Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

The whole world at your feet Domaine du Rayol, Le Rayol-Canadel Louisa Jones explores one of the loveliest spots on the Cote d’Azur, where wild gardening has been given a truly international perspective. Some 20 miles west of Saint-Tropez, where the darkly forested Maures mountains reach down rocky slopes to the pounding sea, the Domaine du Rayol is a handsome relic of times past, brought right up to date by subtle restoration and a reworking of its gardens. These days, it presents a compendium of sample landscapes representing Mediterranean climates across the world, described with beautiful plant collections. But in the 1880s, this wild valley was known mainly by farmers working small terraced orchards among the chestnut trees. In the 1890s, a branch of the Train des Pignes railway brought tourists to the region and, in 1910, Parisian banker Alfred Theodore Courmes built an Art Nouveau holiday villa for his family at the top of the hill. Between the World Wars, it became the Hotel de la Mer, and, today, the villa is the main reception building for the gardens, which are open to the public all year round. In 1989, it was finally purchased by the French shoreline conservancy agency, the Conservatoire du Littoral. The Conservatoire invited Gilles Clement to invent a project that would embrace this natural diversity. Mister Clement, who trained both as an agronomist and a landscape architect, prefers to be called a gardener. He first became known in the 1980s for the concept of the ‘Moving Garden’. The ravine site at the Rayol is now managed as a Moving Garden: plants such as Stipa grasses are allowed to self-sow and their populations to evolve. The gardeners keep the site from reverting to forest and prevent any one plant, such as the intrepid acanthus, from dominating. When first asked to make suggestions for the Domaine, Gilles Clement was working on an idea of the ‘Planetary Garden’—the whole Earth viewed as a garden with humankind as caretaker—inspired by photos of the Earth as seen from the Moon. He proposed a ‘Jardin des Mediterranees’ (Garden of Many Mediterraneans). This is not merely a collection of flora from Mediterranean climate regions around the world—something that other distinguished botanical gardens have already done—but an evocation of plant assemblages typical of other continents with growing conditions similar to the Rayol’s.Mediterranean climate regions cover less than 2% of the planet’s land surface, yet contain more than 10% of its plant species. At the Rayol, each section has its stars. The Australian ‘malee’ shows off Banksia, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Acacia (50 species) and Callistemon species, as well as kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos). The subtle colours of New Zealand grasslands set off Metrosideros, Leptospermum and a deep shady valley of tree ferns kept moist with artificial mist. The South African fynbos has the densest concentration of species per square yard, many very colourful, including amaryllis, leonotis, restios, and the King protea (Protea cynaroides), which inspired Clement to make a mosaic by the grand pergola. The evocation of Chile displays its zig-zag bamboos (Chusquea sp.), alstroemerias, various nasturtiums (Tropaeolum sp.) and cactus candles. The Canary Islands feature euphorbias and Dracaena draco; the California garden includes Eschscholzia, Hesperaloe, yuccas and ceanothus. Central America features Washingtonia palms, shrubby sages and a young forest of Nolina recurvata. A special rockery was created for the Mexican cactus garden. By the beach, an underwater garden has now evolved, for guided visits only. Mister Clement and the Conservatoire botanists went tracking plants and photographing landscapes all over the world— an exhilarating adventure on a shoestring budget. The same spirit of enterprise inspires the team that runs the Rayol today, from the director Caroline Petit to the head gardener Stan Alaguillaume. The Rayol gardens have become an experimental centre for exotic introductions, as well as for plants involved in the specifically Mediterranean dynamic of fire resistance. The gardeners keep testing and developing new varieties, of cistus, for example, with the encouragement of nearby nurseryman Jean-Marie Rey. A visit to the Domaine du Rayol is both enjoyable and educational. A map is provided with the ticket, but only the most discreet signs tell you when you are moving into South Africa, for example. Some 60,000 visitors come yearly. Most are delighted, but some are disappointed by the ecological management: grasses are not mown before going to seed; fallen leaves are left among the trees. The Rayol gardeners learned early on to rake the paths regularly to reassure visitors that this ‘natural’ garden is, in fact, carefully managed. As Christian Desplats, a Conservatoire regional spokesman explains: ‘We are trying to help visitors learn that a Mediterranean garden is magnificent in spring, superb in the autumn and marvellous in the winter—but dry in summer.’ Adapted from the British weekly Magazine, Country Life, December 1, 2010, pages 54-57 Vocabulary: Line 7 compendium: collection Line 20 purchased: bought Line 28 ravine: gorge/canyon Line 51 paws: animal foot Line 54 tree ferns: cibotium (Dicksonia Antarctica) Line 54 moist: wet, humid Line 60 display: exhib Line 73 shoestring: small budget