The Kitchen Garden
The Ornamental vegetable garden is the centrepiece of Joachim Carvallo’s large-scale project for the gardens of Villandry. It provides the stylistic link between the château and its green setting, designed as a tribute to the French art of gardening. It is also a testament to the renaissance of the Villandry gardens in the 20th century.
The Kitchen Garden is the most necessary one
The genesis of Villandry’s garden design illustrates the new owner’s desire to affirm the Renaissance roots of the château’s architecture. To achieve this goal, the beds closest to the residence had to commemorate the 16th century art of the garden. This is why the Kitchen Garden and Ornamental Gardens were designed in this style.
The major pitfall that faced Joachim Carvallo was that the 16th century gardens of have all been redesigned over time, meaning that no existing garden could serve as a model. As a man of science, Joachim therefore drew on a rigorous methodology that combined a practical, on-the-ground approach with abundant historical documentation, including Les Plus Excellents Bâtiments de France by Jacques Ier Androuet du Cerceau, or the Monasticum Gallicanum. Among the ancient engravings, those of the Château de Bury show gardens dominated by the laws of architectural perspective and geometry; the space is a quadrilateral divided into regular “parquets” – a French Renaissance term that refers to patterned squares of greenery – separated from each other by parallel and perpendicular avenues. The overall impression is that of a sumptuous outdoor carpet ideal for promenades, with added garden furniture for rest and trellis structures for shade.
According to Joachim, “of all gardens, the first in order of importance, because it is the most necessary, is the kitchen garden”. His gardens at Villandry are in keeping with this view, as the kitchen garden is the centrepiece of his project, the one around which the other 6 gardens are organised.
The Ornamental Kitchen Garden at Villandry: a bold reinterpretation of the Renaissance garden
The quadrilateral located at the lowest level of the garden, delimited by 3 terraces forming a kind of cloister, brings together all the qualities needed for a kitchen garden: an extensive flat surface, below the rest of the grounds, allowing water to be brought in for irrigation, located near to and level with the stables – so close to a source of natural soil improvement –, protected from cold winds by the retaining walls on the upper levels, therefore making for a temperate climate. These same qualities make it a perfect space for creating a French Renaissance-style garden.
The campaign of works undertaken to transform the 19th century English-style park was daunting to say the least. Felling the large trees, turning over the soil, searching for the foundations of the three Renaissance terraces, consolidating the buttresses, creating the water supply network for future fountains, levelling, planting with string, laying bricks, etc.
The result is spectacular. In line with the plan of intent, the Kitchen Garden forms part of an almost regular quadrilateral divided into 9 beds. Each bed has its own geometric pattern formed by small box shrubs. Walkers and gardeners can walk along the parallel and perpendicular avenues, at the intersections of which are small four-sided ponds, brought to life by a charming stream of babbling water. Trellised alcoves, shading benches and covered in climbing plants, complete the look.
For his design, the daring owner opted for a mixed planting scheme of vegetables, fruit and flowers, “useful and pleasant, planted in an orderly and methodical fashion to allow it to be managed and enable Man to rejoice in the delights of cultivated nature.” The choice of vegetables is a balancing act: the varieties must be selected according to their speed of development and the desired colour palette so that all the motifs are showcased simultaneously. This garden is therefore a permanent challenge for gardeners, who only have a very short time to renew all the plants once they are past their prime.
The Kitchen Garden can be admired from the vine-covered pergolas overlooking it, allowing one “to see the intelligent creation of the plan from the shade and the cool”. The patterns are most clearly revealed when seen from the different floors of the château. The higher the level, the more the motifs are unveiled.
Exploring the Kitchen Garden awakens our sense of taste and reminds us that Joachim Carvallo saw this garden as “a well-served table”.
Therefore, the Ornamental Kitchen Garden at Villandry is not a reconstruction but a reinterpretation or revisiting of the Renaissance gardens.
Growing methods
Since 2009, the horticultural practices have been revised in order to become fully eco-friendly. The gardeners have incorporated manual weeding and have stopped the use of chemical insecticides in favour of natural fungicides, organic fertilisation and soil preparation work, among other practices.
Every year, two planting sessions take place, the first in spring, which remains in place from March to June, and the second in summer, which remains in place from June to November.
These vegetables are rearranged with each planting, both in keeping with the desired harmonies of colour and form and with horticultural requirements, according to which plants should be rotated every three years to avoid draining all the nutrients from the soil.
Watering is carried out by an automatic irrigation system buried in the ground.
These sustainable practices have resulted in a very significant return and development of biodiversity. The presence of more than 90 bird species is living proof of this. The Château de Villandry was awarded the “Refuge LPO” (League for the Protection of Birds) certification in 2012.
