The gardener’s bucket list
MONET’S GARDEN in Giverny, France
Monet’s Garden in Giverny
Monet’s artistic skills and love of water are reflected in his famous garden, which attracts people from around the world, writes DERYN THORPE
Renowned impressionist painter Claude Monet’s garden at Giverny, about an hour’s drive north-west of Paris, is one of the world’s most popular gardens, with about half a million people visiting during the seven months it is open each year.
It draws crowds of gardeners and art lovers from around the world and wows them with two immaculate but very different gardens – one a riot of colourful flowers and the other a Japanese-inspired water garden. For many, the attraction is seeing the living example of the gardens reproduced in Monet’s paintings, but for me the delight is in the design and impeccable plantings. I love the relaxed and contemplative feel of the water garden (marred slightly by the crowds) and the joyous vibrancy of the flower garden that continues to remind me of the value of a packet of annual flower seeds.
A WORK OF ART
After Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883, he transformed the sloping land near the house into a 1ha garden, divided down the middle and planted with a symphony of annual and perennial flowers. He loved all flowers, and confessed in his letters to spending lavishly on plants, but he had a preference for an informal style, allowing tumbles of nasturtiums to invade space in the central alley, unlike the structured plantings preferred in most French gardens.
Monet covered the central alley with iron arches, festooned with climbing roses, and elsewhere created dramatic colour contrasts, positioning white and yellow flowers next to dark blooms.
His taste in the home and garden was joyous and bright, with colourful interior decoration and beds of dazzling red geraniums in front of the house.
For the first 10 years, he tended the garden with the help of his extended
family. As his income grew, Monet bought the land across the road to create a water garden. Inspired by Japanese gardens, he transformed the area’s natural waterway into a huge pond, which is traversed by a Japanese-style bridge covered with wisteria, and employed a head gardener and five assistants, including one with a boat, to maintain it.
Growing around the edge of the pond are graceful weeping willows and bamboo, but the most famous plants are the waterlilies that bloom throughout summer. Just like in Monet’s days, they are trimmed into tight circles of lily pads by a gardener in a boat, to create clear water that reflects the sky and foliage.
For the last 20 years of his life,
Monet found inspiration in the tranquil water garden, which was the antithesis
of his vibrant flower garden. When he died, he left the garden and house to his family. The property fell into disrepair after World War II, then restoration work began in
1977 and it opened to the public in 1980.
The floral display is always immaculate, because whenever the flowers begin to fade, a team of gardeners and volunteers remove and replace them with mature potted specimens. I wonder if Monet would have approved of this perfection.
When the garden closes at the end of autumn, tender plants are dug up and kept in greenhouses, then replanted the next year. This is a lot of work, and it makes me appreciate Australia’s warm climate.
Copies of Monet’s paintings of the garden can be seen in the house, but if you want to understand his complete fascination with water and reflections, visit Paris to see his waterlily paintings in the Musée de l’Orangerie (see right).