If rural hedges were sacrificed by the consolidation of agricultural land during the 1960s and 1970s, three “musketeers” dedicated to the protection of biodiversity intend to rehabilitate them in 2024. These founders of the Graines & canopées collective settled three years ago on a 6,500 m² plot of land granted by Tours Métropole Val de Loire, in the town of Saint-Genouph.
Friday October 11 and Saturday October 12, 2024, they officially launched their production, soon for sale, by organizing their first open days attended by a large audience and a good number of elected officials.
Cultivating the seed from the ground to the canopy, such is the motto and commitment of Romain Simonneau, 46 years old, the leader of the structure – around twenty years of activism within NGOs in the four corners of the world in counter –, Bénédicte Romain and Mathias Dragomirovic, teachers by profession. “But as we also cultivate citizen participation and collective interest”the association transformed into a cooperative (1).
Ten thousand plants, of a dozen species, are taking root. The association plans to eventually produce more than twenty varieties.
© (Photo Seeds & canopies)
Its goal: to cultivate the plants that made up the rural hedges that disappeared with land consolidation: hawthorn, hornbeam, dogwood, rose hips and other common ash… That’s a dozen species for the moment. “These plants have local genetics that they have developed over millennia in co-evolution with the fauna and flora of their environment, the southern Paris basin. » With seeds 100% collected locally, worked, transplanted and maintained on site, these new kind of nurserymen ensure complete control of the plant chain.
And it grows! In 40m3 of soil distributed in dozens of bins, 10,000 plants already labeled “Local Plant” (the objective is 40,000) will soon be available to farmers, local authorities and individuals.
Seeds & canopies, 18 bis, route de Berthenay, in Saint-Genouph. Such. 06.19.13.31.42; email: [email protected]
