Renovation Project - French garden centres Gamm Vert or Point Vert?

Renovation Project - French garden centres Gamm Vert or Point Vert?

As the weather is so good I am going to make a start on the garden, no easy task but one that needs to be done.

We have had the weekly publicity mail from the shops today and there is one from a garden centre, this has a number of bushes and plants on special offer, so we decide to go and grab some before they go (for some reason plants and flowers are very expensive in France, so if you see some on special offer you should grab them)

We set off for Point Vert with the leaflet in hand, the leaflet has the plants all numbered so we want number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, this is my idea of gardening, it’s like gardening by numbers.

We arrive at the garden centre and do not find all of the plants on offer, there are different plants and different prices, we also do not find the fencing that we decided to buy (this was also on special offer) but I will not be beaten, I have my leaflet waving in my hand and I head off to find a shop assistant with my new found language skills, I will not be beaten!

I wait to speak to the assistant who is very helpful, I manage most of the conversation in French but struggle a couple of times, mainly with the fact that he is trying to explain we are in the wrong shop!!!! We are in Point Vert and should be in Gamm Vert!!!!!

Oops do I feel like a prat! We buy some bits and then head over to the correct shop (the assistant also told us where the correct shop was, as I said very helpful)

We get all the plants we wanted, but do not bother with the fence, the quality is not good and John can build better for much less.

John decides to buy some standard wood and makes the fence; he measures each to size and then rounds off the ends. This is one of the quickest jobs we have done and yet is one of the jobs that make the biggest difference.

As the weather is still good, we decide to have a fire tonight to clear some of the Bramble, there is so much of the stuff, the garden is quite overwhelming, and we look at the big apple tree that is covered in Ivy, the Ivy is thicker than the tree and we have the slight worry of whether the Ivy is actually keeping the tree in place, but it is now or never as we can burn some of it tonight, wish us luck!

We still have to buy the decking for the patio, you may have noticed how many times I have said the word patio, but I am so excited! This is actually the old barn roof that John has been working on, but it is now almost our garden patio (oops there it is again, patio, patio, patio) we are now getting there in the garden and the house, which is a good job as we are 2 weeks away from open day!!!