Pour un jardin plus résilient by Didier WILLERY – Caen (France)
Towards a more resilient garden
Our gardens are far more resistant to our unpredictable climatic, through drought, cold, wind and parasites, when we take advantage of botanic diversity and the natural principles of reuniting certain plants.
In order to survive, our gardens must, not only host the most suited plants to varying and extreme climates, but also coherently combine them, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
Associating edible and ornamental plants, making the most of colourful foliage, integrating flowers within high grasses can all lead to increasingly independent and resistant plants. Layering planted plots and closely associating plants helps compose coherent groups that are far more resilient than isolated plants, whilst allowing the overall decor to freely evolve over the seasons. This also considerably simplifies gardening chores: no more watering, staking, weeding. No need for fertiliser or treatment, no more hole digging, etc.
A resilient garden is both attractive and productive, simple to maintain… and more natural, without for as much being wild…
Didier Willery
According to the title of one of his best-selling books, published in 2016 (winner of the JP Redouté garden book prize), Didier Willery is known to be Dingue de Plantes (mad about plants). Contaminated by a pure passion for plants from a very early age, he perfected his knowledge in the company of two self-taught gardeners: the nursery gardener JP Hennebelle and the Norwegian Princess Greta Sturdza. The latter entrusted him with the management of the Vasterival garden in 2005 – a mission he accomplished up to December 2022. His second passion is for writing, and he has been deploying it over articles in gardening magazines since 1986, together with printed publications since 1995, including a number of reference works and books aimed at popularising the subject for plant enthusiasts. Some of his works have been published in other languages. Editorial director for Editions Ulmer since 2006, he supervises the publication of books on plants and gardens. A fervent social media user, he also has his own blog – Dingue de Plantes – together with several Facebook and Instagram profiles and pages. He uses his private garden, covering 2,500m2 and located in Pas-de-Calais, as an experimental playground and a photographic studio. It is home to over 4,000 plant species and is comprised of independent plant beds, including both aesthetic and edible plants, offering a pleasant environment all year round and requiring minimal human intervention.
Free entry, subject to capacity.
Bibliothèque Alexis de Tocqueville
15 quai François Mitterrand
14000 Caen