countryside recall a different era- while also injecting some imagination and freshness into a classical design. Best of all, I felt that the garden avoids the trap of being overly grandiose and impersonal, which is too often the case in other large, formal castle gardens.

The very first garden at Villandry sets the tone for whole site: at the entrance to the imposing castle, instead of a grand lawn with a fountain or sculptures, visitors are greeted by the lowly vegetable garden. It’s true that this isn’t just any vegetable garden – it’s actually a superbly crafted example of the French ornamental potager, and is the garden which defines Villandry. The juxtaposition of the main formal elements against the bright colours and textured forms of common peppers, cabbages, swiss chard and annual flowers, make it fresh and interesting, without being overbearing.




Moving on from the main attraction of the potager, the large grounds are divided into several spaces on different levels. The separate areas break up what would otherwise be an overwhelming space, and bring it down to a more intimate, human scale. Each space is just big enough to fulfill its purpose without being too grand. I also thought the change in levels was well done – it helped define the individual spaces without creating complete separations and thus still retaining the views both around the property and towards the greater landscape.

The next areas continue to exploit the tension between formal and informal witnessed in the potager. In the garden below, incredibly blue spires of Perovskia, Russian sage, were bursting from their holding pen of perfectly manicured yew hedges. A very simple, yet very effective, composition.


Further along one encounters a more a traditional formal garden, in the sense of being more serious and minimalist, but still unique. The entire garden was sunken, and invited contemplation from a high, tree-shaded moat which surrounded it. Without realizing it, we actually spent a long time sitting in this garden, watching the reflection of the sky in the large pool and just feeling its calmness. Admittedly, a lot of the time was also spent watching a little dog that didn’t tire of rocketing up and down the steep moat. I wonder how they mow that.

In the upper corner of the property there is a new garden which took me by surprise – it features exuberant planting in the new perennial style, mixing together tall strong perennials with mostly equally tall and strong grasses. The overall layout is still formal, thus linking back to the other parts of the garden, but the feel here is definitely different. The garden could be regarded as slightly out of place, but I thought it fit the edge of the property with its free-flowing, slightly abandoned feel. I think it's a great new addition to the gardens, continuing the forward vision into the new century.





Overall, Villandry is a stunning garden, with one foot in the era of extravagant castles and formal, controlling design, and the other foot in more loose, fun and modern planting. Definitely worth a visit.

Garden thoughts

Over the last few weeks, I’ve read several blogs and listened to a few podcasts that have provided some really inspiring and thoughtful reflections on gardening. The debates range from the meaning and philosophy of gardens, to their purpose in our modern world, to the ongoing question of where gardens fit in the realm of art. Some pretty deep and insightful stuff. As someone very interested in gardening, it’s great to see that people are stirred enough by gardens, both emotionally and intellectually, to fuel these discussions.

This brings me back to my own little blog, and its intended purpose. When I initially started the blog, I thought about it as just a way to keep track of the gardens I visited and my immediate impressions of them, basically a reference list I could easily come back to later. But now I’ve been inspired to think a little further. For the blog to be worthwhile, I shouldn’t be describing simply what was there and general impressions, but rather to use it as an opportunity to analyze my garden visits in greater detail, to try to distill the lessons of each garden. I’m under no illusion that my ponderings are going to be as insightful or eloquent as the other garden thinkers I’m referring to above, but my goal is learning, no matter if the process may be awkward and full of mistakes.

I suppose the main question I am interested in is what exactly makes some gardens work, while others do not? Sometimes you step into a garden and it’s just magical, there is a connection and an emotional response. Others, even when the ‘required elements’ seem to be in place, just don’t manage to evoke this. It’s the immediate emotional response that I find most interesting about great gardens - to quote Penelope Hobhouse from a Vista Lectures podcast I was just listening to, you know within 10 seconds of stepping into a garden whether it's a good one or not. I also find it interesting that this response is more or less universal, and doesn’t depend on identifying with a particular garden element that may hold special significance for an individual; rather, great gardens are recognized as such by a majority of people, so they must manage to strike a common cord in all of us. I’m also not really concerned about reading too much into gardens, such as the meaning of symbolic elements or the like. To me, the garden alone should tell its story and not need an accompanying guidebook to clarify meaning to the ordinary visitor. Simply, I want to ask myself whether a garden spoke to me, and if it did, what did I feel was the reason?

Well, that was meant as a short introduction to the next garden on my Loire Valley trip, but I think it’s too late to delve into that. I’ll be back in the next days with Villandry!

Spring in Belgium

I just wanted to take a short break from the sunny castles of last summer’s Loire Valley for an exciting news update – spring has officially arrived in Belgium! Last weekend we went to the local botanical garden in Leuven, and lo and behold, the highlight of the year was already out – the giant crocus lawn!

