The first castle we visited was the one that I was most looking forward to. I knew that it was supposed to have amazing gardens, but was still blown away by seeing them in person. The most incredible part was this "potager" section. Normally, I think of a potager as a small kitchen garden with a bit of everything growing together in a cozy tangle. The potager at Villandry was nothing like that. Look at this garden plan! The most amazing part is that this is not an ornamental garden. This is a gorgeous garden full of veggies and fruits.
I was a little worried that being Fall the garden would be sadly passed it's peak. It was not in full glory, but still lovely. Tiny boxwood hedges surrounded every plot. Not a singe weed anywhere in sight. Cabbages, pumpkins, and fruit trees surrounded by flowers.
They even still had eggplants growing!
Golden colored celeries and cabbages. Celery is so hard to grow (at least for me here it has been). And the cabbages! How do they keep them so pristine?
Rose bushes pruned up tall decorated the corners of beds.
Espaliered apple trees ran all along the gardens outer borders.
Swiss chard, curly kale, and leeks
Purple kale looking tall and vigorous.
Tomato plants were past their peak and interplanted with basil.
The ornamental gardens were also perfectly manicured. The guide to the garden says that they have 9 full time gardeners. That made me feel a little better.
The herb gardens were also a treat to look at.
There was a labyrinth.
Grandmama and A made it through no problem.
As I walked through the herb garden I was grateful that I have been working on learning the scientific names of things.
The shapes! It made me want to plan my herb gardens more thoughtfully. I love the flower borders. I would like to try lavender or rosemary as a border plant since boxwoods are suffering from blight here.
These bowers were dripping with grapes. I had to reach up and taste one to compare it to our concords. It was much sweeter than concords with a flowery aftertaste.
And then a few token pictures from inside the castle. I liked that too, just anti-climactic after the gardens.
I kept looking out over the gardens from various castle windows.
Here is a view of the potager from an upper story window.
No comments:
Post a Comment