May news from Chenevaux

The garden has gone into overdrive, its really hard to keep up with it at the moment, always so at this time of the year, but at least this year its the plants that are growing as well as the weeds!  The iris have been spectacular but are just about over now.

To escape the weeding we took ourselves off for a couple of days to visit some gardens in the Dordogne - Perigord region.  Our first destination was Les Jardins du Manoir d'Eyrignac where we had a lovely lunch before exploring the gardens which hold a large collection of topiary and "green sculptures".  The Manoir and its associated buildings are very pretty and compliment the gardens.  The gardens are being extended to include a meadow and more roses which will take a bit of time to mature, and some of the box hedging looked a little sorry for itself,  but well worth a visit if you are in this area. www.eyrignac.com

Le Manoir d'Artaban at Eyrignac

Our next visit was to a garden that we only found out about by chance.  Jardins de Cadiot is set on the edge of a small village between Sarlat and Souillac, in a very pretty setting surrounded by mature trees.   A real plants persons garden set out in an area covering 2 hectares, and they even have booklets with plant lists for visitors to use as they walk round!  The different areas incorporate a potager, fruit trees, peonies, a maze, roses, an "English garden " ie mixed borders, a wild garden and an Italian garden.  

 

www.lesjardinsdecadiot.com

Finally we went to the gardens at Marqueyssac. More topiary, in a totally different style, and as the site is 130 metres above the river level, there are spectacular panoramic views of the Perigord culminating with the view from Le Belvedere which encompasses the Dordogne valley, chateaux and several beautiful villages set in the surrounding landscape.
www.marqueyssac.com

So we came back with lots of ideas and renewed energy!

A newly hatched damselfly on the side of our old water butt - it took us a while to work it out!