Le Grand Potager de Fontenille produces fruit and vegetables grown without chemical inputs, and which are used in the 2 restaurants on the estate: “Le Champ des Lunes” and “La Cuisine d’Amélie”.

This garden also has an educational and experimental vocation.
In collaboration with The Ivory Foundation, ecological, sustainable techniques, sometimes inspired by practices from other continents, are applied.

Different methods used in Le Grand Potager:

Organic farming includes a large number of environmentally friendly farming practices. Growing organic does not, however, prohibit the use of certain chemical inputs, and uses close to conventional agriculture: tillage, monocultures, mechanization …

Market gardening on living soil consists of reconstructing the natural cycle of soil fertility on agricultural plots. This observation-based practice comes from the observation that, in nature (wood, forests, meadows, etc.), plants grow without the soil being either worked or amended.

Permaculture goes further than a simple ecological agricultural production system. This approach includes all aspects of daily life and links all the elements, including human beings, with each other. An important place is given to the design of the garden, made after a long period of observation and in which the different parts are placed so as to optimize the available resources, space and movement.

Agroecology aims to establish viable food systems, while operating an ecological management of natural resources. Beyond practices such as composting, no-till or beneficial crop associations, this mode of production takes into account better use of water, the fight against erosion, and reforestation.

Agroforestry refers to practices combining trees, crops and / or animals. The presence of trees within the plots not only brings a diversification of production, but favors the conditions of cultivation, by participating in their protection, in the fertility of the soil, or in the deployment of biodiversity for example.

At Le Grand Potager de Fontenille we are inspired by these different practices. We test techniques, we combine know-how, we experiment, we innovate … while keeping the objective of producing good vegetables in a beautiful garden.