21. Terre de feu
Garden by Franck Serra
Created by Franck Serra, Master Gardener 2021, Terre de Feu (Land of Fire) is a garden whose design is based on the devastation wrought by the wildfires of 2022 and nature’s rebirth following their passage. It’s a landscape of hope, a post-disaster landscape filled with signs of resilience. The response provided by a new landscape rich in emotion and simplicity, it evokes the beauty of nature when it awakens on the morning of a new day. It’s a landscape marked by the smell of embers, and the fragrances of nature’s rebirth and new plants.
Composed of wild plant life, hornbeams, birches, country maples, spindle trees, dogwood and softwood, along with ivies, wild blackberries and grasses, the landscape comes alive before our eyes. It reveals itself to visitors as they make their way along walkways fashioned from chestnut wood. Poles burnt to a jet black symbolise the past. The ground is strewn with ashes, scars left by the fires and now serving to fertilise our soils, for a better future.
Terre de Feu also highlights the resilience of age-old crafts. At the bottom of the garden there’s a hut named CASTATERRA, “earth chestnut”. Nature provides humankind with materials that they have taken the liberty of working with. Earth, emblematic of our planet, has fashioned a new, resilient house out of adobe. The “feuillardier”, practitioner of the ancient but little-known craft of making chestnut hoops, has come into his own again by creating a sustainable habitat. A bench of raw chestnut wood, a work of masterful simplicity, invites you to sit down and rest a while.
Challenged by the crossed perspectives of a tangible and intangible landscape, the garden champions an abundance of plant life, a relaxed lifestyle and variety of colours. Fabric fringes symbolise the colour of fire and contrast with the vibrant green of reborn nature. With its easily understood interpretation, Terre de Feu equates resilience with simplicity and hope.
DesigneR
Franck Serra has lived in the heart of Périgord since he was a child and grew up under the eye of his grandmother, who loved plants and gardens. She passed her passion for the plant world on to him, letting him express himself through vegetable growing and flower gardening. An obsession since he was 6 years old, the garden helped him shape his personality through a shared passion, in a fusional relationship with his grandmother until her death in 2007. It was those long hours spent gardening at her side that decided him to make a career of it.
Dreaming of being a gardener, school bored him until he began an apprenticeship for a Vocational Studies Certificate (BEP) at the age of 15. It was as an apprentice that he discovered the garden world. The obtainment of this first certificate reassured him that he was on the right path and pushed him to continue his training by taking a professional baccalaureate followed by a Higher Technician Certificate (BTS). His decision to change employers at each stage in his training enabled him to familiarise himself with a variety of techniques and visions. Curious about and impressed by the professionals he encountered during his studies, he developed a fascination for the world of creative landscapers. His eagerness to learn and do led him to think he might be able to strike out on his own once he had graduated He was lucky enough to be trained by a landscape architect, who introduced him to the art of garden design. He was also selected to take part in a local Ephemeral Gardens competition and exhibited his garden Labyrinthus in Périgueux for 3 years. It was a revelation: by taking up the challenge, he gradually gained confidence.
At the age of 18, his one ambition was to set up his own business. His interest in his training was bolstered by his having a real project in mind when it was completed. In September 2010, when he was 21, he took the first steps in setting up on his own account. Serra Paysage opened its doors on 1 March 2011. With few resources, he focused on garden creation, avoiding maintenance and everyday routine, which attracted him less, and providing his services and commitment to private individuals. Human relationships, exchange, sharing and listening freed his imagination. Serra Paysage has expanded over the years, thanks to his employees, apprentices and permanent staff alike. Each on their own level, they help pass on messages on new practices, combining creativity with respect for the environment.
In 2014, he set up Infiniflore, a plant-based alternative to traditional funerary monuments. He wanted to provide a green solution by accompanying bereaved families and creating landscaped graves, each of them a micro-garden for eternity.
In 2021, the jury for the 2021 edition of the Carré des Jardiniers competition, chaired by Jean Mus, selected Franck Serra as its winner. With his Human & Sens project, he entered the closed circle of the Paysalia trade fair’s Master Gardeners.
Today, after more than 10 years of activity, he has 34 employees from a whole variety of backgrounds and ranging in age from 15 to 45. Despite his company’s development, he has remained true to his initial values, focusing on the human side of things and cooperation. His activity has remained the same, with most of his projects still being creations of gardens for private individuals.
