La Folêterie, an extraordinary garden in Orne sculpted with love for 30 years

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Almost thirty years old, the Folêterie garden lives in all seasons. In 1976, Lorette and Yves Ledemay buy their house in Trémont (Orne) with a magnificent view of the foothills of Perche and an 8,000 m meadow² slightly sloping surrounded by a rural hedge.

They began work on the old farm and, a few years later, tackled the garden.

Training and visits

It all started with the proposal of the two women who launched and took care of Gîtes au jardin, initiated in Eure. We told them that we were interested and we benefited from training with passionate people

Training in theYour mainly and visits to gardens, in France and England where Lorette draws ideas and a certain idea of ​​the garden.

She opts for a English-inspired gardenprovided and not aligned.

Yves creates his first small pond, soon decorated with a few plants.

The plum trees of Sartrouville

Lorette remembers the beginnings of the beginnings, the first vegetable garden, from the planting of their Sartrouville plum trees which are now over 40 years old.
She trains, discovers, reads, learns, gets information on the Internet, attends plant fairs, meets and exchanges with horticulturists.

“We spent a lot of money, without a doubt! I didn’t want to do the accounts,” she smiles.

Colors and shapes

Little by little the garden takes shape and includes generous trees, voluminous shrubs, high and low flowers, four ponds, a rivercolors and multiple shapes.

In one part, ducks and chickens for pleasure, in another space dwarf goats, Cou Nu chickens and Oscar the Vietnamese Pig.

The garden teems with life. And open to mutations.

Autumn adorns it with colors of ocher, gold, brown, red, crushed raspberry, purple.

And then Lorette recognizes her own evolution, “I gradually abandoned annuals, which were too expensive and a pain in the ass, and preferred to work with perennials which offer an infinite field of possibilities”.

She learns and she adapts

She learns from her mistakes, “out of 100 plants planted, 20 disappear, either because they do not adapt to the clay-limestone soil, or because they do not get along well with their neighbors, or because I did not take care of them GOOD “.

It also adapts to evolution and climate disruptions.

25 years ago, I bought a Lagerstroemia – an Indian lilac or summer lilac – on impulse. The tree that was generally found below the Loire had not withstood the rigors of winter and had disappeared very quickly, due to frost. 7-8 years ago, I broke down again and bought another subject which I placed in a safe place. It is doing wonderfully and provides us with magnificent fall foliage. I know I can buy more

Finally, she is careful not to take plants that require too much water, and which adapt well to drought even though it rained a lot last year.

Lorette reflects on the beauty of her garden and its ecological interest.

She keeps two spaces in natural meadow in which “wild flowers”, large trees, a liquidambar, an American red oak, a paulownia, a conifer flourish.

The Folêterie garden is an example of biodiversity where shapes and colors intermingle, where insects, butterflies and bees from its three hives live.

A garden under controlled freedom, to which “we leave our own life but who also accepts being channeled”.

Lorette assures him, “a garden resembles its owner. It matches his personality.” His combines fantasy and coherence.

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