Hello from the Haute Vienne

[Florence Fennel]

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Vine!

[jacic]

Love the user name Florence!

[scarey55]

Hello there and welcome to the Vine from another Frenchie (in the Midlands, Auvergne) As Nicos said, there are quite a few of us on here.
Good luck with your HUGE garden and ENORMOUS amount of land. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

[jacic]

Hello scarey, I had 2 weeks in the Auvergne absolutely gorgeous

[TonyF]

And a bienvenue from another gardener living in France, we're a bit to the south-west of you in the Dordogne (24), probably a couple of hours if you're close to Limoges and we also have a large-ish property.

Gardening in France is great fun, forget about 50% of what you learned in the Uk and find out what the olds grow in your area, the plant fair season will be starting in March, the offers will be on in the bricolages, deep joy - and the weather here is brilliant at the moment, 18 degrees on the meteo for tomorrow. And if your French is up to it, get a few of the French gardening mags or their hors-serie, they're great sources of ideas, especially when you need to do things on a grand scale.

And there's the Grapevine Vinstock the last weekend in May up north a bit if you feel so disposed !!

[jacic]

Ooooh, plant fairs - I like the sound of that tell me more! We had 15.5 degrees here today was absolutely gorgeous. We are about 25 minutes from Limoges - so fairly close. I have been buying Rustica magazine, will have to try the others when my French improves. Will the seed potatoes be available in March also?

[binley100]

ooh yes can't forget about Vinstock ........ Looking forward to it in more ways than one.......(one is the wine lake is running dry !!!!!!!!)

[scarey55]

Hello scarey, I had 2 weeks in the Auvergne absolutely gorgeous

It is lovely, if a bit hilly. If you're round our way again, give me a shout and pop in for a cuppa

[jacic]

A bit hilly?! scared the pants off me lol! Had just passed my motorbike test & was my first tour of a bit of France on the motorbike. To make matters worse, the roads had just been gritted too - brings me out in a cold sweat just thinking of those twisty mountain roads with three inches of grit on them!!! ooo la la

[Glutton4...]

Hello and welcome to the Madhouse from another 'green with envy' Grape!

[TonyF]

Not sure what happens in other areas but round here, between mid March and mid May, there are loads of plant fairs, could be out at one every weekend if we wanted to. Most of the largish towns and villages have them (in 24), many are very well established, all sizes from the small and specialist (like trees, or fruit trees and bushes) to very large general fairs where you can buy almost anything - so long as the French think it's worth growing.

When you're a bit more established, look out for the trocs, you can take your spare plants there and swap them.

Rustics is good, I used to subscribe to it for the first two years I was here but now I only buy the bio mags and a couple of the glossies when there's articles in them that take our fancy but a couple of those give good 'time of the year jobs' sections.

Which direction from Limoges are you, if you're east or SW/south I can give you details of some of the plant fairs which wont be too far to travel - unless you fancy a real day out that is?

[jacic]

I`m in between Limoges & Bellac - so I think thats South East! anything around Limoges is doable though;o) I think we may have one quite close as my neighbour was trying to explain to me where we could get some chickens...plus anything else we would like to buy by the sound of it lol

[Jardiniere]

hello from me too.I'm in the Lot Valley so further south than you... was up at Limoges the other day dropping neighbours at the airport ...its a four hour round journey ..France is so big!