Thursday 6 August 2009

The tyranny of Alain Baraton.




By chance the other day I happened to listen to one of Alain Baraton's interventions on France Inter ( roughly 7.45 am. Saturdays and Sundays). Some poor listener was wondering whether it was possible to plant oleanders outside in Northern France, and was firmly told that even if it were so it should not be done, since oleanders only belong to the south of France, just as I suppose camellias and magnolias should only be grown in China, and potatos in South America .  For those of you who  have not come across him, he has become the Mr Gardener of France rather in the same way as Geoff Hamilton used to be in England, which is to say that not only is he a gardener, but is also a 'celebrity'. Like Geoff Hamilton he is also a great advocate of everything 'Green', so that any French gardener who dares to use a weed killer or pesticide is very much in his bad books, so also it seems anyone whose garden is not full of 'indigenous' plants.


As I made clear in my first blog I am not a Green gardener, and even more criminally I am what I think is called a Climate Change denialist, and therefore should apparently be shot at sight, though for the moment I would rather avoid this fate. Instead I want to comment on the notion of a 'Natural Garden', full no doubt of indigenous plants.  For me no such thing exists. At the very best I suppose you could buy a plot of land, and then sit and contemplate it, though even your plot will have been affected by what man has previously done to it. And those of you who have attempted to create a wildflower meadow will know that nothing is less 'natural'. After all even the act of mowing, however infrequently done , is an intervention by man yet alone the removal of all that mown grass so essential to the creation of a wild flower meadow.  I hope that I have already mentioned somewhere Pamela J. Harper's 'Time-Tested Plants', for me the only outstanding book on gardening of recent years, but if I have not I can only strongly recommend it. She is very sound on all these matters taking for me the only logical view that gardening of any kind is an unnatural thing, involving a battle with nature. But it is a battle that should be waged with common sense. It is probably not very sensible to plant trees in the Gers that require a lot of water or dislike great heat. Acid loving plants are for most us dificult to cater for, I was going to say impossible, until I remembered one of the great English garden, Hidcote, where Lionel Johnson by importing huge amounts of acid soil, was able to grow plants that do not like the Cotswold limestone. The fact is that great gardeners take risks, and though most of us do not come into the category of 'great', we do on the whole like a bit of a challenge. Of course we could all grow buttercups and dandelions, but though they might look quite pretty , at least for a time, we would soon be bored stiff, and boredom is what I most associate with the indigenous school of gardening.


Of course questions of what I will call 'gout' do arrive. Ever since I arrived here I have been debating whether or not to plant eucalyptus. By and large they would like the site, though wind might be a problem. As those of you who use Blagnac airport will know, they grow fast, and they are  undoubtedly handsome. But would they look good on a Gersois hillside? The same would go for olive trees. So far I have avoided them, and I should add the importation of very old olive trees from Spain and elsewhere is one of Baraton's bugbears. I have some sympathy with this view, but not I think on what I would call ethical grounds. I am in fact against the planting of any large tree on the grounds that their upkeep – staking and watering – is very labour intensive, and even if you keep them alive, they will not move for at least three years, so you might as well plant small – though admittedly your newly planted olive will not in your life time take on the required 'dead' look. What I am worrying about here is taste, not some moral imperative to save the planet, which is largely Baraton's concern.


Still Baraton is obviously perfectedly entitled to his views, though it is slightly ironic that his day job is that of 'Head Gardener' of Versailles, which must be one of the most artificial gardens ever created, with hardly a 'vivace' in sight. What I object to is the amount of airtime that he is given, and the fact  that another point of view is seemingly not tolerated.  And if I were a specialist nurseyman I would feel very hardly done by. They depend for their living on growing unusual plants not to be found in the 'grandes surfaces', and these by definition are rarely indignenous. They need every kind of support, some of which ought to come from a garden 'celebrity', a little bit more interested than Baraton is in the amazing range of plants that the world provides, many of which can be grown in France.


Sunday 2 August 2009

Survival

After 'despair' 'survival!  Last night we had a little rain - about 4  mm - not nearly enough but better than nothing.  Since the beginning of May we have had about 100 mm when for the same period the average rainfall should be around 200 mm. Moreover it has been very hot, often over 30 C. so the result is we are very dry, and most plants, but especially any tree or shrub planted in the last three years is under stress.  I do not think that I have actually lost anything yet, but it is too early to tell. Moreover our solution to drought - a very large underground reservoir - has failed us,admittedly not helped by the fact that a hose pipe became unattached when a tap was open, and as a result a lot of water was pumped out to no good purpose. Still I am disappointed. I suppose it just goes to show how much water is needed if you are going to have serious garden in the Gers.

It is of course a good moment to go round your garden to see just what plants best resist the drought, though since all mine are fairly reently planted it is perhaps a bit early to arrive at any definitive conclusions. For instance my hibiscus droop terribly and are in no way a pretty sight. But most people's at this time look wonderful, and in gardens where I am sure that virtually no watering takes place. The answer I assume is that they need time to get their roots down at which point, I hope in the not too distant future, all will be well.  I am also hoping that the same will be true for the magnolias. Readers of earlier blogs may remember that I have planted mine in full sun on a southern bank, not altogether the recommended position. Unsurprisingly they are not looking too wonderful, but they are certainly surviving.  Looking well on that same bank, and perhaps of all the many trees that I have planted growing the fastest, are two decorative pear trees, Pyrus calleryana  Chanticleer and  Redspire. Also growing well in the same area, indeed almost too well to be true, is a Black mulberry.  Despite their large leaves the Paulownia family seem to cope surprisingly well with the heat.  These can be pruned to the ground to produce in the space of a year a very exotic shrub of up to 3 metres high, but if this is done you miss out on the lovely lilac coloured candelabras.

Other trees that are surviving well include various oaks but especially one of my favourites, Quercus schumardii. Good spring and autumn colour, and with a finely cut leaf, they look very smart throughout the year. Looking bad are members of acer and cornus family. I am so attracted to the latter family that I have planted a fair number, including Aurora,, capitata, kousa chinensis, Satomi, mas, Norman Hadden, officinalis, and Porlock. They are not I should add on my south-facing bank, but even so they seem to get too much sun, and they may prove to be an expensive mistake.

In my enthusiasm for Buddleya Lochinch I had forgotten that alas it shares in the great defect of almost all of this family, the fact that its flowers die badly, i.e. they leave a nasty brown mess at the end of each branch. These can of course be cut off, but if you have lots of them and they are big bushes this is easier said than done. Still I forgive them almost anything for the butterflies that they attract. Lavenders share both the same virtues - attract butterflies - and vices - nasty dead flower heads - but at least they are smaller so easier to manage. This year in particular I was struck by the large number of butterflies that sought them out - there was almost a plague of Painted Ladies. I am going to invest in more of them. Pep. Filippi has a marvellous selection.

Barack and Obama have launched a sustained attack on all my flowers, but are otherwise doing well.