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English country garden ?


yvonne
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Hi all - we will be moving to the South West ( either the Dordogne or Lot regions ) later this year. I love gardening and our one here in the UK is full of the classic English Country garden plants. Could I recreate this look in our new French home ? . How do Delphiniums, Foxgloves, Aquilegias etc do in the South West, I'm guessing that roses and Lilies would do well but what about things like Hosta 's ?

Or should I forget about this and go for a mediterranean look ? If so can you suggest plants that do well in this region ?

Thanks !
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yvonne, I can't tell you what plants would grow well as I don't live in 46 or 47.

However, when we were house-hunting in those areas, we looked at a house owned by a very keen gardener.  She said that her range of plants was restricted by it being very cold and very also very hot and she wasn't just talking about summer and winter; she meant that days could be very hot with temperatures falling to quite low overnight.

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All plants; if planted in a good area some shade some sun; will flourish if given lots of love and attention and are watched over constantly. Our garden further north than your chosen area, is a mixture of French and British plants. What you will never grow in France unless you're very rich is Grass, it will grow all over the place except where you want it to. Hosta's will not do well in hot sun, what we do now is grow our Hostas in hanging baskets on the shady side of the house; out of the reach of slugs and snails. We rented in the early days in the Gers and what did grow well in the garden of course were Fig trees. Good luck.

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I suspect that in the Lot/Dordogne border you will have heavy clay soil, as we have in the Gers.

I don't mean to be too negative, but I have never seen an "English country Garden" here. Most flowers are grown in containers. The nearest you will get is a selection of perennial shrubs and grasses, with a few very hardy colourful flowers such as gaura, salica, rudbeckia and the  redflowered sage.

It might be possible, but I think you would have to spend a few years improving the soil with lots of organic matter.

I know because I tried, and ended up with a small area of gaura, sage, santolina, rosemary lavender and a couple of different spireas. Even had to give up on roses because the deer ate the buds.

But the soil and climate are excellent for most vegetables.

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Thanks for your replies - I guess I'll have to wait untill I can assess what soil type I'll be working with and be prepared to dig in lots of compost etc. I'm going to give it a go but substitute some plants with others . If it works I'll let you know !
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I’m not sure that an English country garden is a realistic goal, partly because some of those very pale colours just don’t hold their own in the very bright sunlight. I had such dreams once ..........

This has been my experience. All herbs do well, but differently. I have spent a fair chunk of today chopping back two sage bushes, an ordinary one and a purple one, because they have just gone beserk and grown over other more interesting plants. My rosemary bushes have also grown to a size they’ve never achieved in England. Sage is good; someone mentioned the red flowered version - no good for cooking but great in a border. I have two kinds of fennel - green and bronze and they look like bears skulking about at the back of the bed. I never dreamed they would grow to ten feet and they self seed all over the place.

Things that have done what expected - roses, gaura, tradescantia and helianthemums., irises and lilies.

Things that have done better than I expected - aquilegias, perennial sweet peas, pentstemon, verbena (another one that self-seeds everywhere) and tree mallow.

Things that have done too well and I wish hadn’t planted - acanthus, rabbit’s ears,

I tried hollyhocks but they didn’t last. - perhaps because I wasn’t around in early spring to spray against rust.

Lots of annuals do well - cornflowers, love in a mist, cosmos and lavatera seem fine.

Be prepared for kindly neighbours giving you plants you don't want but feel obliged to grow because you've been given them.

This is just my experience Yvonne, bearing in mind that I’m only here from May to September each year. Happy gardening.

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[quote user="yvonne"]Thanks for your replies - I guess I'll have to wait untill I can assess what soil type I'll be working with and be prepared to dig in lots of compost etc. I'm going to give it a go but substitute some plants with others . If it works I'll let you know ![/quote]

I hope you have a very strong back as digging is seriously hard work here.  The soil is clay with lots of what the locals call cailloux which are calcareous stones and rocks.  Digging by spade is really not an option and a mechanical device is best.

We have many of the plants mentioned in Hoddy's post plus our roses have to be seen to be believed.  Every year we have geraniums in pots and replace them in the spring with new plants.

As touched on by others, beware of Acanthus and Canna lilies as they grow like trifids.  We have lots of flowering shrubs and some succulents for ground cover, also cotoneaster and pyracanthus for their berries and soil erosion qualities.

People often stop outside our house to admire our garden and the view.  I can understand about the view but the garden...pppffff....it's full of weeds and other overgrown shrubs that have, after 5 years, defeated us completely.

In our first house, OH was forever re-seeding the grass and tending it but even he has learned that some things are not easily achieved.

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We live in 47. The soil is pretty tough, but I'm not very strong. For shrubs we have loads of oleanders which seem to grow well. Hibiscus also. In the spring we have daffodils and tulips galore with polyanthus. Cornflowers, sweet peas, sweet william, hollyhocks are all grown here. Occasionally when we get a bad winter perrenials don't last, but more often than not even seeded annuals reappear! Our geraniums are looked after during the winter and stay alive until the following year. No worries in Lot et Garonne
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Again I am not familiar with the specifics of the region you plan to move to, but in general I agree with all the points above.

There are many ideas of what an English country garden should contain, but if your ideas include a finely manicured lawn then I have to agree with NickP, that you are doomed to disappointment, and I would go further than him and say that this is not possible legally at any price. You will find in extreme summers, the watering restrictions will result in a brown area and once moisture returns it is the coarser grasses that return first and take over. If you are prepared for a patch of (usually) green grass of a rather coarser type, cut rather longer, then it is possible to haver a lawn of sorts

The challenge in summer will always be getting enough water to the right plants. I find it difficult to stop some annuals such as coriander and rocket running to seed quickly and as a result resort to regular successive sowing.

Very low winter temperatures can also have an impact on some perennials - but most will survive given the right care

On the bulb front, I struggle to grow daffodils for more than a couple of seasons (I suspect the summers are to hot and dry), but tulips (originally native of Turkey with baking hot summers and cold snowy winters) have done better here than ever they did in the UK.

I really think you will have to experiment when you get here and the best advice - as always - is see what grows well in the neighbourhood.
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Hi

I do not think you will have any problems creating an English Garden I had one in the Correze for 8 years and later in the Pays Basque for 10 years, trying the same now in the Aude

Soil has nothing to do with your idea, French Soil is the same as British, variable

RE Aquilegias they are a Blue native plant as are Snap Dragons in France if you can't grow them you must be a terrible gardener My Hostas without watering were quite happy
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