A bird paradise

Our garden is a refuge…

Our garden is a refuge protected by the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux (LPO), the French branch of BirdLife International.

We have never used any pesticides or chemical fertilisers. We encourage the growth of our plants, vegetables and fruit using horse and chicken manure.

Here you can enjoy the Mediterranean vegetation of a garden where more than forty bird species, including xxxx, have made their home, comfortably settled in the nest boxes installed for them in our trees.

To encourage the presence of those smaller creatures we never usually take the time to notice, we have installed an insect hotel! This allows the up-close observation of nature and sparks curiosity and wonder in children (and grown ups!).

Thanks to the town council’s decision to stop spreading pesticides on the road sides, many species have recently started to reappear… butterflies, such as the Citron de Provence and the Flambé are coming back in force.

In the garden we choose to plant species which provide food for bees and are resistant to the lack of water in the local climate.

All the improvements made to our house have been completed by the family ourselves. Working together we were able to build a water tank to collect rainwater and water from temporary springs. We therefore have up to 50,000 litres to use to water our garden.

We have just set up our first homemade beehive, thanks once again to Nicolas’ skill as a craftsman. He built the hive using the eco-friendly Warré method, which stops parasites entering the hive and therefore avoids the need to use pesticides.

Compost toilets are at your disposal at the end of the garden. We encourage you to use them, together with their compost container, in which you can also throw all your food waste (unless you want to give it to the poultry).