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Planning for a home vegetable garden this spring? Spare a thought for the French Sun King's Potager du Roi at Versailles

Potager du Roi: The King's Vegetable Garden



Potager du Roi: The King's Vegetable Garden Planning for a home vegetable garden this spring? Spare a thought for the French Sun King's Potager du Roi at Versailles. Louis XIV (1643-1715) needed his 25 acres to support his vast court numbering some 10,000 nobles, officials and servants of every rank and pomposity. Louis himself worked closely with his architect, Louis Le Vau, to create what is officially the Chateau de Versailles, although chateau seems something of an understatement for a building covering 67,000 square metres. Construction commenced in 1661 and although activities continued to 1710, the palace officially opened in May 1682 when Versailles became the capital of the kingdom, about 20 miles southwest of Paris. The surrounding 800 hectares of gardens were the work of Andre Le Notre--a story in themselves.
Wisely, the Sun King left the vegetable and fruit gardens to a professional. This was Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie (1 March 1626--11 November 1688), a reformed lawyer turned master gardener. It took him five years, 1678-83, to complete the 29 enclosed gardens covering 25 acres--all overlooked from a terrace where his royal master could keep a watchful eye of things. Gallic appreciation what it was and still is, the Potager du Roi surrounded a courtyard with a central fountain--Versailles without fountains being unthinkable. Brilliantly, Quintinie planned his gardens practically but with that French flare that turned a humble veggie patch into a creation tres elegante. Equally brilliant--and productive--were his innovative introductions. For instance, he produced vegetables and fruits beyond their usual cropping times by use of frames and glass bells, the latter what would become in time 'cloches' now replaced by ubiquitous plastic hoops or grow tunnels. Orange trees were grown out in the open, only to be protected by removable greenhouses during periods of threatening weather. Presumably he also provided for facilities to raise the spinach of which his royal master was so fond. When the Sun King was told by his doctors to refrain from it, he bellowed: "What! I am King of France and I cannot eat spinach?" And he did. Quintinie was above all though, a practical gardener. He developed melons to grow in northern France as well as seven varieties under glass. Using composting manure to heat hot beds to raise 5,000 asparagus plants meant the royal court could enjoy asparagus as early as December. This must have met with the approval royal mistress Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-64), whose sauce of flour, nutmeg, egg yolk, and lemon juice survives to dress Asperges a la Pompadour. Espalier fruit trees yielded high-quality produce. More conventionally cultivated were 12,000 fruit trees including 700 of the Louis's favourite figs. The latter could be raised in especially constructed piece de resistance, a figuerie to produce figs from mid-June, for six months. An early and extremely practical horticulturist, he wrote an outstanding manual, translated into English as The Compleat Gard'ner two years after his death in 1688. This took place in his own house that the king had built near Potager Du Roi. Louis was disconsolate he learned of his royal gardener's death: "Madame, we have had a great loss which we can never repair."

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Wes Porter -- Bio and Archives

Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.


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