Like many of us, when contemplating a move to France, the draw of being able to acquire land was irresistible for Paul Robertshaw and his wife.
“We wanted space to grow,” remembers Paul. “Frankly, we couldn’t – even in mid-Wales – have afforded the properties with the sort of land we needed in the UK. We started out with a checklist, as you do. You know, all the sorts of things: driveable from the Channel ports, closeness to airports, apart from everything else. To be honest, we’d spent so long looking that in the end, I sort of said, this will do.”
‘This’ was an old farm, sitting on a hectare of land, 50km or so south east of La Rochelle. The area is agricultural – arable farmland surrounds them. You might think this would mean that gardening here would be easy but even for a retired professional horticulturist, like Paul, it’s a challenge.
“After centuries of farming there is a ‘plough pan’, a hard compacted layer which is barely penetrable by water and roots. If I dig to plant anything I have to remove flints and stones,” he explains.
Paul and his wife bought the property about 15 years ago. There was no garden, just a couple of trees in the front and a few fruit trees, including damsons, at the back. “We started on the house. I did cut a plot, like all my French neighbours, for some vegetables. That was all in the beginning – my farmer neighbour was still growing wheat on my land,” Paul remembers.
A 'plant obsession'
“Then, one day, I decided to start. I could have had a plan – I had done garden design – but this was all spontaneous, it advanced gradually. It came out of my obsession with plants,” Paul smiles.
You would be correct in both senses to think that the garden grew organically, literally and metaphorically.
Paul Robertshaw
Paul had previously been a Soil Association certified teacher of gardening, most recently in a school for children with special educational needs in Shropshire but before that he was a lecturer at the Welsh Horticultural College.
As an organic gardener, Paul keeps his inputs as low as possible. “I don’t buy things in,” he says. “There’s no ready source of manure as there are no livestock farms here. I only use things I make like garlic sprays or comfrey and nettle feeds. I am organic to the core,” he adds.
Paul uses a three bay compost system and produces a lot of compost but says that the ornamental garden doesn’t benefit from it.
“We have a polytunnel and we grow a lot of our own vegetables, most of them, in fact. The polytunnel is greedy – almost every scrap of my compost goes to feed the production of my aubergines, chillies and tomatoes.”
Paul Robertshaw
Paul betrays his Yorkshire heritage when he tells me that he plants things ‘hard’. “I don’t coddle them. I don’t fill the planting holes with compost and all that. And I don’t water unnecessarily. I never use tap water, we save it all. We have 16 cuves (tanks) to store the water. It keeps us going, even in the summers when we’ve had temperatures over 40 degrees. I don’t plant tender things now, the water’s really just for the polytunnel. We have three solar panels – we aren’t off grid but when we are producing a lot of power the washing machine goes on!”
Adapting to an unpredictable climate
Paul’s plants are strong because they have to be. He has noticed more and more unpredictability in the weather and more extremes.
“I used to say it was gardening in minus 10 to plus 30, now I think it’s more like minus 5 to plus 40,” he smiles sadly. “But it’s not just that. Now it’s frosts in April and floods in May,” he continues.
“You have to pay attention to the micro climates in the garden. You can create some with walls and hedges, giving more protection from sun, heat, wind, etc. I have had to make big changes. I choose resilient plants, I propagate them here, I don’t buy in.”
Paul Robertshaw
Paul does minimal digging but not the ‘no dig’ system. “It wouldn’t work here, we had such a bindweed problem,” he recalls.
“We are as ecologically sound as possible. We encourage the wildlife. We have lots of creatures including hedgehogs. We came to a negotiated settlement with our farmer neighbour – in return for allowing him access for his combine harvester, he has agreed to a wide ‘no spray’ zone around our land. That’s a huge benefit for us but also for the wildlife. We have recorded 32 different sorts of birds in the garden.”
The ornamental garden, although functional and tough, is also very beautiful. Stately iris rise out of mounds of lime green euphorbia, shimmering plumy grasses float under clouds of bright pink lychnis coronaria, their colour picked up in spires of gladiolus byzantinus.
Paul Robertshaw
Paul’s drystone walls divide and shape the plantings, delineating different areas. Hedges protect and enclose. Little paths meander through gorgeous profusion.
The reuse and recycle mantra is repeated throughout – beautiful structures, sculptural forms, and seating have been created from junk and found items.
There are many lavenders but not French lavender (lavandula stoechas – the one with the bunny ears) as it is not as hardy. Paul prefers L. angustifolia and santolina.
He has many drought resistant silver leaved plants and is keen on salvias, gauras, cistus and fennel. “I’m a bit of a fan of grasses, I like them in the borders with the tall wavy things like verbena bonariensis – the pennisetums and miscanthus.”
He laughs. “We don’t try to be self-sufficient anymore – we’ve done that. We do grow a lot. It contributes significantly to our budget but I sow antirrhinums and marigolds just to pretty up the potager.” (I am sure, and so is Paul, that they also help the beneficial insects).
Paul Robertshaw
Rendez-Vous Aux Jardins
Paul has been opening the garden for the national ‘Rendez-Vous Aux Jardins’ scheme on the first weekend in June for the last decade.
A visitor remarked that he should do it for Open Gardens / Jardins Ouverts too and so he looked into it. This year’s dates will be May 11 and 18. Further details can be found on the website:.
Paul hopes that people will be inspired by the garden. “I did this for the fun of it. I like waking up and thinking, I can do this or that. I have enjoyed the process and I have made it as nature friendly and as low cost as possible. And that is possible.”
