Gardening in Brittany

 How I became an obsessional gardener

Six years ago I bought a house in Brittany. Yes a house. What I didn’t realise at the time was that I had bought a field. This house had the three most important things the TV programmes advise us to look for, that is ..location, location, location! My house is the only one in the lane, has an unrestricted view down to the Rance and up to the village church. So it’s traffic free, noise free and absolutely paradisaical. The field is bordered by poplar trees to the south and west, two hundred year old oaks to the east and I have planted hornbeams to the north.

I had lived in an upstairs flat in England for twenty tears and didn’t even have a window box. I had no intention of gardening. I moved to France to spend my retirement writing and painting. So how did it happen that I now go to bed planning the next for months gardening, I wake up eager to get on with the daily sowing/ planting/weeding/mowing or pruning.

I believe that to be a good gardener one needs patience, energy, time and knowledge. We can acquire knowledge from books and gardening friends and I had these aplenty. Alas I had and still have not, the first three.

I began six years ago by making a path to the clothes-line so as not to get my feet wet when pegging out the washing. Next I thought a few plants in front of my south facing windows. Then I stopped saying to myself if I make more garden then I shall I have to weed it, ugh! Oh and by the way this garden is 5,000 square metres in size.