Potager Colbert: rebirth of a lost kitchen garden

Playfulness at Potager Colbert: an old coffee pot and stove among the dahlias
Playfulness at Potager Colbert: an old coffee pot and stove among the dahlias

When a digger nearly fell over the high retaining wall overlooking the overgrown dell just down from the main front garden, the new owners of Chateau Colbert realised there could be more to the long, unkempt site on the western side of the estate.

Mickael Vincent, head gardener at the Potager Colbert, who is taking me around the garden on a bright morning in late August, says earlier plans showed there had been a kitchen garden here, but that before that incident in 2012, there were few signs left of its former glory.

Continue reading “Potager Colbert: rebirth of a lost kitchen garden”

Last days of autumn in the Japanese garden

View over the lake in Maulevrier's Japanese gardens
View over the lake in Maulevrier’s Japanese gardens

March 2019 – In less than a month, it will be hanami, cherry-blossom time, at Europe’s largest Japanese garden. My last visit to the oriental park at Maulévrier, near Cholet, in France’s Anjou region, dates back to mid-November, on the last day of their autumn season. In the woodland, the nearly bare branches of deciduous trees are holding on to the last gasps of fieriness.  Continue reading “Last days of autumn in the Japanese garden”