Can we, in the middle of the city, see a horticultural landscape of the past reborn? This is the small miracle performed by Patrick Fontaine in his orchard located not far from Impasse Gobétue, on the heights of the city of Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis. Along its walls, peach, apple and pear trees grow and climb in anything but orthodox ways.
Some bushes adopt the silhouette of a large fan, others form infinite volutes. The gardener who created this vegetal spectacle is not, however, an eccentric artist. On the contrary, through these sculpted tree forms, an ancient horticultural tradition, invented four centuries ago, known as the “peach walls” of Montreuil, is followed to the letter.
“In 2010, just when the city council assigned me this 200 square meter plot, I was impressed by this enclosure surrounded by four walls, oriented from north to south. It was a vacant lot, there was work, but I could see that the sun heated the walls of the land and that, during the night, they returned that heat to the orchard, allowing early fruit to be obtained. I listened to what these famous walls had to tell me and I was not disappointed.”confesses the jovial retired cook who became an arborist.
In his organically grown garden, Patrick Fontaine practices rag trellising, a technique used by Montreuil gardeners. Once the fruit tree has grown, it must be espaliered, that is, pruned and oriented its growth along the wall. Then we hung the branches from the nails with a strip of cloth called a rag. It almost seems like a crucifixion, but thanks to these “wall greenhouses” the fruits are born in profusion.
This garden still grows varieties of large, delicious peaches emblematic of Montreuil production, such as the Grosse Mignonne or the Téton de Vénus. “Luxury fruits for a long time, which, marked with delicate designs made with a paper stencil, were admired both on royal tables and in Parisian markets”explains Bernard Lelièvre, president of the gardening school of the former Montreuil Regional Horticultural Society.
Next to Patrick Fontaine’s heavenly orchard, another piece of land on Impasse Gobétue runs through this great local arboreal history. In Montreuil, the days were hard and long for horticultural workers, as demonstrated by the beautiful photographs taken at the beginning of the 20th century.my century by Augustine Savard, who belonged to a family of local horticulturists and florists.
You have 67.38% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
