Etoile de Berger

As I was covering up some plants for the winter this morning I looked back at my first year's efforts in creating a garden out of nothing but a slightly sloping void dusted with a good selection of common French weeds.
Now let me declare right here that I have never done any gardening other than raking leaves and trimming bushes over my entire life. As if by magic I have found myself actually looking forward to planning and being in the garden. However I am 1000 miles south of what I am familiar with and the plants, bushes and trees are almost unknown to me. My gardening books are of little use and while there are French books I really resent having to start a new library all over again.

I thought that there must be lots of people who have moved to France and perhaps are as perplexed as I am. Some are lucky to have found an established garden already but many may want to change, develop or at least understand their garden.
So...

I am putting this thread out to see if anyone would be happy to exchange tips, extoll the beauties of another new plant/bush/tree they have found, guard against what they have found difficult and advise us about where to go for information. I am aware that France covers about 800 miles of longitude and nearly as many degrees of latitude, many different weather and soil conditions but I at least am interested in those differences too. It would also alert newcomers or those who consider coming as to what to expect, what they might be able to bring from GB and what hasn't a cat in hell's chance of surviving.

Perhaps the mods might consider making this a sticky so we could go back to it easily and refer to it when we need it?

How about it people?

Etoile de Berger

I'll start this thread off by asking nos jardiniers what to expect over the winter for a passionflower hedge planted this last late spring.
It is still putting out flowers (feebly now) and tendrils but lately we have been having very warm days and last night a light frost.

Never having grown one before I remember my Aunt in Derby impressing me about how tender they are and difficult to grow. Down here they do really well (the Bearn) but I have covered up the entire hedge this morning, taking care to do the roots too since I worry about night frost.

Is it going to lose its leaves?
Does it die right back?
How susceptible is it to frost? Wind? Anything else?

I know I know...someone is going to tell me it's an annual!!!

I did say I was a rank novice...

dennerlymum

don't think it is an annual; those around us dont seem to be covered up and they seem to bounce back every year. However you are up higher than us, so some protection could be useful!

Think this is a lovely idea!

Tweedpipe

I don't have much of a clue when it comes to gardening, which is one reason we call on a professional several times a years to perform all the real necessary stuff.
Having said that, we have a dividing hedge in the garden and there are many passion flowers which appear every year. Regular annual frosts here too (Tarn) appear to kill off the uppermost growths, but each year the flowers appear again in masses, so I believe you have little to worry about.

Etoile de Berger

Well that was all very heartening. Cheers. Were those photos really all passionflower??? Impressive!

I live in a bowl that is Salies and also between hills. The garden is open to the west and the winds howl down the valley. Last year I lost things that are common in other people's gardens...I think because they were the first year in the ground.

Salies is also built on clay. There is a lot of terreau and a lot of work involved in planting anything. In summer is is rock hard but I hear that clay is full of nutrients. I have to say roses do well here. That bush called Red Robin is very common here...the one with the new leaves which are red. Since French gardens tend to be more of the Capability Brown type...more parkland than herbaceous border, they are used for hedges and specimens. I have to say thoough that with the price of plants in France, you have to be Loius XIV to afford annuals! When you mention le jardin here they think of vegetables.

Is that pretty much true elsewhere?

dennerlymum

oh yes! You rarely see any gardens in our neck of the wood! Lots of grass and bushes and fruit trees and a veg plot but nothing else!

Tweedpipe

No, judging by the two different leaf pattern most of it is some type of hedging, but a mass of passionflower crops up within it each year.