Lex, seed multiplier in the Allier region

If the large glass greenhouse in a small hamlet in north-western Allier looks like the entrance to a natural history museum, it's because we're about to enter a world of exciting discoveries. It's Alma, with her beautiful Dutch accent, who welcomes us to this magical place, in front of a blue-shuttered farmhouse. She's reunited with Lex, her childhood sweetheart, and has come to live with him in his Allier garden, to help him make sure that everything goes perfectly with the atmosphere of the place. As perfect as the "Lady's Slipper" cyclanthera running alongside the "Butterfly" and "Miss Wilmott" sweet peas, as the "Jester" millet millet, determined to rival its Liatris and Ascelpias neighbors in beauty, and the winks of color between all the blooms in these little beds, so close together and so orderly.

At first glance, you can't help but marvel at the beauty nature has to offer. But already, Lex is pulling out a small hook from the wooden tool tray to aerate the earth after we've trampled it. One suspects that there's a very precise organization at work here, with Lex at the helm. "I became interested in biodynamics even before I started working with the land, and despite countless experiments, I can't even name exactly what led to this or that result. It's true that between following lunar cycles, dynamized preparations and purifications, the factors for success multiply, and even then, I don't always follow them. I try to keep a record of everything I do... For example, I worked the soil with my cultivator on a "lion" day to germinate weeds, and then went back to the "capricorn" moon to eliminate them. But some years, when it rained, it wasn't possible...".

Organizing the balance between cosmic and terrestrial forces is no easy task. The program also includes the preparation of nettle and horsetail purins, now so widely used in various farming practices that they need no introduction, as well as the manufacture of "biochar", charcoal for agricultural use.biochar", charcoal for agricultural use, which is then mixed, a few weeks before use, with mature compost to nourish and aerate the originally very compact soil. He also plants horns filled with dung, which are then used to strengthen plant roots, and supplies zeolite in the spring, a volcanic rock that absorbs heavy metals and acts as a hydroregulator. Not forgetting that he also provides the young plants, well installed on heating plates of his own making, with rainwater collected from the greenhouse roof and "regenerated" by passing through charcoal and shungite filters.

Lex is well aware that each plant requires special attention and care. The last row of beautiful "Glass Gem" corn, which Alma likes to photograph from every angle, bears witness to the absence of compost by looking less proud than the rest of the bed. As for the calendulas, weakened by powdery mildew, they now require regular spraying with a skimmed-milk-based preparation. "I've also learned a lot by observing nature and noting my mistakes. After 21 years of production for Kokopelli, my garden is now home to almost all the vegetables I grow, with the chance to discover new varieties on a regular basis. I'm beginning to know how much to sow for a given production, and I'm noticing that the garden soil is getting richer every year. "

Lex is originally from the north of Holland. He arrived in France over 20 years ago with his small MMF tractor and a diploma in landscaping. He's always had a passion for plants, particularly perennials and ornamental grasses, which he grew for years alongside market garden produce for sale at fairs. So passionate is he that he can be found at any time of day, meditating with his watering can in hand, accompanied by the singing of the frogs in the pond and the buzzing of the bees around the phacelia, in this little ecosystem he has created.

From time to time, Alma takes the liberty of penetrating the intimate space of the bocage to bring him, with all her love, a few zucchini flowers with sugar and strips of dried vegetables on racks. "I'm in awe of the system Lex has created, so well-organized and yet so secretive. "So sometimes, respecting the calm of the place, she takes part in the gentle surface weeding with the self-sharpening blade of the "Schoffel", a boomerang-shaped Dutch hoe. She can also discreetly observe the bindweed sphinx, which has come to spend its migration in the belles de nuit.

Even as day-trippers, we feel so at home that we'd like to transform ourselves into agastache or basil, so that we too can take part in this perfect harmony between gardener and plant.