I must say it took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting it since we’ve had snow cover up until 2 weeks ago, and Belgium has experienced its harshest winter in most people’s living memory. Fortunately, it seems that even after many years of being spoiled by the typically mild Belgian winters, these tiny bulbs have retained their inborn hardiness. Completely unfazed by the snow and cold, they all popped up right on time.


The sight of the first fragile flowers of spring must be one of the most beautiful and happy experiences nature can offer us. I’m not sure what deep primordial cord it tugs at, but I know that it’s a prominent one in every gardener. I hope that the pure, unadulterated joy of the first spring bulbs is felt just as intensely by everyone else.

The Tomato Prince, France

After the hidden-away potager at the grand Chenonceau castle, it was off to a much smaller castle featuring the potager as the main attraction. The destination was none other than the castle and garden of the Tomato Prince. This garden has been on my list since I saw it featured on an episode of Recreating Eden (which, by the way, is the best garden show ever made and I’m still anxiously waiting for seasons 4 and 5 to be released on DVD – are you listening Merit Motion Pictures???)

The Tomato Prince has earned international renown for his unbridled passion for the tomato. In the walled garden of his Château de la Bourdaisière (which incidentally also has the dubious claim to fame of being the castle used in the TV show Joe Millionaire), the Prince grows no less than 500 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

The garden itself is not much to speak of – hundreds of tomato plants intermixed with a few flowers enclosed by a centuries old wall pretty much describes it. However, we lost ourselves for a few hours wandering through the rows and marveling at the variety of strange shapes and colours. It’s pretty amazing that from a single wild species, Solanum lycopersicum, we now have bred varieties from tiny, sweet cherry tomatoes to melon-like beasts that can barely hang on to the plant, and everything imaginable in between. The tomato must have inspired passion in many plants people over the centuries to result in such rich diversity.



The highlight of the year at the Tomato Prince’s is the Tomato Festival. This attracts quite a few international tomato fans, and features the Prince himself expounding his passion, as well as exhibitions, sales and tomato tastings (in the lovely shop shown below which is a renovated stable). Since we were too early for the festival by a week, a covert, self-guided, taste test was very tempting. However, I’m proud to report that we held out and not a single tomato was harmed during our visit.

Château de Chenonceau, France

Château de Chenonceau is one of the most picturesque castles in the Loire Valley (unfortunately not captured at its best in our photo, which I'm blaming on the construction), and the second most popular château in France after Versailles. Its most distinguishing feature is the arched bridge which spans the river Cher and forms part of the castle.

The castle is flanked by two main gardens on either side, which are described as “magnificent” and “exquisite” in guides. I’m afraid I didn’t find the first-hand experience to be quite so impressive.The gardens are formal in the strictest sense. Both gardens are more or less similar in design, consisting of sharply geometrical patterns defined by hedges and divided around central fountains. Although the castle boasts about the tens of thousands of bedding plants that are planted out with the seasons, I found the gardens were in a little bit of rough shape at the end of August. They were neither impressive enough to offer grandeur, or complex enough to be interesting. One garden was very exposed and the pale palette of pastel annuals and dried lawn seemed sad and faded in the sun. The other garden was somewhat more enjoyable, but in retrospect I think it was because it was smaller and shaded by some impressive old tree specimens on the perimeter.



Before I sound too negative about the Chenanceau gardens, there is one garden attraction here which I don’t think is to be missed (although we almost did). It is the lowly potager, or kitchen garden, which is hidden off to the side of the castle park. This area is bordered by quaint old farmhouses on one side, and alternating hedges and open countryside on the other. It’s the perfect setting for this garden, and a great antidote to the rigidity of the formal gardens. Huge vegetables were bursting with health (I guess the gardener must spend all his time in this garden) and were combined with densely planted rows of flowers. Old fashioned dahlias and zinnias in rich colour combinations of velvety purple and bright orange just glowed in the perfect lighting provided by the setting sun.



Oh, and there was one more feature of Chenanceau which is worthwhile – the entrance allée. Nothing beats a really impressive allée, and this must be one of the best.

Plessis Sasnières, France

One of the highlights of my garden wanderings from last summer was a trip to the Loire Valley. Up until the French Revolution, the Loire Valley was where the French nobility came to play, away from the hustle and bustle of Paris. As a result, this beautiful, lush valley is littered with an incredibly high concentration of magnificent châteaux, enough to spread around a few small countries. For a gardener, the castle gardens are of course the main point. These are often as much of an attraction, or even more so, than the castles themselves, and have become a highlight of the region. Best of all, I was happy to discover that not all gardens are traditional French formal style – there is enough variety, as well as plenty of new additions and developments, to keep things fresh and interesting.