The Kitchen Garden regularly has the place of honour at the “Journées du Potager” (Kitchen Garden Open Days), on the last weekend of September.
Botanical composition of the Kitchen Garden
Box
Box is used at Villandry to create the geometric patterns of the beds.
Since 2016, the box have been gradually replanted to replace those attacked by the box-tree caterpillar (Cydalima perspectalis), which feeds exclusively on box, from the soft leaves to the bark. The aim is to identify the most resistant variety to diseases and pests. The search for treatments or predators continues. The has been a glimmer of hope with the introduction of Buxor, a natural treatment based on introducing the larvae of the green lacewing (Chrysoperla lusicania), natural predators of the box-tree caterpillar, whose diet consists of eggs and larvae.
There are four varieties of boxwood in the Ornamental Kitchen Garden:
- Betterbuxus Heritage
- Buxus Microphylla Faulkner
- Betterbuxus Babylone Beauty
- Betterbuxus Renaissance.
A total of 52,728 subjects are planted in the Kitchen Garden. The simplest scheme uses 4,328 plants, while the most complex uses 7,400. The total represents more than 7 linear kilometres of box, carefully maintained by gardeners so that the patterns remain visible throughout the year.
Fruit trees
There are two types of fruit trees in the Kitchen Garden.
144 goblet-trained pears give the Kitchen Garden its verticality. There are ten varieties:
- Beurre Hardy pears
- Doyenné du Comice pears
- Williams rouge and Comtesse de Paris pears
- Jeanne d’Arc pears
- Super Comice pears
- Delbard gourmet pears
- Louise Bonne d’Avranches pears
- Conference pears
- Bon Chrétien Williams pears.
The main avenues of the Kitchen Garden are lined by 1 kilometre of cordon-trained apple trees. There is one variety of apple tree per vegetable bed, i.e. nine different varieties:
- Reagli
- Reinette grise du Canada
- Delbard estival
- Pomme des moissons
- Delbard tardive
- Cybelle
- Tentation
- Jubilé
- Idared.
Flowers
The floral display in the Ornamental Kitchen Garden is made up of permanent and seasonal planting schemes.
The permanent floral display is formed of 324 tree roses. The colour palette ranges from deep red, orange and pink to yellow. Twenty-one varieties of roses can be found in the Kitchen Garden, including Criterion, Leonardo da Vinci, Suneva, Syvlie Vartan, Victor Hugo, Ingrid Bergman, Grand Eight, Traviata, Prestige de Bellegarde, Amber Queen, Christophe Columbus, Lavender Dream, Marie Curie floribunda and La Sevillana.
The seasonal flower display, meanwhile, blooms inside the geometric patterns. This varies in spring and summer, based on either “sunshine” shades or shades of “lavender and red” depending on the squares.
The “sunshine” shades are obtained by a spring planting of Early Flame and Dick Wilden narcissi, Big Smile and Dordogne tulips combined with cerastiums, wallflowers, myosotis, pansies, primroses and violas. In summer, the “sunshine” shades are the result of a composition of coreopsis, bidenspsis, blue salvias, rudbeckias, abutilons and pennisetums.
For the springtime “lavender and red” shades, the gardeners skilfully marry Don Quichotte and Queen of the Night tulips with Obdam and Mount Hood narcissi, against a background of cerastiums, daisies, blue myosotis, pansies, nepetas and violas. In summer, red begonias and verbena Venosa take over.
Vegetables
Around forty species of vegetables, belonging to eight botanical families, are used every year. More than 50% of plants are prepared by gardeners in the château’s greenhouses (sowing, transplanting).
Spring is the season of lettuces – Batavia blonde, bronze, Clarinski, Hussard oak leaf, red, green, Cletuce, Iceberg, Lollo Aleppo, Lolla rossa, green romaines, red romaines, Theodore – which create a palette of greens and browns. It’s also the season for early vegetables, including carrots, spinach, broad beans and peas.
In summer, the planting range builds to its fullest expression in September, when the vegetable garden is at its peak. The different squares are therefore divided up: aubergines (white Clara, long violet, Ronde de Valence, striped Rania); celery (golden Day Break, Percel, celeriac); cabbage (black Tuscan, Pigeon White, Pigeon Purple, Kolibri kohlrabi, Redbor, red Buscaro, Vitesse); fennel; leeks; chives; chives; perilla (bi-colour, de Nankin); cardoons; Swiss chard (orange, red and white-stemmed); chillis and peppers (yellow Elsa, Cubo orange, Rouge Vif d’Etampes); tomatoes (cherry cocktail, Andean Horned).
Winter is the time for the soil to rest and preparation work for the next cycle to take place.
Virtual tour of the gardens of Villandry
Where will you go next?
