To understand the interest of vegetable gardens and the secrets hidden there, you have to open this book:beyond the food aspect, their observation also explains the evolution. We also discover that agroecology is really asserting itself as a key to the future.
The preface written by Louis Albert de Broglie of the vegetable garden of the Château de la Bourdaisière is particularly explicit on the importance of vegetable gardens and the innovations on which the experiments carried out here and there have resulted for the good of Men and Nature.
Across France, 20 exceptional gardeners are presented here:they are invited to share their know-how and their experience, which are exceptional and particularly instructive. Only enthusiasts can carry out such projects of culture and landscape beauty.
All the guided tours of these gardens are presented in the same form, namely, a presentation of the places and their owner. However, vegetable gardens are divided into four main categories:
– “paintings” vegetable gardens often attached to castles, they have an undeniable historical character. It includes the Gardens of Villandry (37), the Château de Miromesnil (77), the Château de Val Joanis (84) and the Floral Garden of the Château de Digeon (80).
–conservatory and collection vegetable gardens , all aim to preserve a diversity of plant species:tomatoes at the Château de la Bourdaisière (37), squash at the Château de Montriou (49), vegetable and other varieties at the Jardins de Barbirey (21) and the center Ile-de-France region for genetic resources at Domaine de la Grange-la-Prévoté (77).
– square vegetable gardens :with the medicinal plants of the Jardin d'Iris (41), the vegetable garden of the guest tables of the Château des Allues (73), the atypical decorative vegetable garden of heirloom vegetables backed by the International Garden Festival of the Domaine de Chaumont-sur- Loire (41), the medieval-inspired vegetable gardens of the Priory of Notre Dame d'Orsan (18) and the vegetable garden of yesteryear in the Medieval Garden of Bois-Richeux (28).
–the vegetable gardens of yesterday and today with, for yesterday, the most famous vegetable garden, the Vegetable garden of the Roy in Versailles (78), the solidarity vegetable garden of Caillebotte (91), the recreation of the vegetable garden of 1741 of La Roche-Guyon (95), the market garden plots in the middle canals at the Hortillonnages in Amiens (80). For today, it is the "new practices" vegetable gardens that are in the spotlight with permaculture at the Ferme du Bec Hellouin (27), the safeguarding of forgotten species and the sale of organic seeds at the Ferme de Sainte Marthe ( 41) and the food garden, an ecological example, of the Domaine de Baudouvin (83).
Of course, you will not duplicate these vegetable gardens at home, however you will be able to draw inspiration from their specific crops, advice and tips from professional gardeners, the benefits of growing without pesticides, hoping that you will have fallen in love, you making you want to know more!
Their vegetable garden secrets by Bénédicte Boudassou – Éditions Larousse – October 8, 2014 – 17, 90 EUR
