You will often have noticed it at the entrance to a town or village, this famous little yellow sign “Villes ou Villages Fleuries”. This national label has been rewarding municipalities for the embellishment of their parks and public gardens for sixty years, but for several years, flowering your municipality at all costs is no longer enough, climate change obliges
Gone are the geraniums and plants of yesteryear. Fashions change and they are not only aesthetic. A gardener from municipal services (and not only) must think today about what is good for the planet: to consume less water, to refresh and preserve areas wet.
Today, the old label “Ville flowered” must therefore be up to date and it now rewards more widely, the cities and villages that innovate in sustainable development with islands of freshness in the city, controlled watering, protection of biodiversity in the choice of local species, etc.
Planting is underway in all municipalities during this beautiful month of May. Only, you have to think seriously now before starting.
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In Hauts-de-France, 341 municipalities were labeled “Villes et Villages Fleuries” in 2021. And what the “Palme d’Or” is worth for Cannes is Boulogne-sur-Mer, another coastal town which obtained for the first time the “Golden Flower” in 2021.
A source of pride for Ghislain Milhamont, one of the city’s parks and gardens managers, who explains to us how Boulogne-sur-Mer had to adapt to new environmental requirements with water control as its primary concern. “For several years we have not flowered the city as we used to do in the past with beds everywhere, we often had to water water-intensive plants and flowers”explains the head gardener of the city.
Right now it’s a race, eleven gardeners must plant hundreds of plants and flowers throughout the city with very strict specifications.
Ghislain Milhamont, one of the parks and gardens managers of the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer
in France3 Hauts-de-France
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“It’s the rush, the days are long and short at the same time, we have to plant beds almost everywhere and even if we plant a lot less than before, it’s a huge job for our plants to flower all the In addition, we produce our own plants in a greenhouse, with automated seed and repotting systems, because it is more and more expensive to buy from nurseries”and Guislain proudly adds that all the plants are without phytosanitary products.
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Drinking water is at the heart of the concerns of the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. She therefore chose to plant fewer flowers and more green plants. Admittedly for the decorum it is less spectacular but it is an assumed choice explains the person in charge of the plantations.
This time is over, in the same street there could be 26 basins and the water flowed on the road, the same for the planters and the suspensions, it was really a waste
Guislain Milhamont, gardener at the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer
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“Perennials, grasses like campaniles, verbenas, sage, irises, especially plants that don’t require too much water, it’s less colorful but the locals really like it”, eGuislain explains. And the gardener adds that the city has considerably reduced the huge flower basins, there are only 19 of the 50 that the city had.
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“That time is over, in the same street there could be 26 basins and the water flowed on the road, the same for the planters and the suspensions, it was really a waste”says Guislain, relieved to have so many.
Today, they are only two gardeners to water the plants every morning between 6:00 am and 9:00 am and that, thanks to technology. The city of Boulogne-sur-Mer has invested in integrated and automated watering systems. The system only supplies what is needed by the plant.
It also leads a more ecological policy concerning lawns. “No more watering the lawns and even if some residents complain a little because the grass is burned and some weeds grow on the right here and there, we assume our choices”explains, a little annoyed, the city gardener.
“Obtaining 4 flowers every year since 1999 and a “Fleur d’Or” today, we are proud of it, it is the work of the 40 employees of the green spaces of our city and beyond the price of water , there is the moral price, we can’t go back any more if we are lucky enough to have the immensity of the sea in front of us, the water is too precious”adds moved Guislain the gardener.
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