Hey there,

Welcome back to la Chartreuse! Last week, we welcomed you inside the house and gave you a tour. Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments and feedback! If you missed it, you can still catch the tour here.

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This week, we're taking you outside to explore the gardens and share our exciting plans for them. You can watch it all now on our YouTube channel, or simply keep reading to learn more.

Les jardins de la Chartreuse

Our house may look grand, but the gardens are another story. For starters, they’re definitely urban gardens, covering about 150 square meters—though we feel incredibly fortunate to have this much growing space.

Like the house, the gardens were abandoned for many years. They were overrun with invasive pokeweed and ivy, filled with mature, rotting trees taller than the house (and clogging the gutters), and dotted with random 1970s concrete outbuildings. While renovating the house, we did our best to clear the garden, remove the excess trees, and keep the weeds at bay.

When we decided to buy a house in France, having a decent-sized garden was a must. We’d just left Devon in the southwest of England, where we lived in a 400-year-old cottage and where I first discovered my love for growing cut flowers. I loved it so much that I even started a small flower business on the side—so replicating that in France has always been the goal.

Now, a year after buying the house, it’s finally time to transform this neglected patch into a productive garden. Let’s get started!

The back garden

The back garden is south-facing, so the plan is to transform this space into our primary area for growing cut flowers.

Over the past year, this space has changed dramatically. The façade was practically unrecognisable, marred by two large, crumbling concrete outbuildings that were on the verge of collapse. We demolished those early on and then had the façade professionally restored—one of the most expensive parts of our renovation, but absolutely worth it.

After removing the two hazardous outbuildings, clearing out invasive pokeweed, and hauling away literal tonnes of rubble, we’re now planning to build five large raised beds for cut flowers. Two of these will be positioned against the façade, which will provide support for climbing plants like jasmine and climbing roses.

At the back of the garden, we’re planning to create a small paved area where we can set up a dining space to enjoy the outdoors.

There are still a few big jobs to tackle, and I’m not yet sure we’ll complete them all in 2025. These include:

• Installing an optimised potting station on the concrete area to the side
• Adding a larger compost bin at the back
• Installing two rainwater tanks—it gets very hot in Bordeaux in the summer, but there’s plenty of rain in the spring, so we want to make the most of it
• Building a taller wooden fence for more privacy
• Adding wood cladding to the pebble-dashed back wall

Plenty to do, but we’re excited to see it all come together!

The front garden

The front garden is north-facing and looks out onto the street, so the plan here is to create an ornamental garden that we’ll use less frequently.

Before we can even think about planting, there are a few major tasks we need to tackle:

• The original cast-iron gate requires a full restoration—you can see more about this in our latest video.
• Years of neglect allowed the garden to become overgrown, which led to a build-up of soil around the two trees, sloping towards the house. We need to address this to prevent water from draining towards the house. Thankfully, the soil is excellent quality, so we’ll level the front garden and use the excess soil to fill the raised beds at the back.
• We plan to add gravel paths to the front garden and also create a connection to the back garden. At the moment, you have to walk on dirt, which inevitably tracks soil through the house.

Once that groundwork is complete, we’ll start planting! Our vision is to blend the structure of French formal gardens with the charm of an English cottage garden. Here’s the plan:

• Hornbeam hedging will be planted along the gate for added privacy and some winter colour.
• Yew hedges will be used to frame the two main trees, especially the beautiful magnolia that blooms in winter.

Within these framed sections, the cottage garden style will shine:

• In the sunnier spots, we’ll grow roses, sweet peas, dahlias, nicotiana, and other vibrant annuals.
• In the shadier areas, we’ll plant hydrangeas, hostas, astilbe, and other shade-loving varieties—thank you for all the helpful comments suggesting plants for these spots!

That’s the plan, but we definitely have our work cut out for us! In our latest video, you can watch us discuss these plans, start work on the gate, and begin levelling the front garden. Make sure to subscribe—our next video will show us building raised beds and creating flagstone paths.

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If you have any plant recommendations or gardening advice, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email. We read every comment, and it’s been such a joy sharing our renovation journey with you all!

Much love,

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