'It was the extreme variation in growing conditions which intrigued us, the possibility lying before us of growing ….. plants adapted by nature to different situations.' Beth Chatto
When the garden in France came back to life in spring, 2016 I looked back over the last year and tried to learn the lessons.
Last summer there was almost no rain and consistently high temperatures, frequently in the high 30s. Average rainfall here is 775mm per year compared with 1125mm in Dorset. Average summer daytime temperature is 20 degrees, with average winter temperature 1.6 degrees, whereas summer temperature averages 19 degrees in Dorset and average winter temperature 6.5 degrees here. Between Dorset and Burgundy there is only a small difference in the summer temperature averages, but summer starts relatively late here in Burgundy and when it get going, the rise in temperature is rapid. The climate in Burgundy is described as oceanic with semi-continental tendencies, which is why it is ideal for the culture of vines. (We don't have any vines ... yet!).
The plants that would be expected to start to show a brownness in the leaves in late summer – primroses, peonies etc – were looking sad well before their time. Other plants that we found well-established here, but which I have spread around the garden had not done well. Lambs ears, for example, which usually retain their foliage well into autumn and beyond, looked very pink round the edges. Most of the hydrangeas brought from England had wilted and two had died. However, after a few evenings with the sprinkler playing, the expected green-ness reappeared.
The climate is tending more and more to extremes, as last year's experience shows and I must stop wishing that I could grow the things that appeal despite their unsuitability for the surroundings. Beth Chatto coined the phrase 'plants for places' and I shall make a plant-centred garden rather than a Ros-centred garden, and indeed, not one that needs constant watering in a place where water is in relatively short supply. Back to my thoughts inspired by the visit to Oudolf's Field and his vision of a more naturalistic approach to gardening.
