The Vintage French Garden

Since making the move from the French countryside to the small historic town of Cognac I have gained a renewed enthusiasm for gardening.

We created a large formal potager in our first home in France but the task of keeping it under control was all consuming and very hard work especially in the heat of the summer months.

In spite of all the sweat and toil though there really is nothing like the flavour of freshly picked home grown produce.

Although our life is now more urban we are very lucky to have a courtyard garden on two levels and I absolutely love it.  There's nothing I enjoy more after a day's work than wandering leisurely around our garden to see what flower has appeared or how our grape vine is doing.  All that it demands of me is a bit of weeding, watering and some deadheading of the roses and the Paris daisies. 

With a nod to our former rural life a couple of weeks back we bought an old large copper pot from a flea market and turned it into a mini herb and vegetable garden that is now handily situated on the balcony just outside our kitchen door.

We try to use reclaimed or re-purposed materials as much as possible to keep costs down and to give the space some individuality, for example metal reinforcing bars over a pre-existing framework make an effective trellis to grow a clematis over.

This pretty pot rack is still for sale in my Etsy Shop

This frame from an antique light fitting was in the barn of our old house and we have attached a hanging basket to the bottom of it which I am happy to say is filling out every day and gracing the gazebo at the end of our top terrace.

I especially love our wrought iron screens that work well as a backdrop against the tall wall of the neighbouring house as well as the central one being a climbing frame for our lovely scented rose.

Another brocante find was a large earthenware pot with handles shown in the photo below. It's original purpose was to salt ham but it is now a charming planter for our little bay tree.  

And finally it's just feasible that I may have mentioned in a previous post the fountain we bought second hand from a garden in Poitiers (I'm so proud of it I do try to casually slip it into conversations wherever humanly possible!) The sound of it's gentle burble of water often draws me outside or to the window to gaze out at it when I really should be working. 

I have come to realise that the biggest garden doesn't necessarily bring the greatest pleasure and for me our town courtyard is really developing into a little paradise.   

Féte du Travail in Rochefort

It's been a while since my last post (about six months to be completely honest!) but now that the warmer weather has returned so have I!  

I've had a very busy winter working on the renovations of our town house in Cognac with my husband Spike and building the stock levels back up for my Etsy Shop after a very busy Christmas period.

The glorious weather has made us concentrate on the courtyard of our house and to my absolute joy we have installed a second hand fountain that I found online a few months back.  There's still so much to do but having planted up the flower beds it's a good start (although our puss 'Raoul' seems determined to squash my endeavours).

Still very much work in progress but Jakie doesn't seem to mind

This May Day weekend (Fête du Travail) we had a choice of so many flea markets in our region it was difficult to decide which to visit but eventually plumped for a brocante held in the pretty town of Rochefort.

I was delighted to come across some yarn bombing while we were there and long may this trend continue!

The bandstand near the flea market is simply charming

The sun was out and the flea market was full of interesting trucs that I snapped up and are soon to make an appearance in my shop.

An eclectic mix of trucs and so many bits and bobs to sift through

Here's just a small selection of my many buys from Rochefort that are waiting to be processed.

It's a tough job but someone's got to do it!