The first garden we visited was at Plessis Sasnières. The best word to describe the entire property at Plessis Sasnières is comfortable. Everything from the residence (which is not so much castle as country mansion) to the English park-style gardens convey comfort and relaxation, with a French country-style touch. Taking up residence here would be so easy – you can just picture yourself having breakfast croissants on the gravel terrace overlooking the small lake, followed by a leisurely stroll around the walled flower garden and then maybe a peek in the potager to pick fresh berries for lunch. And don’t forget a little row around the lake at dusk. Ahh, to be born into a royal lineage…

I chose the garden because of the alluring tagline on the website, calling visitors to share in a “passion for the art of gardens” (more or less). The current owner, who inherited the property from her grandfather, does indeed seem to be passionate about gardening – we spotted her outside, pruning a gigantic door through a hedge. Since taking over, she has worked to restore and develop the garden, recently attaining the “Jardin Remarquable” designation. Her passion is especially evident in the walled garden, which is filled to the brim with perennials styled in the Gertrude Jekyll tradition. Around the lake, the landscape is less flower-heavy, mainly defined by lawns, a small stream surrounded by bog plants, and some more formal elements, including rolling clipped hedges.



This is a garden where you feel you could linger all day. It’s nothing overly dramatic or imposing – it just sits comfortably in its setting, and invites one to pause and enjoy the gentle beauty of nature.

Chaumont-sur-Loire Garden Festival, France

Visiting the Festival des Jardins at Chaumont-sur-Loire was a dream come true, and an experience that I would highly recommend to any enthusiastic gardener/designer. This garden festival is the complete antithesis of the uninspired and commercial gardens we visited at the Appeltern “garden idea park” in the Netherlands. Chaumont-sur-Loire offers up garden design as art, with the style and grace perhaps only the French can pull off.
The festival has a few things going for it that make it unique. First, you really can’t go wrong with a setting on the grounds of one of the most beautiful castles in France, in one of the most picturesque regions of the country. Even the entrance way (pictured below) is beautifully landscaped. Second, the gardens are truly billed as art. Their design is often a collaboration between students and artists from very different backgrounds, including landscape architecture, painting, sculpture, and graphics, resulting in creative and original designs. The festival is also perfect in scope, featuring only 24 gardens, just enough to satisfy the eager visitor, but still leaving you wanting more.

It's hard to pick favourites, but here are a few of the gardens I really enjoyed. The theme of last year’s festival (we visited in late August 2009) was colour.

Graine de conscience, by Florence Mercier
In a very small space, this garden moves through three vastly different habitats: lush tropical forest, prairie, and stark desert/rock. I loved the modern style, and the completely seamless transitions between spaces – the habitats couldn’t be more different, yet their connection seemed natural and almost inevitable in this garden.



La ligne jaune, by Gaylord Le Goaziou, Maythinie Eludut et Julien Viniane
The colours in this garden were amazing! We couldn’t get a very good angle to show off the whole garden, but I think the pictures below illustrate the brilliance and inventiveness of the colour combinations.


Transposition, by Florimond Gauvin and Mathouta Vongphouthone
With a spiral boardwalk and beautiful planting, this was a simple garden that managed to be novel and comfortable at the same time.




Lessive en fleurs, by Anaëlle Madec, Jean-François Madec, Clément Constantin
This garden made smart use of a creative element, laundry, to show off colour gradation. By using the very obvious colour theme in the laundry, which is easy to control and obvious to all visitors, it helped highlight the parallel colour motif in the planting. I like gardens with clear themes that any visitor can immediately connect to and understand. The wind also added an interesting element, making the laundry as alive as a windswept planting.






Etang donné, Christophe Cuzin
One of the unique features of this festival is that gardens must fit into a mature site, generally a key requirement in “real” garden design. This particular garden was set in a tiny clearing surrounded by high trees, with only a little bit of light coming in through the central opening. The simple design was perfectly suited to the spot and managed to create a magical and mysterious place. Things don’t always have to be too complicated.


Pénombre, by Alvaro de la Rosa Maura and Patricia Diaz Agrela
Wow – a perfect example of a powerful garden created by exploiting the essence of a single plant, in this case Japanese blood grass. Everything in this garden worked to show off the unique interplay between grass and light, including the contrasting white birch trunks and circular design to show off different lighting angles (and to ensure that backlighting would always be available from at least one angle).



Le jardin "Mange-tête", by Steven Fuhrman, Samson Lacoste, Luc Pinsard
Top marks for fun and creativity. The "head-eating" garden offered coloured bulbs to stick your head in and get a whole new colour experience of the otherwise quite plain planting. People spent a lot of time enjoying themselves in this garden trying the differently coloured bulbs, which were even set at varying heights to accommodate everyone.



Writing this and looking at the pictures of last year just makes me itch to go back again. The theme this year is “Body and Soul" - sounds intriguing...