Home Improvement

Nothing could be further from our old notion of French gardens— formal and geometric—than the popular new landscapes inspired by the untamed countryside In her new book, The French Country Garden, Louisa Jones explores the nation’s obsession with everything green, from environmental concerns and preservation of flora and fauna to the latest styles in home garden design: the country priest or cure’s garden with cottage like plantings of herbs, flowers, and vegetables; the collector’s garden for preserving heirlooms as well as importing rare exotics; gardens for the five senses inspired by designs of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and ornamental potagers; witty and subversive formal gardens; and, most popular, natural gardens that seek to imitate the surrounding landscape.

Following is an excerpt from her chapter “Nature’s Ways.” Gardening has become a national passion in France. The great French heritage still thrives—classic parterres and landscaped parks, botanical collections and kitchen gardens—but in recent years there has been luxuriant new growth on the old roots. In the Ardencies, an ‘Adelaide d’Orléans’ rose arches over a streambed to form part of a mountain landscape. A semi-wild gardens, the author’s domain near Provinces; in a Loire Valley plot, fennel and poppy go to seed naturally. The most remarkable dimension of this renaissance is also its most secret: home gardens hidden in remote provinces, often made with limited means, but always displaying personal resourcefulness and creativity.

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