Thoughts from the French Potting Shed

My son Jack and I and had planned to build a wall in the garden over the last weekend, but for the first time in months we had heavy rain and being unused to this strange phenomenon we stayed indoors and played “Boggle”, but as he spells better in both English and French, I came second.

The rain has been followed by some warm and sunny days so everything is growing at an alarming rate, it is like triffids have invaded the garden and I may have to hack my way through the advancing forest of weeds to get to the front gate tomorrow.

Many people buy property in the south of France to use as a vacation home or to rent out part of the year. Most village houses do not have gardens and many villas have well laid gravel and paving with the plants in large pots - there is a good reason for this - in a climate where if you turn your back for a minute a tree appears, managing a garden can be a huge undertaking.

Plot sizes in France are usually much smaller than in many countries and in an area where agriculture was (and still mainly is), the only industry, the last thing any worker wanted after a hard days work in the fields was to attack yet more weeds and creepers.

If you love gardening then the Mediterranean climate can be a delight, as long as you have plenty of water for irrigation, most older homes have a well and this is an important feature. But if you are not using your property all the year and you are renting out, then a well stocked garden is something you will have to pay to be maintained or you may lose your tenants in the encroaching wilderness.

My advice to people looking for a property with a garden or land is to “Keep it Simple” and “Keep it Small” - my other big question is “Do you really want a swimming pool?” - but this is another subject for another time