A Guest Blog from a Visit to the Gardens of Villandry
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, whenever a member of my team returns from vacation, I always encourage them to share some of their photos.
This summer, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, traveled to France for the first time. Among his many day tours, he visited the famous château and gardens of Villandry, located in the département of Indre-et-Loire. Once part of a medieval fortress and known as Colombiers, the land passed through several owners - Jean Breton, treasury secretary to de Francois I; the Comte Michel-Ange de Castellane, ambassador of Louis XV; Jérôme Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon; financier Pierre Laurent Hainguerlot, and then in 1906, Joachim Carvallo and his wife, Ann Coleman, heiress to the Coleman fortune. Joachim and Ann spent extensive time and money to redesign the extraordinary property - all of which sit on 15-acres, with the seven-acre garden forming a 360-degree backdrop for the château. In 1934, Château de Villandry was designated a Historic Monument.
Here are just some of Ryan's photos, enjoy.
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- The château and gardens of Villandry are located in a small valley overlooking the Cher River in central France, a left tributary of the famous Loire.
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- The land is bordered by a wooded hillside and a village. It is also completely walled.
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- Now a Historic Monument, the gardens symbolize the way in which gardens were built during the Renaissance. The design and maintenance are incredible. Now, a team of 10 gardeners works full-time to maintain and preserve the gardens.
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- Everything is pruned and carefully groomed according to a very strict schedule. The trees planted throughout the estate require more than three months of pruning by a team of four.
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- More than 115,000 flowering and vegetable plants are planted every year.
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- Here, a sculpture of a dog looks over the gardens from one of the terraces.
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- This is Water Garden surrounded by lawns and lime trees. It was meant to offer visitors a place for perfect rest and meditation. Originally created in the 18th century, it was restored in the early 20th century by Joachim Carvallo.
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- The Sun Garden is a contemporary space inspired by another one of Joachim’s projects. It is formed in three spaces – a cloud chamber with grassy paths, planted with shrubs and perennials, a children’s chamber and this sun chamber centered around a star shaped pool.
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- The gardens also include espaliers – fruit trees or ornamental shrubs whose branches are trained to grow flat against a wall, supported on a lattice or a framework of stakes. These are espaliered pear trees. I also have espaliered fruit trees at the farm. The horizontal branches grow lower to allow pickers easier reach.
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- This is the Ornamental Kitchen Garden is located between the château and the village and is made up of nine raised beds featuring different geometrical designs.
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- Here’s another section of the Ornamental Kitchen Garden. It is also planted with different colors to offer the illusion of a multicolored checkerboard. It includes blue leeks, jade-green carrot tops, red cabbage, and others.
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- And in this section, perfectly planted red cabbages . This Ornamental Kitchen Garden was first planted during the Renaissance, was replaced for a while by an English style park in the 19th century and then transformed back into the Kitchen Garden in the early 1900s by Joachim.
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- Footpaths throughout are lined with perfectly growing plants and shrubs. More than 60,000 of the specimens planted every year are first nurtured and prepared in the greenhouses.
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- Hard not to admire the topiaries – also groomed flawlessly.
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- Today, the gardens are all well marked, giving all visitors a way to gain their bearings at Villandry.
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- The gardens have two main planting sessions – one in spring and one in summer to fall. In all, there are six picturesque and mystical gardens that focus on the true heritage of the French Renaissance era – the Ornamental Gardens, the Water Garden, the Sun Garden, the Maze, the Herb Garden, and the Kitchen Garden.
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- Here is wider view from the nearby Ornamental Gardens. One can see the variety of knot gardens, square gardens bordered by box hedging, and all filled with different plants or vegetables to create beautiful, very symmetrical spaces.
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- Since 2009, the gardens have also been maintained without the use of chemicals and instead uses beneficial insects and other environmentally-conscious methods. Most of the watering is carried out by an automatic, underground system.
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- From every vantage point, one can see the meticulous work done by the talented team here at Villandry.
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- Climbing roses clinging to an ancient rock wall are grown near the exit. If France is on your list of places to visit, do make time to see Villandry – the grounds will astound and inspire you.
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