Hoppa till innehåll
2025 edition - Once upon a time, in the garden
21

Barochories

Garden by Antoine de Lavalette
Festival International des Jardins

The garden

Barochory: the dispersal of seeds, pollen and spores by gravity, i.e. by falling. The garden presents a poetic tale inspired by this botanical definition.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a sacred tree with her parents. The tree offered up thousands of seeds, which she kept carefully in glass jars. Her father said to her: “Those seeds are your dreams. One day, you’ll have to share them...”.
One morning, she headed out alone to gather new seeds. At the foot of the tree, there was a boy moving around in the tall grass.
The next day, she returned to the same spot, and the boy reappeared. She rummaged in her pocket, took out a seed and threw it in his direction. The seed landed at his feet. He picked it up, looked at it, bent down, dug with his hands and buried it.
Every day, she went to the branch, waited for him to arrive and threw some seeds down to him. Without seeing each other, without knowing it, they were writing a story. She dreamed.
When she woke up, she noticed a ladder at the end of the branch. She climbed down it. As she reached the ground, she found a tiny seed poking out of the soil. Looking around her, she realised that there were shoots everywhere. All the seeds that he had sown were growing.
The boy was there... he approached her.
Once upon a time... there was a garden.

DESIGNERS

Antoine DE LAVALETTE, Master Gardener, Marie COURONNE, landscaper
FRANCE
 
 

Antoine de Lavalette is pragmatic and above all an idealist, an eternal enthusiast who knows how to bring anyone who crosses his path on board, to give life to projects scattered with adventure and the unexpected, with which he loves to play. Spending his early years between France and Thailand, Antoine understands that the relationship between humans and nature must be constantly questioned in the gardening profession, and that his culture shapes his vision. Although he initially studied law and Asian languages, he then turned to the world that has always spoken to him: the garden. He completed his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage in Versailles and then joined landscape architect Camille Muller, who attended his project defence. He appreciated the student’s approach and discretely asked, “Antoine, would you like to come and work with me?”. This somewhat miraculous opportunity changed a lot of things, even to this day... After a few years working with Camille Muller, Antoine moved south to join his uncle and father, also landscapers, and prepared to take over Nature & Création with his cousin Florence. For a number of years, he has set aside his design work to supervise the progress of his teams' garden projects, always taking part in the planting phases, and when certain atypical projects come up, he picks up his pencil again.

Marie Couronne loves the simple, wild landscapes where she grew up, in the heart of the Limousin countryside. She enjoys walking around, looking at them and drawing them. While she does not defend ideas or theories about the gardens she imagines for tomorrow, she does believe in something much greater that should resonate with all of us: the need for everyone to have their own little corner of paradise, their own piece of land teeming with the life of all those who live there, which allows us to escape just by observing it and enjoy every small pleasure and moment of happiness. She kept her curiosity as her training developed over the years and through different places, leading her to École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage in Versailles, where she earned her diploma. She went on to expand her experience around plants, landscaping and training, while retaining the freedom she cherishes. For Marie, each place seems to carry within it the strength to reinvent itself: it is up to us to help it choose, and before doing anything, we have to let things happen themselves.

These two dissonant universes create an inspired dialogue that blends poetry, gentleness and the need for nature.
Since then, Antoine and Marie have worked on a large number of private and set design projects (Jardins, Jardin; Jardin de l'Herboriste; Festival Toulouse Innovante et Durable; Foire Internationale, etc). In 2023, keen to pursue new projects, they decided to take part in the Carré des Jardiniers competition on the theme of "La biodiver'cité, comment habiter la ville de demain?” (Biodiver’city, how to live in the city of tomorrow?). When selected for the final, Antoine called on three other landscape gardeners to form the team and help them create the 225m2 garden, to be delivered in 3 days. On 6 December 2023, the team won the competition and Antoine became Master Gardener, with the "L'im.pa.si.sage" garden. In January 2025, they founded Meridiem, a garden design and landscaping studio.