05. Retour au poulailler

Vegetable garden, kitchen garden, close to the house, without fertiliser, no need to be transported, planted with perennial vegetables.The garden can also house chicken coops as they did in our grandparents’ time, with plump egg-laying hens with their elegant plumage, as well as beautiful ornamental chickens, providing delicious fresh eggs every day, from a local and reliable source.

This joyful, lively and animated atmosphere has brought the garden to life: the hens group together, snuggle up, to savour a moment of idleness when the sun is at its hottest, some seeking shade under the branches of the redcurrant bushes, whose tart fruits they gobble up, while others cluck joyfully, seemingly chatting about this and that. They peck and scratch at the ground to dig up the insects, worms, seeds, fruit and berries that make up their diet.

Collections of rare tomatoes, cardoons, pignuts, mercury goosefoot, sorrel, rhubarb and other ‘perennial’ vegetables lend an appealing touch of intrigue to the vegetable patch and give visitors the chance to discover these ancient varieties, which grow from rhizomes, bulbs or tubers, and can stay in the ground all winter long before yielding a fresh harvest in the spring. Due to the perennial nature of these plants and their wide spreading  root network, these vegetables are more resistant and less sensitive to drought, pests and disease.