Such a lovely garden!

The gite that we are staying in has the most incredible garden and I have had such a lot of fun taking pictures.  There are so many that I may have to show you in several postings!  I go a little bit crazy when I get around gardens.  Let's begin:

 This shot is taken from the driveway (I am facing east) as you first enter the property. The owners, Edwige and Jean-Jacques Leroy bought this property in 1995. It is part of a larger farm that had previously been given over to cows and wheat and I believe they have about a hectare of land that has all been lovingly turned into garden. It took two years of renovations before they could move into the house but they had started the garden long before that.

 On the right of the entrance, behind the lovely flower beds that you see in the first shot, is the vegetable garden.

 The shot above is taken from inside the vegetable garden looking out (north) toward the main house.

 The wing of the main house that you see in the third shot is on the left and out of the picture but above you can see the gite on the right and the second part of the main house.  The buildings form a sort of U-shape with the gite on the right leg (on the east side) of the U above.

 For this shot, above, I have walked to the back of the gite.  I stood on the patio outside the gite (by the table and chairs...you'll see them in a second, below) and took this picture looking south.   On the right you see part of the storage barn.
(The picture below is out of order because the internet connection went a bit crazy and mostly because I don't now how to move it to the right place.  It is taken looking south from the north side of the pond.....more later on all that!!)

 Here I am looking north, at the back of the gite.   You can see the table and chairs that I mentioned a second ago.

 Here I am at the back of the patio again looking north.  The little pump on the left of the shot is just in front of the table and chairs.

 And here I have walked over to the pond, about 20 feet off the patio walking out from the shot above.
I have tried to take these photos in order as I walked around the garden, so as not to drive you too crazy.  It's all pretty amazing isn't it!!
At the time of the farm, the pond was used by the cows for drinking, but the Leroys have enlarged it substantially since that time.  There are carp in the pond and so it is impossible to grow lilies or other floating plants but apparently one can go fishing in the pond if arrangements are made with the owners!!

 The above shot is about one step in front of the one above!!

 This is a lovely little bench overlooking the pond.  Perfect for one's morning coffee!!!

 In the last picture from my last post I showed you a shot looking east through a rose arbor down a hosta-line pathway.  In the shot above you can see the left hand side of the arbor.  So here I am looking north from the arbor.

I walked all the way to the end of the arbor and took this shot of some shaped box plants.  Even far away from the house there is still a lot of work done to maintain the garden.  Really an overwhelming job and Edwige and Jean-Jacques do all the work themselves.  I am exhausted at the very thought!!

Some more of the 'wild' part of the garden.  So very charming.

 Walking back along the hosta-lined path, you can see the opposite, back side of the arbor (I am facing west here).  The gite is just visible in the distance.

 A charming little chair.  A fun discovery in the garden!

 Walking around the north side of the pond looking south toward the gite and the storage barns. This is where the 'out of order' shot way above was supposed to go.

 This shot and the one below are both taken from the north side of the pond looking south and southeast.  So charming.

 These lovely iris are on the west side of the pond.

And these last two shots are of the lovely bouquet that was in the gite waiting for us when we arrived.  A selection of flowers picked from the garden.  So beautiful.

So far I have showed you one side of the garden and the back of property.  Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the front of the garden.  And today there is sunshine.  What a treat!

Just in case you might be interested in staying in the gite it is Gite de France, du Nord, number G2230.  Have a look!  You can contact the owners at jean-jacques.leroy@nordnet.fr should you wish additional information.